A new poll finds Standardized Tests have support among parents as a useful way to track student progress and school quality.
According to the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll, 93 percent of parents say standardized tests should be used to identify areas where students need extra help. Seventy-five percent of parents surveyed say they favor changes that would make it easier for schools to fire poorly performing teachers. 61 percent of parents believe their own children are given the right amount of standardized tests.
Parents also told pollsters they'd like to see student performance on statewide exams used in evaluating teachers. Teachers' unions have been very vocal when it comes down to linking educators' evaluations to student performance.
Reacting to the findings, New York State United Teachers spokesman Carl Korn: NYSUT has argued that teachers have not had sufficient time to rewrite their lessons to reflect new academic benchmarks, such as those found in the Common Core State Standards.
Billy Easton, Executive Director, Alliance for Quality Education, says the poll covers a lot more than Common Core.
The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey was conducted June 21 through July 22, 2013. The nationally representative poll, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, involved landline and cellphone interviews in English or Spanish with 1,025 parents of children who completed grades K through 12 in the last school year. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points; it is larger for subgroups.
