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Arcadia Weekly Oct 21, 2015
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By Ame Hossen
Common Core Standards, a country-wide change in how core subjects such as reading, writing, and math are taught to students, have been a raising controversy among parents and educational providers.
As of June 2015, 43 of the 50 states have adopted Common Core Standards. So how does the public actually perceive the newly adopted educational standards system? According to random surveys performed by the PACE/USC Rossier Polls, 31 percent of voters disapproved of Common Core Standards, while 26 percent approved, and 17 percent had no opinion on the subject. The poll takers then asked the voters whether they supported having teachers follow Common Core Standards as a guide to teach their students. Support percentages of approval dropped to 24 percent, but opposition also fell, as well, to 27 percent. When given more information about the change and another chance to answer, approval rates rose to 52 percent.
In a second survey conducted by the PACE/USC Rossier Polls, voters were asked how much information they knew about Common Core. The poll found that 59 percent of voters knew little-to-nothing about the standards, while 41 percent said they knew “some” information about Common Core. Many voters were not only uneducated about the standards, but completely misinformed, too. 34 percent of the surveyed reported that they believed Common Core required more testing than previously placed standards, while 25 percent believed California implementing the standards was a requirement, opposed to a choice. The poll also found that voters who claimed to have knowledge about Common Core Standards had a higher chance of holding false ideas of the change. For instance, voters who claimed to be educated in the field of Common Core and its standards believed that Common Core implemented more testing and is applied to other subjects outside the realm of Math and English; both statements are untrue.
While California’s School System has been working hard to adjust its students to Common Core and its new standards, the PACE/USC Rossier Polls showed that the guardians of these learners are very much under-informed about the subject. The PACE/USC Rossier School of Education Poll conducted this survey from Aug. 3 to Aug. 22, 2015. For more information about Common Core Standards, visit www.corestandards.org.
