Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Blue Jersey:: Monmouth Poll Recap: Going Forward

Blue Jersey:: Monmouth Poll Recap: Going Forward:

Monmouth Poll Recap: Going Forward

by: DSWright

Sat Sep 10, 2011 at 03:00:00 PM EDT



It has been almost three weeks since Monmouth University/NJ Press Media put out the poll on "Education Reform." The response to the poll, particularly the use of the headline "New Jersey Supports Education Reforms: Public Likes Merit Pay, Limited Tenure, Vouchers, Charter Schools." in the press release has been decidedly negative from those in the education community who have seen it and those who study the issue. No one has even, to this moment, offered a detailed defense of the poll. The headline was an unfortunate way to frame the poll for two reasons:

1. It misleads policymakers and media that "education reform" has broad support.
2. The poll itself proved that headline to be false.

At the time I wrote a full breakdown of the poll, noting how poorly and in some cases downright misleading many of the questions asked to respondents were. And how, based on the polls own numbers, the ma