Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Two Divergent Polls on Common Core | Truth in American Education

Two Divergent Polls on Common Core | Truth in American Education:



Two Divergent Polls on Common Core

Filed in Common Core State Standards by  on May 6, 2014 • 0 Comments
Two polls were released this week.  A poll taken of Republican voters the Washington Examinersaid poses a “conundrum for conservatives.”
polls
There are lies, damned lies and political polling.
As pollster John McLaughlin, whose firm did the survey writes in an op-ed for theWashington Examiner:
“Initially, the reaction to Common Core among Republicans was mixed — 33 percent support the standards, and only 41 percent oppose them. However, if you believe that Common Core will be a polarizing issue for Republican voters, you are wrong.
“After we read a neutral description of what Common Core Standards are — ‘a set of standards in Math and English which state what a child should know in both subjects by the end of each grade of school they complete’ — support among all voters soared to 64 percent versus only 29 percent who were opposed.
Sure after you give advocate talking points and don’t point out the problems with the Common Core that sound good.  People buy into platitudes and talking points.  Don’t mention these are one-size fits all nationalized standards implemented without legislative grants of approval, foisted by the U.S. Department of Education, etc…. well let’s just say opinions may change.
Frankly a UConn poll also released this week states that the more one knows about the Common Core the less they like it and more they think it won’t work.  See you have to get beyond the Gates/NGA/CCSSO talking points.
The survey found that just 39 percent of Americans have heard of the much-debated initiative, which includes 44 of 50 states, compared to 95 percent who’ve heard of No Child Left Behind, an earlier federal effort to improve education outcomes.
Those who do know about Common Core, though, are generally skeptical of the initiative’s 
Two Divergent Polls on Common Core | Truth in American Education:






George Will’s Common Core Elevator Speech
This is probably one of the best summaries of Common Core I’ve seen yet.  It’s very difficult to create an elevator speech on this topic, but George Will has come close in his response to Juan Williams on Special Report with Bret Baier on Fox News last night.  Granted you can go deeper with problems with the content, etc., but he delivers on the overarching problem with Common Core, it’s adoption