Testing doesn’t measure up for Americans

Abstract

The 47th annual PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools included questions regarding testing, the Common Core, the federal role in K12 education, vaccinations, choice, charters, & vouchers. In addition, Americans were asked name the biggest problem facing local schools and to grade schools attended by their oldest child, local schools, and schools nationally. The 2015 poll included both a telephone poll of 1,001 Americans, which provided trending responses for a handful of questions plus a web poll of 3,499 Americans for all questions. The larger web poll also allowed PDK to report for the first time about responses from three racial/ethnic groups: blacks, Hispanics, and whites. Poll results were published in several installments. The first installment was published in the September 2015 issue of Kappan magazine.