Barry Costa / University of Connecticut
Pretty good, according to a UConn Poll released May 5.
The survey of more than 1,000 adults found that 59 percent are happy with their local schools (17 percent say the education available is “excellent,” while 42 percent say it’s “good”), while 11 percent rate their local schools as poor.
That might come as welcome news to education professionals, especially given that today is the start of National Teacher Appreciation Week. The poll also found that a majority of Americans (55 percent) oppose the idea of making students’ performance on standardized tests a consideration when it comes to pay raises for teachers, and that 48 percent of Americans consider years of experience an important factor in evaluating teachers, compared to 16 percent who think experience isn’t important.
There’s lots more interesting data to be found in the poll, including an examination of how the public feels about the Common Core Standards Initiative, which you can download here (PDF). If you want to look under the hood, you can find our survey instrument here (PDF) and the technical report here (PDF).
You can also find some expert perspective on Common Core from Casey Cobb, head of the department of educational leadership at UConn’s Neag School of Education, here (video).
