North Carolinians Remain Split over Common Core

Dec. 17, 2013
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dr. Robert Luebke (919) 834-2099  Bob.Luebke@nccivitas.org

RALEIGH — North Carolinians remain conflicted over Common Core Standards. That’s a major finding of a recent Civitas Poll which asked respondents questions about Common Core Standards and their impact.

“Many North Carolinians are skeptical about Common Core and are not confident that implementing the standards will bring about improvement,” said Dr. Robert Luebke, Senior Policy Analyst at the Civitas Institute.

“We know Common Core has its supporters. However, there is a lot of opposition out there. Results suggest people don’t think their concerns are being heard,” Luebke said.

He noted the Legislative Research Commission Common Core Study Committee will meet today, Tuesday, Dec. 17, at 1 p.m., Room 643 of the Legislative Office Building.

The poll interviewed 600 registered North Carolina voters.  Interviews were conducted December 4-8, 2013.  The margin of error was plus/minus 4 percent.

Key Questions

Slightly more than half of all respondents polled (53 percent) favor proposals to slow down or halt implementation of Common Core Standards in North Carolina.

Fifty-five percent of respondents believe the State Superintendent of Public Instruction failed to adequately respond to objections raised by legislators or members of the State Board of Education.

The same percentage (55 percent) believe the State Board of Education failed to solicit sufficient feedback from teachers, parents and educators before making the decision to adopt Common Core  State Standards.

“How we educate our children is one of the most important decisions a parent and a community can make. Strong public support is a necessity for success in such efforts. Significant opposition to Common Core State Standards should be a concern for policymakers. We hope members of the Legislative Study Committee consider these findings as they begin their work,” Luebke said.

Text of key questions*:

Slow Down Common Core

Critics say Common Core State Standards have not been field-tested.  Furthermore, there continues to be uncertainty regarding the cost and academic impact of the standards.  With that information, would you favor or oppose proposals to slow down or halt implementation of the Common Core State Standards in North Carolina?

 53%     Total Favor

35%     Total Oppose

 

29%     Strongly Favor

24%     Somewhat Favor

15%     Somewhat Oppose

19%     Strongly Oppose

12%     Undecided/Don’t Know

State Superintendent

Do you believe the objections to Common Core standards raised by legislators, members of the State Board of education or general public have been adequately addressed by the State Superintendent of Public Instruction?

16%     Yes
55%     No
29%     Don’t Know

State Board

The State Board of Education adopted Common Core State Standards in June of 2010.  Do you believe the State Board of Education and other education officials solicited sufficient feedback from teachers, parents and educators before making their decision?

19%     Yes
55%     No
25%     Unsure

*Due to rounding, subtotals may differ from final sums.

Crosstabs here.

Additional text of questions on Common Core.

This poll of 600 registered voters in North Carolina was conducted Dec. 4-8, 2013 by National Research, Inc. of Holmdel, NJ. All respondents were part of a fully representative sample of registered general election voters in North Carolina. Twenty-five percent of the respondents were cell phone-only users. For purposes of this study, voters interviewed had to have voted in at least one of the past two general elections (2010, 2012) or be newly registered to vote since November 7, 2012.The confidence interval associated with a sample of this size is such that: 95 percent of the time, results from 600 interviews (registered voters) will be within +-4% of the “True Values.”

Civitas conducts the only regular live-caller polling of North Carolina voters. For more information on Civitas polling, see http://www.nccivitas.org/category/poll/.

The Civitas Institute is a policy institute based in Raleigh, N.C. More information is available at www.nccivitas.org, or contact Jim Tynen at (919) 834-2099 or james.tynen@nccivitas.org.