School & District Management

Lots of Superintendents Are Common Core Skeptics Too, Survey Finds

By Lesli A. Maxwell — July 10, 2013 1 min read
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Thirty percent of superintendents serving in some of the nation’s smaller school districts said they don’t think the Common Core State Standards will have any effect on the quality of education in their communities.

That’s a healthy dose of skepticism.

But many of their colleagues expressed more optimism about the promise of the new standards in English/language arts and math adopted by most states: 58 percent said the common core will make schooling better.

When asked if the common-core standards would provide more consistency in the quality of schooling across districts and states, 75 percent said they would.

Those sentiments were captured in a first-ever survey of superintendents conducted jointly by Education Week and Gallup, the Washington-based polling organization. For the survey—conducted in March and April—the Gallup pollsters conducted online surveys of more than 12,000 district superintendents around the country.

The 2,586 superintendents who responded to the survey are not a nationally representative mix; most lead districts serving between 200 and 500 students.

The survey delved into supes’ thoughts on technology as a student engagement tool, professional development for principals (an area where a vast majority say their districts fall short), teacher evaluation, college-admissions testing, and other topics.

Below, you can scan the key findings or go to Gallup’s website to see the full results.

A version of this news article first appeared in the District Dossier blog.