Professional Development

Poll: AFT Members Support Both Common Core and High-Stakes Moratorium

By Liana Loewus — May 03, 2013 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

In an encore to American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten’s speech in New York City this week, in which she called for a moratorium on high stakes linked to common-core testing, the union released the results of a poll on how members perceive the new standards.

The survey, based on telephone calls with 800 K-12 teachers conducted over three days in March, found that 75 percent of teachers approve their states’ decision to adopt the Common Core State Standards. Seventy-four percent of teachers surveyed said they are worried that the assessments and the high stakes associated with them will be implemented before teachers have had time to understand the standards. And 83 percent said they support the very moratorium Weingarten proposed.

When asked, “Has your district provided you with the resources and tools that you need to successfully teach the Common Core standards?,” 27 percent of teachers polled said the district has provided “all/most resources,” 35 percent said “some,” and 37 percent said “very few/no” resources. In terms of professional development, 43 percent said they have received adequate training and 53 percent said they have received inadequate training or none at all.

The states are on different implementation timelines—with some not anticipating full implementation of the common standards until 2014-15—and so are understandably in different places regarding teacher supports. In an interview, however, an AFT spokesperson responded that, “At this point, we should be able to gauge whether teachers either are getting or are on track to get what they need.”

The full survey results can be found here.

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teaching Now blog.