Here's What Teachers Really Think Of America's Controversial Education Standards

The Common Core has been a major point of contention among American educators over the past few years.

Some say applying one set of educational standards — which is what the Common Core is at its heart — to every public school across the country isn’t going to work because of the varying needs of students in different regions and at different income levels. Others like the standards but say they aren’t properly implemented and shouldn’t be tied to standardized tests.

A new Gallup poll sheds some more light on what teachers think of the Common Core system.

Teachers seem to overwhelmingly support the standards themselves while staunchly opposing using standardized tests to measure students’ performance and progress. And teachers who were polled were most opposed to tying their evaluations to their students’ test scores.

Here’s the data:

Most teachers Gallup polled are experienced, too; 68% have been teaching for at least 10 years.

Common Core was created in 2009 and is meant to even the playing field by giving every state a universal set of standards to measure learning. It was built on the idea that students should be able to think critically rather than just memorize material for tests. That’s a good goal, but one that could be difficult to achieve because of Common Core’s reliance on standardized tests.

A legislative official in Massachusetts who works on education policy told Business Insider in July that rigorous standardized tests could discourage teachers from being creative and force them to teach to the test rather than encourage creative thinking among students.

Most teachers polled by Gallup agreed with this argument:

But most teachers also agreed that the Common Core standards could ensure that all students in America get the same high-quality education and help teachers to better educate students who move from different states:

States are divided on the issue. Some have adapted Common Core standards and then later reversed that decision, some have refused to adapt the standards entirely, and others are rolling out the system in classrooms across the state.

Common Core is incentivized with federal grant money that is given to states that implement the standards.

SEE ALSO: This May Be The Biggest Problem With America’s ‘Common Core’ Education Standards

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Here's What Teachers Really Think Of America's Controversial Education Standards