Test score pressure a mistake?
Most Americans believe students and teachers in classrooms across the nation are adversely affected by pressure to raise test scores. In a Poll Position national telephone survey 57% said pressure to raise scores is a negative for the quality of teaching and learning. Twenty-seven percent disagreed and 16% offered no opinion.
Every category agreed the pressure is having a bad impact. Whites, males and Republicans were among the strongest believers of education suffering due to test score pressures. Among men, 61% said efforts to raise test scores has a negative affect compared to 26% saying it doesn’t. Sixty percent of whites said the pressure is hurting while 24% disagreed. Republicans weighed in with 63% seeing negative affects on the quality of education compared to 25% seeing none.
Fewer African-Americans see the cause and effect of test score pressure but still 47% agreed with the question against 39% who did not. Hispanics agreed pressure was having a negative affect with 49% saying yes opposed to 27% not agreeing.
What do you think? Vote in our online poll and comment below.
Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,031 adults nationwide was conducted September 11, 2011 and has a margin of error of ±3%.
The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.
Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation. Here are the crosstabs for this poll: Poll Position crosstabs – school testing
You can learn more about our polling methodology here.
