Teachers praise new standards for classroom learning

• 77%25 of teachers who teach math and/or English believe the new %22Common Core%22 standards will improve students%27 ability to think critically and use reasoning skills.
• Only 1%25 predict negative impact from Common Core%2C according to nationwide survey of 20%2C000 teachers
• 88%25 of teachers say they%27re either satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs

A large majority of K-12 teachers say that new learning standards now being implemented in most states will improve students' thinking skills, a new survey suggests.

A poll of more than 20,000 teachers, out today from the children's publisher Scholastic Inc., finds that about three-fourths of teachers think the standards known as Common Core will improve students' abilities to reason and think critically. Only 8% say Common Core will have a negative impact on the classroom as schools retool to comply with the new standards.

Common Core is designed to replace the USA's patchwork of state standards in math and reading, with goals that emphasize critical thinking and a more thorough understanding of a few key topics.

The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers in 2009 launched the effort. All states except for Alaska, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia quickly signed on, helped in part by President Obama, who tied "college and career-ready standards" to billions of dollars in federal grants.

Conservatives such as Republican South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said this made Common Core all but obligatory. Haley last year said the state should not "relinquish control of education to the federal government, neither should we cede it to the consensus of other states." On the left, education historian Diane Ravitch said the standards weren't adequately field-tested.

Since then, several states, including Michigan, Indiana and Pennsylvania, have put the effort on hold. Last month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, said he'd withdraw from a national consortium that is creating Common Core tests.

Margery Mayer, Scholastic's president of education, said, "I think that teachers see this as a moment of renewal. They like what the Common Core is asking them to do in the classroom."

The new survey is underwritten by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which also has supported efforts to implement Common Core. The findings are based on a national online survey conducted by Harrison Group of 20,157 public school classroom teachers conducted between July 1 and July 22.

While the new survey shows that teachers have a more positive outlook on Common Core than many other Americans, it matches others conducted recently.

A September survey of 3,077 educators by the School Improvement Network, a Utah-based teacher-training company, found that 81% said Common Core will have "an overall positive impact on student preparation toward college and career." And 79% said the issue had "become overly politicized and that they do not support efforts by political groups" to remove the standards.

"When you get down to what's happening in the classroom, the teachers support it," Mayer says. "And without the teachers, Common Core cannot happen."