Few Have Heard Of The Common Core & Those Who Have Are Split On Its Impact

Elle Moxley / StateImpact Indiana

Many Indiana schools are using Everyday Mathematics, curriculum that is aligned to the Common Core State Standards.

With the debate over a new set of nationally-crafted academic standards at a crossroads in Indiana, the results of a newly-released survey show many outside of education-policymaking circles know much at all about the Common Core.

“Almost two of three Americans have never heard of the Common Core State Standards,” write William Bushaw and Shane Lopez in the report announcing results of the national Phi Delta Kappa / Gallup poll Wednesday. “Most of those who say they know about the Common Core neither understand it nor embrace it.”

Even those who had heard of the Common Core were split on whether the standards would help American students compete against their peers internationally.

Indiana adopted the Common Core in 2010. But state lawmakers voted this spring to pause implementation of the new standards pending a formal review.

Stand For Children spokesman Jay Kenworthy says that makes Hoosiers more aware of the Common Core than their national counterparts.

A Bellwether Research poll conducted in Indiana showed just over 50 percent of Hoosiers believe the state should move forward with the Common Core, but he says proponents could be more vocal in their support of the standards.

“Education organizations, and business leaders, and higher education leaders who are out there supporting Common Core just need to be out there in public, ahead of this, dispelling myths, talking to parents and concerned members of the community,” Kenworthy says.

Indianapolis parent Heather Crossin is co-founder of Hoosiers Against Common Core. She says if more people knew about the new standards, she believes they would oppose the Common Core.

“I think we’d see a bigger backlash than we’ve seen already,” she says. “I think most people who look into the Common Core are finding that, for various reasons, they don’t like what they see.”

Crossin and other opponents say Indiana had strong standards before and doesn’t need the Common Core to increase rigor. The new standards are intended to prepare more students for college and career.