Negative opinions of President Obama are strongly correlated with negative opinions of Common Core — even more strongly than the party with which someone identifies, according to a study published in the May issue of Educational Researcher.
The study used data from a 2015 poll of Californians, so it may not be predictive for the rest of the country.
Those who think schools have sufficient funding were more likely to oppose Common Core, as were those who oppose standardized tests. The opinion that Common Core limits a teacher’s creativity was also linked to opposition.
Those who claimed to know the most about the standards were more likely to oppose Common Core, although the initial poll found that group likely holds misperceptions about what the standards contain.
Whether parents had children in public schools or not was mentioned as one factor that did not affect support for or against Common Core.
The study was the first of its kind to look at which demographics and policy opinions predict opposition to Common Core.
The study was authored by Morgan Polikoff, Tenice Hardaway and Julie Marsh with the University of Southern California, as well as David Plank with Stanford University.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
