Dive Brief:

• According the results of Gallup’s annual survey on Americans’ opinions of public schools, 64% believe too much emphasis has been placed on testing.
• Democrats were more likely to agree with that statement: 71% of those polled said there was too much emphasis. But black and Latino respondents, on the other hand, were less likely to see that issue.
• Instead, many felt students should be evaluated on a variety of metrics, from grades to teachers’ observations.

Dive Insight:

The poll found surprising consensus on a few key topics, as The Washington Post reports. A majority of Americans think that teachers’ professional performance should not be evaluated based on students’ test scores, one of the core accountability strategies under the Obama administration. States receiving waivers from NCLB-era provisions were required to devise systems for teacher evaluations that include students’ performance on federally mandated tests.

Furthermore, most of those polled said that school accountability should happen at the state or local level, not at the federal level. Under a rewrite of No Child Left Behind that’s currently working its way through the Congressional conferencing process, states are likely to gain more control over accountability than they’ve had in a decade or more. But it remains to be seen if the bill can pass the divided Congress, especially as election season kicks off.

Most respondents also supported charter schools and school choice in general, with about 60% saying that students should be able to attend any school in their district. More districts are moving toward open enrollment systems, but it is still challenging in some cities to enroll students in schools that are not their neighborhood school.