(The Center Square) – A majority of Massachusetts residents included in a new poll said they are in favor of having students pass a test in order to graduate high school.
Pioneer Institute, in conjunction with the Emerson College Polling Center, released a poll Wednesday that shows 62% of those polled favor education policy requiring students to pass U.S. history tests as part of a public high school graduation requirement.
“State residents know that suspending the history graduation requirement has relegated history and social studies to second-class status in the commonwealth’s public schools,” Pioneer’s Director of School Reform Jamie Gass said in a release. “And they’re not happy about it.”
The state’s Board of Elementary Education and its commission, in 2009, according to the release, came to an agreement that was once mandated by the state’s 1983 Education Reform Act to delay the implementation of the graduation requirement.
According to the release, the poll found 80% of residents feel the state’s public-school students should learn the nation’s history, while just 7% disagreed. When counting registered voters, 91% favored students learning the nation’s history while 6% disagreed.
“Americans’ ignorance of history and their institutions is a regular punch line on the late-night comedy shows,” Jim Stergios, Pioneer’s executive director, said in the release. “The current state of political and public debate in our country is a direct result of a disinvestment and lack of attention to these topics in school.”
The poll also showed, according to the release, that 43% gave schools a 4 or 5 rating, on a scale of 1 to 5, pertaining to the quality of K-12 public schools in the state. Meanwhile, 20% of those polled gave the schools a 1 or 2.
Poll data revealed that those with children 18 or younger likely had an opinion on the schools that was higher than those who did not, according to the release. Of that, 45% gave schools a 4 or 5 ranking with 18% opting for scores of 1 or 2. The margin was recorded as 37% to 23% in ranking schools for those with school-aged children.
Of those polled, according to the release, 42% said they feel the state is moving in the right direction on education, with just 32% saying education is on the wrong track. Results varied as 66% of polled Democrats say the state is moving in the right direction; only 21% of Republicans agreed.
According to the release, the poll included 1,000 people and had a margin of error at plus or minus 3% and was conducted between Nov. 11-14.
