The Public’s Take on Education Accountability

Understanding public opinion on education account- ability is crucial as policymakers work to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the 2015 federal law that replaces No Child Left Behind (NCLB). MassINC partnered with The MassINC Polling Group to learn more about how voters throughout the Commonwealth feel about efforts to assess student learning, measure school quality, and help educators improve school performance. Conducted in November and December 2016, our research included a telephone poll with more than 1,000 Massachusetts voters (including an over- sample of 485 respondents from the Commonwealth’s 26 Gateway Cities) and a focus group with a representative sample of registered voters.