1) In a survey of 1,000 principals in 14 states, 80% said they are prioritizing the new Common Core standards for school improvement in the belief they’ll provide students with deeper learning and ore meaningful assessments.

2) Three new polls find that just under 11% of respondents say their school or district is well-prepared to implement the Common Core; 25% say they’re somewhat prepared.

3) 74.74% of survey respondents in those surveys said their school/district spends too much time on test-prep; just 5.26% said more time should be spent.

4) A recent Common Sense Media survey of 800 adults said they were at least somewhat concerned about advertisers using students’ personal data to market to them, plus nearly 60% of parents said they’ve heard little or nothing about any of this.

5) In 1990, 28% of all births were to single mothers; in 2008, that figure stood at 40.6%, and that’s said to make it hard for them to support their kids let alone instill in them a work and education ethic.

6) In an ASCD SmartBrief poll, just 4% of readers agreed/strongly agreed that a longer school day and year will better prepare students for college and/or work success; about 46% said it will not.