Released: 10/27/2011
Author(s): Paul DiPerna
The “Alaska K-12 & School Choice Survey” project, commissioned by The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and conducted by Braun Research Incorporated (BRI), measures Alaska registered voters’ familiarity and views on a range of K-12 education issues and school choice reforms. We report response levels and differences (we use the term “net score” or “net”) of voter opinion, and the intensity of responses. Where do the voters stand on important issues and policy proposals in K-12 education? We provide some observations and insights in the following pages of this paper.
A randomly selected and statistically representative sample of Alaska voters recently responded to 18 substantive questions and 10 demographic questions (see pages 48 – 78). The next section summarizes our key findings.
A total of 1,006 telephone interviews were conducted in English from September 10 – 18, 2011, by means of both landline and cell phone. Statistical results were weighted to correct for known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the total sample of interviews is ±3.1 percentage points. Margin of error for the Anchorage sample (within the statewide sample) is approximately ±5.4 percentage points.
In this project we included four split-sample experiments. A split sample design is a systematic way of comparing the effects of two or more alternative wordings for a given question. The purpose is to see if particular wording, or providing a new piece of information, can significantly influence opinion on a given topic.
This polling paper has four sections. The first section summarizes key findings. We call the second section “Survey Snapshots,” which offers charts illustrating the core findings of the survey. The third section describes the survey’s methodology, summarizes response statistics, and presents additional technical information on call dispositions for landline and cell phone interviews. The fourth section presents our questionnaire and results (“topline numbers”), essentially allowing the reader to follow the actual interview as it was conducted, with respect to question wording and ordering. We have set out to give a straight-forward analysis, going light on editorial commentary, and letting the charts and numbers communicate the major findings.
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