President Joe Biden’s approval rating hits a career low in the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll; that’s the lowest for any president in the past 15 years. However, Donald Trump fares well; most, 72 percent, Republican-aligned adults say they’d be satisfied if Trump was the nominee. See additional coverage by The Hill, Fox News, the Global Times, Bloomberg, and Daily Mail, among others.

The poll also found that 56 percent of Americans think the U.S. Supreme Court should either order Trump off the ballot in all states or let each state decide on their own, for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. In a separate finding, just 27 percent of Americans believe the American dream still holds true. Coverage (beyond ABC and Ipsos) includes MSN, The Hill, Fox News, and the Latin Times, among others.

We’re proud to have produced a recent national survey for The Chronicle of Higher Education on Americans’ perceptions of colleges and the value of a college education. The Chronicle has covered the results in a series of articles this fall, including this introductory piece, a story on who should shape what colleges teach, another on the value of good teaching and a fourth on college loans. Results have been mentioned in other Chronicle reports and in its daily or weekly briefings. (Note, links are paywalled)

President Joe Biden’s job approval rating is 19 points underwater in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll; his ratings for handling the economy and immigration are at career lows. A record number of Americans say they’ve become worse off under his presidency, three-quarters say he’s too old for another term and Donald Trump is looking better in retrospect – all severe challenges for Biden in his reelection campaign ahead.

The poll also found that Americans are divided on the congressional impeachment inquiry into Biden and whether Trump should be eligible for a second term. In a separate finding, 41 percent now think the U.S. is doing too much to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Gary Langer, president of Langer Research Associates, and Yulia Baskakova, its international projects director, gave presentations at this week’s conference of the World Association for Public Opinion Research in Salzburg, Austria. Baskakova, an expert in Russian public opinion, spoke on public attitudes in Russia toward the war in Ukraine; see her presentation here. Langer spoke on the topic of “Protecting the Integrity of Survey Research,” a paper published last spring in PNAS Nexus, the second journal of the National Academies of Sciences. See the text of his talk here.

The New York Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research honored Gary Langer with its Harry W. O’Neill Outstanding Achievement Award at a dinner event in New York this evening. Prof. Jon Krosnick of Stanford University introduced Langer, whose acceptance remarks focused on three foundations of success in the field of survey research: Developing strong reportorial skills, building the knowledge base that leads to informed judgment and exercising that judgment with integrity. See his comments here.

President Joe Biden’s job approval rating hit a career low in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with a broad 68 percent of Americans say he’s too old for another term as president – views that put him in a trailing position against top Republicans in early preferences for 2024. In addition to coverage by ABC and the Post, results have been picked up by The New York Times, NBC News, CBS News, Politico, Bloomberg, Axios,  and The Atlantic, among others.

The poll also covered views on the debt limit debate, finding that Americans divide closely on whom they’d blame if the federal government defaults on its debts. In a separate finding, 51 percent now think Supreme Court justices base their rulings mainly on their personal political opinions, not on the law. Coverage (beyond ABC and the Post) includes Yahoo News, NBC News, MSN, MSNBC News, Fox Business, and the Washington Examiner, among others.

We’re proud to be associated with a newly published article in the scientific journal PNAS Nexus, titled “Protecting the Integrity of Survey Research.” The article suggests 12 steps to improve the integrity, utility and understanding of public opinion surveys, centered around three themes: transparency, clarity and correcting the record.

In sum, the paper calls on survey researchers to be transparent in describing their work, so the research community can independently assess their methods and claims; to be clear and precise in describing their work, including its limitations; and to be willing to issue clarifications and corrections as needed. It encourages all those involved in the survey enterprise – including practitioners, scholars, survey vendors, leaders of professional associations, journal editors, reporters and publishers – to adopt and promulgate these scientific norms.

The paper is an outcome of a two-day virtual conference among 20 senior survey researchers, convened in November 2021 by Marcia McNutt, president of the National Academy of Sciences, and co-hosted by the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The proceedings were coordinated by Arthur Lupia of the University of Michigan and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the APPC, who together lead-authored the paper.

Co-authors include Ashley Amaya of the Pew Research Center; Henry E. Brady of the University of California, Berkeley; René Bautista of the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago; Joshua D. Clinton of Vanderbilt University; Jill A. Dever of RTI International; David Dutwin of NORC; Daniel L. Goroff of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; D. Sunshine Hillygus of Duke University; Courtney Kennedy of the Pew Research Center; Gary Langer of Langer Research Associates; John S. Lapinski of the University of Pennsylvania; Michael Link of Ipsos; Tasha Philpot of the University of Texas, Austin; Ken Prewitt of Columbia University; Doug Rivers of Stanford University; Lynn Vavreck of the University of California, Los Angeles; David C. Wilson of the University of California, Berkeley; and Marcia K. McNutt.

PNAS Nexus is an open-access sibling journal to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published by the NAS in partnership with Oxford University Press. See the article here, and please share it with your circles.

Americans’ confidence in how police are trained and their treatment of Black people both have fallen to new lows in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, with coverage (beyond ABC and the Post) by NBC News, Forbes, The Hill and The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, among others.

As Joe Biden headed into the 2023 State of the Union, 41 percent were not as well off financially as they were when he took office and just 36 percent said he’s accomplished a great deal or good amount as president. Looking forward to 2024, nearly six in 10 Democratic-aligned adults don’t want to see Biden renominated, and half on the Republican side would rather not see Donald Trump as their party’s nominee. In addition to coverage by ABC and the Post, results have been picked up by CNN, USA Today, The Week, MarketWatch, U.S. News & World Report, The Hill (here and here), Politico and Axios, among others.

­We’re proud to have partnered with the Charles Butt Foundation in its fourth annual survey of public attitudes toward public education in Texas. Parents are broadly satisfied with the quality of their child’s education, the survey finds, and the vast majority of Texans say a teacher of theirs positively impacted their life.

Given that goodwill, the poll finds strong, bipartisan support for increasing state funding for public schools, including specifically to boost teacher salaries.

There are challenges: Just 39 percent of Texans would like to have a child of their own take up teaching in the public schools, down 10 points in a year. Three-quarters think public school teachers are undervalued or disrespected by society; 66 percent see teachers as overworked.

On school safety, 53 percent of Texans see at least a moderate risk of a mass shooting event at a public school in their community. Among parents, four in 10 see at least a moderate risk to their own child.

The survey also covers Texans’ views on vouchers, the effectiveness of the standardized STAAR test, students’ belonging and inclusion and the public’s engagement with local public schools. See the full report, topline and methodology here, as well as coverage in The Texas Tribune, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Texas Standard, the San Antonio Report, the Texas AFT and in county newspapers across the state.

Our final ABC/Post pre-election poll found a 50-48 percent Republican-Democratic split in House vote preference among likely voters, with economic discontent and President Joe Biden’s unpopularity fueling Republican prospects. Despite these headwinds, our ABC News exit poll analysis indicates that support for abortion rights, negative views of Donald Trump, rejection of election denial, broad backing from young voters and surprising strength among independents helped to keep the race for House and Senate control competitive. See additional coverage by The New York Times, Forbes, MSNBC, PBS, Vox, The Week, The Global Herald, The Hill, the New York Post, and the Chicago Sun-Times, among others.