Researchers say these disparities are part of an “alarming trend.” “There is a pressing need to empower females by helping them recognize their innate abilities and aptitudes and connecting them with careers or educational opportunities that align with their strengths,” said Jeri Larsen, YouScience’s chief operating officer. “By doing so, we can break down the barriers that prevent females from exploring diverse career options and taking paths that best suit their potential.”

Levels of preparedness for life after high school show another gender gap: 60% of male graduates, compared to just about one-third of their female classmates, said they felt very prepared to choose a college major or career after completing high school, according to the survey, which is part of the “2023 Post-Graduation Readiness Gender Report.”

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When it comes to higher ed, female high school graduates are increasingly opting out of traditional four-year college. A little less than half of the class of 2023 females enrolled in a four-year college or university, compared to the 53% from the class of 2022 who followed this route. A little more than a quarter of females chose the most popular alternative, community college, while 9% said they had no plan and 17% were working, some as part of a career plan.

Here are some other troubling findings about the confidence of high school graduates:

• 34% of female high school graduates report that their schools did not provide support in discovering their aptitudes and aligning those aptitudes with career pathways.
• 78% of male high school graduates, compared to 68% of females, were informed by their high schools about employers seeking candidates with specific aptitudes.
• 71% of male high school graduates felt satisfied with their progress, compared to 63% of females.
• 83% of male high school graduates felt better prepared to choose an educational or career pathway based on their identified aptitudes, compared to 75% of females.

Those lower levels of confidence may stem from lower levels of exposure to career and technical education and similar programs, the survey warns. For example, more than half of female high school graduates said they would have taken CTE courses if those classes had been available.

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“It forces collaboration between social studies, math, English and science teachers,” he explains. “They’re working together and our kids are getting the medicine they need—it’s not just about remediation, it’s about acceleration.”

Literacy growth rates had slipped to under 40% during the height of COVID but have now resurged to over 50% of students meeting expectations. Dignan’s main solutions are HMH’s Math 180 and Read 180 and the platforms’ new Flex component that helps teachers adapt instruction toward individual students’ learning needs, Dignan attests.

Principal Lori Webster and Reading Interventionist Alexandra Wilcox have made embedded interventions in both the methodology and the mindset at Mountain Mahogany Community School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Back in 2018, only 20% of the small charter school’s students scored proficient in reading. To boost literacy rates, the two educators have since had their elementary school teachers participate in IMSE’s training in the Orton-Gillingham multisensory approach to the science of reading.

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It incorporates writing, reading and talking, and the method is the same whether students are in their regular classes or receiving a push-in intervention in their classrooms. “I would love for more teachers to understand that this is not just additional work for them, this is in exchange for things that they already teach,” Wilcox says. “What I’ve noticed as our teachers have implemented it is they feel like we’re taking some things away because it is working.”

Mountain Mahogany is now recognized as a Structured Literacy Model School by the New Mexico Public Education Department. “What’s most rewarding for me as a teacher is seeing confidence grow,” Wilcox explains. “I see students go from ‘I can’t do this’ to ‘Oh, I can do this.’ It’s like cracking the code.”

Embedded interventions inspire independence

Teaching and assessing literacy is the top professional development priority at Wayne-Westland Community Schools and HMH’s Flex instruction has replaced disruptive pull-out interventions. “Even Pre-COVID, a large percentage of kids were coming in one or two grade levels behind,” Dignan points out. “As a central office team, we knew we wouldn’t be able to intervene our way out of it.”

More students are now catching up to grade level and moving on to accelerated instruction. Students are able to see the progress they are making as they are better grasping the texts and making improvements in all of their core classes. The adaptive platforms allow teachers to abandon traditional “stand-and-deliver” instruction and give students more autonomy and independence.

“Going through everything being virtual and combing back, some of the skills teachers picked up allowed them to become facilitators of learning and use more small group instruction in lieu of the traditional ‘For the next 55 minutes, you’re going to listen to me talk,'” Dignan concludes. “We’re moving way past that.”

District Administration’s Superintendent’s Playbook series examines how superintendents, principals and other administrators are solving common problems that today’s educators are facing. 

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At the moment, educators appear to like ChatGPT even more than their students do. More than eight in 10 teachers say that ChatGPT has “positively impacted” their classes, according to survey data released Tuesday by the nonprofit Walton Family Foundation. Plus, more and more teachers are testing out ChatGPT in the classroom: Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said they have tried it, an increase from the 50% of educators who said the same in the Walton Family Foundation’s February survey.

Finding creative ideas for classes, lesson planning and preparing instructional materials, and building background knowledge for lessons are the most common tasks teachers are completing with ChatGPT. They are also using it for grading, creating tests and communicating with students, parents, and colleagues.

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Since February, the number of students who say they’ve used ChatGPT grew from 33% to 42%, according to the survey that the Foundation says was designed to gauge how well schools are preparing young people for jobs of the future. But it’s parents who now appear to have the most favorable view of ChatGPT in the classroom, with more than 60% saying AI has the potential to enhance learning. About one-third of parents still believe that ChatGPT is used mostly for cheating.

When it comes to preparing students for their future careers, only 37% of Americans overall gave schools positive marks. Those surveyed were not confident that today’s educators are trained to teach students the skills they need for jobs in quantum computing, 5G/6G technology, semiconductor production,  financial technology (also known as “fintech”) and other emerging fields. Even four in 10 teachers don’t think they are preparing students for these careers.

Finally, a third of the students surveyed said their schools were not preparing them for a future STEM career.

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In K12 schools across the country, teachers are looking for ways to improve academic performance, which suffered greatly in the wake of COVID-19-related shutdowns. At the same time, districts are eager to tie what kids are learning to future-ready skills, whether the subject is math, social studies or science. Enter socio-scientific instruction, which involves teaching science concepts within the context of real-world issues, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, food insecurity or biotechnology.

What does socio-scientific instruction look like in the classroom? First, teachers and students identify an issue—something connected to both the grade-level curriculum and the needs of society. Then they work together to develop socio-scientific reasoning by connecting scientific ideas and practices to solving the problem they’ve identified. Finally, they synthesize ideas, practices and reasoning through an activity designed to put their theories to the test.

Socio-scientific instruction is future-focused

Numerous studies show that achievement rises when students learn to employ socio-scientific thinking. My home state of Tennessee collects school-level data showing how this teaching practice raises achievement not only in science but in other subjects as well. Our data found that students from schools that engage in socio-scientific instruction are better prepared for their postsecondary paths, whether that’s college or a career.

To earn a STEM school designation, schools are required to engage in three to five days of socio-scientific projects once per quarter. STEM and STEAM-designated high schools average 76% on the Ready Graduate scale, which measures the percentage of students who are ready for postsecondary education or careers before they graduate from high school. That’s a full 36% higher than the Tennessee average.

Importantly, socio-scientific instruction prepares kids for complex jobs of the future, which will require them not only to understand science and technology but the social, cultural and ethical issues in those fields as well. This practice develops students’ ability to think critically and solve problems effectively. By analyzing complex problems, considering multiple perspectives and evaluating evidence, they develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are essential for success in the workforce.

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It also fosters collaboration and communication skills, since this type of instruction often involves problem-solving through teamwork. That teaches students to express their ideas effectively, listen to their teammates’ ideas and collaborate to reach a common goal—all of which employers consider critical skills in their workers. And it promotes engagement and motivation by connecting science education to real-world issues, something that helps students see the relevance of what they’re learning. For example, girls are more likely to participate in STEM subjects when there’s a human interest element involved.

Quality science instruction such as the socio-scientific approach employs an inquiry-driven process where students take the lead. Socio-scientific instruction naturally ties into the claims-evidence-reasoning process, or “CER,” which requires students to collect evidence to support their arguments. CER is an evidence-based teaching tool used to push students to think more deeply about science concepts, and it is a great tool for teachers to enhance and incorporate socio-scientific issues into their instructional practice. BrainPOP Science, a resource for middle-school science instruction, uses CER as a framework. The platform guides students through investigations where they interact with 3D worlds, simulations and data manipulatives.

Tackling weighty issues

I’ve seen districts design authentic problem-based learning experiences that engage students in solving real-world problems. Some forge partnerships with community organizations and businesses—for instance, connecting teams of students with a nonprofit to research a local environmental issue or design a sustainability initiative. This helps them develop a sense of civic responsibility and learn how their socio-scientific knowledge can be used to address real-world problems. Other districts leverage technology to enable students to collaborate on projects, communicate with experts and access information. By doing so, students develop digital literacy skills that are essential for success in the modern workforce.

Socio-scientific instruction gives students the chance to apply the skills they’re learning to address weighty issues, which not every class provides. That builds self-confidence and a sense of accomplishment, which can pique their interest in science—and learning in general. It also builds the very skills employers say will be crucial in the future.

To develop these future-ready skills and attributes effectively, we must ask ourselves if we’re educating students to understand the complex issues of our time—issues that can’t be solved by a single perspective. In the real world, complex problems require blending expert knowledge to find a solution. And that, after all, is what our children should be learning.

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“You can sit around and bemoan the fact that you’re going to have kids leaving traditional, public K12 systems, and have the state pay for private education,” says Browning, who was named Magnet Schools of America’s 2022-23 superintendent of the year. “I used it as an opportunity to tell my team we need to make sure we’re on our A-game. We want to be our parents’ first choice. We need to be our parents’ first choice.”

Browning, who is one of Florida’s elected district superintendents, believes he and his team have stepped up their game. When he became the leader in Pasco—after having served as Florida’s secretary of state—the district offered a very limited International Baccalaureate program. The district just north of Tampa-St. Petersburg now boasts two early college high schools, three STEAM magnet schools at the elementary level and four STEM magnet programs in middle and high school. Browning started expansion by dividing his district into east, central and west zones and locating programs where they would be most accessible to the most families.

“You have to do that in order to stay relevant,” he adds. “Who would have ever thought a traditional K12 school district could become irrelevant? But I think in Florida, that’s a possibility if you’re just going to keep doing the status quo and think kids are going to come through your doors when the bell rings in August.”

Pasco County Schools, named the College Board’s AP large district of the year in 2020, has also expanded its Advanced Placement offerings by breaking down barriers. His educators have been working harder to identify more students who belong in AP classes but were not getting the opportunities. Most students just want a chance to figure out that they can do it, he points out.

“The research has shown that once they attempt one course and are relatively successful in it, they’ll go back for a second and a third,” Browning continues. “That’s college credit. That’s money in Mom and Dad’s pockets.”

So what keeps Kurt Browning up at night?

Two words: School safety. Since the Parkland shooting in 2018, Browning’s district has spent millions of dollars hardening its 90 schools with fencing, video doorbells, and new door locks, and by creating single points of entry. Next, on the social-emotional side of the safety to-do list, is tightening up Pasco’s cell phone policy, which will be the subject of a public hearing in June.

‘I don’t want that. That’s woke.’

Video: Superintendent Kurt Browning talks about the impact of Florida’s universal vouchers on instruction in public schools.

“Moms want to track their kids; they want to know where their kids are. I get it,” he says. “My concern has been the loss of instructional time. I don’t want kids on cellphones during instructional time.” Here’s what Browning is proposing for students’ use of cellphones:

• Elementary school: Can be in backpacks, but must be silenced at all times
• Middle school: Only during lunch
• High school: At lunch and between classes

Students are also using cellphones for more troubling purposes than distracting themselves during class. Students have made phony threats against their schools via prank calls and social media posts, which forces district officials to devote time to investigating the threats and communicating with the public. Finally, there’s a mental health component to Browning’s attempts to rein in cellphone use, particularly in the attention-seeking behaviors sparked in kids by social media.

“Social media consumes them,” he asserts. “I’ve been off social media for three years now—I find no value in it, none. Some of the stuff that’s out there is really messing with our kids.”

‘We’re not listening to teachers’

Parents have become more engaged, and that’s totally OK with Browning. Pasco is even in the midst of a major community engagement initiative. “We want our parents engaged, and we want them engaged for all the right reasons,” he explains. “Across the country, parents and even people who don’t have kids in our school are attending school board meetings to disrupt and make the process difficult and paint traditional K12 as villainous.”

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Browning, who plans to leave his post in 2024, says he pushes back at school board meetings and elsewhere when members of the public make false accusations about his schools. For instance, a parent at a board meeting recently claimed the district was separating students by skin color. “My head almost exploded,” he recalls. “If you don’t push back, then people think it must be true. They like throwing those bombs out there and then it puts the district in the position of having to defend itself.”

That said, Florida’s universal voucher law has forced districts to be customer-service oriented as parents now have more choices, including getting funded for homeschooling. Education in his state is being increasingly dictated by “whatever the parent wants and whatever the parent thinks is best.”

“Do you go to your doctor and tell them that you need heart surgery? No, you listen to the doctor, to the professional,” Browning concludes. “Now, we’re not listening to the professionals in the classrooms, we’re not listening to the teachers.”

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Such encouragement is critical to the future success of our female students, given the many STEM-related opportunities that are open to them in college and then career. According to a list from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, a number of career areas are expected to grow faster than many other occupations between now and 2031. These include:

• Data scientists, which will grow by 36%
• Mathematicians and statisticians, which will grow by 31%
• Logisticians, which will grow by 28%

With these opportunities and many others available today and in the years to come, we must first take the step of understanding how our female students feel about STEM subjects and pursuing potential careers in those areas.

Female students have STEM aptitude but aren’t pursuing it

Every student possesses natural talents, known as aptitudes. They are born with them, just like right- or left-handedness. These aptitudes, as reported by the Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation, are solidified by age 14. Recent research has found that female middle and high school students, in particular, possess great natural talent in STEM-related subjects:

• Over 11-times the aptitude for advanced manufacturing careers than interest
• 8-times more aptitude for computers and technology careers than interest
• Nearly 3-times the aptitude for distribution and logistics careers than interest
• 2.4-times more aptitude for finance careers than interest

It is tremendous to see this substantial natural talent among our female students. However, despite this—and decades of cultural progression—troves of industry data have continually shown us that they are still not pursuing careers in these areas at higher rates. In fact, according to the National Science Board, women make up about one-third of the STEM workforce, less than their representation in the employed U.S. population (48%).

More specifically, women only accounted for 35% of physical scientists, 26% of computer and mathematical scientists, and 16% of engineers in 2019. One of the biggest reasons female students don’t go on to pursue college and career pathways in these areas is because of the career exposure gap.

Female students lack exposure to STEM

When looking at the aptitude female students possess in STEM-related areas, it is important to note the mention of interest. The gap between aptitude and interest is known as the exposure gap. This means that female students only identify with a few potential college majors and career options from the tens of thousands that are available—simply because they are not aware that certain careers exist.

The Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation states, “Choosing a career based solely on interest can be an inefficient way to make a decision that impacts your entire life.” This is because interests change over time due to new life experiences and knowledge gained, meaning what may seem interesting to a 16- or 17-year-old student may not be of interest anymore to a 35-year-old working professional.

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The impact of this exposure gap can be seen among recent female high school graduates. Only 41% reported that they felt prepared to declare a major or select a career upon high school graduation, compared to 57% of males. Additionally, almost 60% reported not being exposed to a wide enough variety of options for college and career compared to less than 30% of males who felt the same lack of exposure.

In order to help female students understand their true potential, find their best-fit path to education or career, and limit any uncertainty they may experience, we must expand their horizons as early as possible.

How to nurture interest in stem among female students

There are many steps districts, schools and educators can do to help female students understand their potential and full range of possibilities. These steps include:

1. Discovering their natural talents: One of the first things we can do to best help prepare our female students for the future is empowering them to determine their natural talents. This can be accomplished through aptitude assessments, which measure a variety of abilities and can be initiated by teachers or guidance and career counselors. These are different from interest inventories that take account of personal interests at a given moment in time. While interest inventories have their place in education, they shouldn’t be the sole tool used to identify a student’s future path.
2. Introducing all college major and career options: Once students’ natural talents are determined, guidance and career counselors can review their results and set up meetings with each student. This time should be used to help the students understand all of their options and pathways—from specific majors they can declare in college, trade schools they can attend, or careers they can enter into directly after high school—that best align with their natural talents. By offering students this information, they are better informed to make decisions about what classes they can take during their remaining years in high school that will prepare them for their path.
3. Aligning talents to course options: Students have many high school course options, including core classes, electives and career and technical Education. With guidance from counselors and teachers, students can select classes that will help them cultivate their knowledge and skills directly related to their talents.
4. Offering real-world experiences: After students have selected their courses, teachers and counselors can continue to reinforce their possibilities and expand their knowledge through real-world experiences. This can be done by having industry speakers—from organizations like New York-based Girls Who Code or Oregon-based STEM Like a Girl—come into the classroom or assemblies on a regular basis. They can also directly show students their college and career opportunities through interactive field trips to companies, laboratories, college campuses, trade schools, and more. In addition, counselors can work with local businesses to set up work-based learning through internships and apprenticeships.
5. Encouraging extracurricular activities: Schools, in conjunction with teachers and counselors, should encourage the establishment of more clubs and extracurricular activities that align with college and career pathways. These groups—such as a Girls in Engineering club—can be a great way for students to be exposed to or share ideas and knowledge around the pathways they are pursuing.
6. Connecting regularly: One of the most critical steps in nurturing interest in STEM is regular reinforcement and discussion. Female students should be encouraged to meet with their counselors and teachers on a regular basis throughout their middle school and high school careers. The more students are able to openly talk about their talents and their future options, the more likely they are to feel confident in pursuing them.

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The study’s findings suggest that creating high-quality opportunities for STEM learning even before kindergarten, such as in formal preschool settings, could help develop students’ interest and aptitude in these subjects while also reducing or eliminating troubling racial and ethnic disparities. “The earlier we intervene, the better,” said Paul Morgan, a professor of education at Penn State’s College of Education and the paper’s lead author.

Preschool STEM strategies

Over my more than two decades of working in early childhood education at Austin ISD in Texas, I learned a lot about engaging young children in STEM learning effectively. Here are four key strategies that school systems and pre-K programs can use to accomplish this goal:

1. Leverage students’ natural curiosity. Young children are naturally curious, persistent and creative—the essential qualities needed for solving scientific problems. Inspiring budding young scientists is simple when teachers use investigative and inquiry-based learning activities in their preschool STEM programs.

2. Make it fun. Pre-K math and science don’t have to be boring or intimidating. As young children investigate the world around them through hands-on play, they employ the scientific process—just like actual scientists and engineers.

In fact, research shows that children are natural scientists and mathematicians. They stack blocks, count steps up a slide, and fill and empty cups of water in the bathtub. These activities help them explore early math concepts such as measurement, spatial awareness, number sense and problem-solving.

3. Communicate and model preschool STEM thinking. Young children are constantly taking in the words and actions around them to learn. When teachers model and communicate their everyday thinking and problem-solving, children learn important STEM concepts in fun and positive ways.

As you put away toys, for instance, count the number of items there are out loud. When children play, ask open-ended questions to encourage STEM-related talk: “How did you figure that out?” “Why did you do it that way?” “How do you know?”

4. Introduce them to key STEM behaviors. Young children use a basic form of the scientific method—a series of steps that include observing, forming questions, making predictions, carrying out experiments and discussing—to analyze and make sense of the world around them. They investigate, form hypotheses based on what they observe and then test those ideas through play.

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With guided activities, pre-K teachers can give young students a solid foundation in the science skills and practices they’ll learn formally throughout their K-12 experience. In the process, children will learn to think like scientists.

Here are some examples I’ve found to be helpful when working with children through guided play.

• Asking questions and defining problems: Introduce children to a strange object, place or creature. (It could be a photo or the actual object itself.) Ask them what questions they have about it. Ask them how they might find answers to their questions.
• Developing and using models: Ask children to show someone what a snake looks like, a house, or some other simple object. Give them multiple ways to do this: they can draw the object, sculpt it out of clay or make it out of blocks or pipe cleaners. Talk about why they chose the method they did and what does or doesn’t work well about that method.
•  Planning and carrying out investigations: Have children build ramps and explore rolling objects down their ramps. Ask them how they think making their ramp taller or steeper might affect how far or how fast an object travels down the ramp. Have them test their theory.

Using these strategies can build a strong STEM foundation among young learners. As research suggests, this is essential for ensuring that students begin kindergarten on par with their peers in these critical subjects.

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The RAND Corporation, a nonprofit global policy think tank and research institute, recently published a report detailing how students in high-poverty districts don’t have access to advanced math courses compared to their counterparts. These inequities are established as early as middle school, according to the findings.

Using 2022 data from nationally representative surveys of principals and math teachers in grades K to 12, the researchers sought to explore students’ opportunities to prepare for and enroll in advanced math courses. Here’s what they found:

• Small high schools, those in rural areas and institutions that mostly serve students from traditionally marginalized communities provide fewer opportunities for students to take advanced math (e.g. precalculus and AP math).
• Uneven access to algebra I start before high school.
• Teachers in high-needs schools admit to skipping standards-aligned content more often and were more likely to replace what was scrapped with curriculum from prior grade levels compared to teachers in resource-abundant schools.
• A great number of teachers say they’re not able to devote as much time as they would like to math instruction in the 2021-22 school year; nearly 50% said they needed more support to deliver adequate math instruction.

“In the wake of the disproportionate impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on students living in poverty and students of color, these results highlight a critical need for resources to support teachers and to license student access to advanced courses,” the report reads.

In light of these findings, the researchers offer four recommendations for school and district leaders to close the gap in this area:

1. Consider using federal and state funding to incorporate high-dosage tutoring programs for middle schoolers. This initiative should provide “high-quality support” to 8th graders taking algebra I and promote algebra I readiness for those not yet enrolled in the course.
2. Education leaders should support teachers by providing them with standards-aligned curriculum materials and training to help them understand which content is crucial for future learning.
3. Partner with postsecondary institutions to identify creative solutions to make advanced math opportunities accessible for all high school students, especially those in underserved communities.
4. Communicate honestly about the importance of course-taking—”the earlier, the better.”

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The biggest driver of the online tutoring market will be students—particularly in high school—who are seeking to build skills to pass STEM exams and qualify for the ever-expanding job opportunities in STEM fields, which are growing faster than other industries.

Another factor is students’ reliance on mobile devices that support more personalized learning. Students are not only absorbing content on tablets, smartphones and smartwatches but they are also using the devices to view lectures and receive alerts and updates, among other educational activities. Vendors are accordingly prioritizing the development of mobile content that gives students easy access to e-learning materials, Technavio reports.

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A third source of online tutoring market expansion is the steady growth of gamification in online tutoring and assessments, the firm adds.

The fastest-growing segment of the market is “structured tutoring,” which comprises classes or sessions that are planned and scheduled for a certain number of hours, with a guaranteed tutor. Vendors are enticing students and families with free trial periods before subscribing to services that can cost as much as $50 per week or $40 to $120 per month.

The overall global education technology market for hardware and software was valued at $123.4 billion in 2022 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 13.6% from 2023 to 2030, according to Grand View Research.

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“Rather than reacting to MAGA-driven culture wars, voters overwhelmingly say they want lawmakers to get back to basics: to invest in public schools and get educators the resources they need to create safe and welcoming environments, boost academic skills and pave pathways to career, college and beyond,” said American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, whose union released new national polling results of 1,500 voters—including about 560 public school parents—earlier this month.

Here are the top education priorities voters’ identified:

• Ensuring students have strong fundamental skills in reading, math, and science
• Ensuring all students, regardless of background, have the opportunity to succeed
• Providing a safe and welcoming environment for children
• Developing students’ critical thinking and reasoning skills
• Teaching practical life skills
• Preparing students to succeed in college or careers

Here are their lowest priorities:

• Making sure schools aren’t teaching a “woke” political agenda
• Giving parents more say over what their children are taught
• Making sure schools don’t teach critical race theory
• Removing books and curriculum materials on topics some families consider offensive or inappropriate

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Most Americans are not concerned that teachers are pushing a “woke” political agenda in the nation’s classroom. Nearly two-thirds of all voters—and 74% of parents—say their schools are teaching appropriate academic content and skills education while just about one-fifth of parents think teachers are indoctrinating students with a liberal agenda.

A large majority of voters also worry that “culture war battles distract public schools from their core mission of educating students,” the AFT said.

Teacher shortages, inadequate funding, dangerous schools, and recovering from pandemic learning loss are the most serious challenges that superintendents and their teams face, said the survey’s respondents, who also—by an 85% to 15% margin—said they would rather see Congress provide more support to K12 education than launch the multiple investigations that GOP leaders have threatened.

“One key weakness of the culture war agenda is that voters and parents reject the idea that teachers today are pushing a ‘woke’ political agenda in the schools,” pollster Geoff Garin said. “Most have high confidence in teachers. Voters see the ‘culture war’ as a distraction from what’s important and believe that politicians who are pushing these issues are doing so for their own political benefit.”

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