WASHINGTON — Many Americans, especially public-school parents, give low marks to rating a teacher based partly on how students perform on standardized tests, according to a survey.

The Gallup Poll released Sunday found that 55 percent opposed linking teacher evaluations to their students’ test scores. Opposition was even stronger among those with children in public schools, at 63 percent.

Standardized tests are necessary, but there’s an over-reliance on them, said Joshua Starr, CEO of Phi Delta Kappa International, an association for educators and a former school superintendent. PDK, which supports teachers and educational research, paid for the poll conducted by Gallup.

“Parents see the work their kids bring home every night,” Starr said in an interview. “They go to teacher conferences, and they’re more likely to judge the school and the quality of the teacher based on that, than solely using test scores.”

As many schools prepare for a return to the classroom in the coming weeks, more than 40 states are moving forward with plans to evaluate teachers and principals in part on how well their students perform on standardized tests. It’s something the U.S. Department of Education has supported and encouraged through its Race to the Top grants to schools and other programs. Although the department says other factors should be considered – such as student work and parent feedback – teachers, unions and others worry there’s too much emphasis on test scores.

Nearly two-thirds of those in the online survey said too much emphasis is placed on standardized testing in public schools. Nineteen percent said they were comfortable with the tests, 7 percent said there was too little emphasis and 10 percent didn’t know.

Other findings of the survey, which included a telephone poll of 1,000 American adults supplemented with an online poll of nearly 3,500 more:

• Of public-school parents questioned in the online poll, nearly half – 47 percent – said parents should be allowed to excuse their children from taking one or more standardized tests, 40 percent disagreed and 13 percent didn’t know.

• Fifty-four percent of public school parents oppose having teachers use the Common Core standards to guide what they teach in math and English, while 25 percent favored them.

• Eighty-four percent said all children should be vaccinated before they attend a public school; 9 percent disagreed.

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