That’s consistent with a survey of state-level education officials by the Center on Education Policy, which found a similar level of support for the new standards, and concerns about whether schools would have the necessary tools for successful implementation.

Diane Rentner, deputy director of CEP, told me that the Scholastic/Gates survey “gives us some really good information about what the teachers are thinking about the Common Core, and they’re the ones who are ultimately going to make it happen.”

Rentner pointed out that while teachers became more confident about the usefulness of the Common Core as their familiarity with the new standards increased, it didn’t change their belief that the implementation would be challenging.

“They believe it will help students but they also realize this won’t be a cakewalk,” Rentner said. “It’s good to see that acknowledged, that it’s going to take hard work and fundamental changes.”

In recent months there have been reports of teacher groups pushing back against Common Core, notably in New York City. But having concerns about how new Common Core-aligned assessments will be used to measure teacher job performance or expressing concern about the rollout is different from disagreeing with the need for revamped grade-level expectations, Rentner said. (Politico’s Stephanie Simon contended last week that teacher support for the Common Core is at a “critical juncture,” noting that National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel had called the implementation “completely botched.”)

The strong teacher support for the Common Core revealed by the survey is “a powerful message,” said Andy Smarick, a senior policy fellow with the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute in Washington, D.C. and a partner at Bellwether Education Partners. He was also encouraged that teachers believe the Common Core will help improve math instruction–a key goal of the new standards.

But Smarick questioned whether teacher evaluations (a framework which has expanded at an exponential rate nationally over the past four years) are on the right track, given that only a relatively small percentage of teachers found them to be “extremely” or “very” helpful. At the same time, Smarick said, it’s “fascinating that teaches frustrated with their evaluations want more feedback and better observers.”

Clearly, the report is loaded with thought-provoking data: from the online resources teachers using most often in the classroom (YouTube finished first) to how their perceptions vary by geographic region, level of experience, and the demographics of their schools. And it’s a perspective that’s too often a rarity in the wider debate over school improvement, student achievement, and the teacher workforce. As Rentner, deputy director of the CEP put it: “It’s refreshing to hear from the real people actually doing the job, don’t you think?”

This post also appears at The Educated Reporter, an Atlantic partner site.