A first-of-its-kind educational tool about polling.
 

At a time when polls permeate the national dialogue and are often scrutinized and misconstrued, The Marist Poll at Marist College announces a new, first-of-its-kind, online educational platform aimed at clearing up the confusion.

The Marist Poll Academy is a free, democracy-building series of short, self-paced online lessons. The goal of The Marist Poll Academy is to educate political professionals, journalists, teachers, and poll enthusiasts about survey research.

The Marist Poll’s directors, Dr. Lee M. Miringoff and Dr. Barbara L. Carvalho, who have been at the fore of the survey research industry for many years, oversaw the development of the project. Their priority was to address some of the most misunderstood and misreported aspects of polling.

“The more consumers of polls understand the value and limitations of polls, the better the quality of the national conversation about elections and issues,” says Lee M. Miringoff, Director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion. “The Marist Poll Academy aims to move the dialogue forward by closing the knowledge gap between pollsters and the public.”

The Marist Poll Academy will allow anyone to embark on a self-guided, educational journey with the opportunity to currently select from six pertinent poll topics:

     • What is a Poll?
     • Why Poll?
     • Which Poll Mode?
     • Election Polls
     • Writing the Question
     • What Makes a Good Poll?

Each lesson has been crafted to provide the user with a visually engaging and easy-to-navigate experience.

In addition to the online platform, the College will also offer The Poll Academy’s courses at Marist’s New York City Center in midtown Manhattan. Courses will be delivered in a blended format and will be aligned with the upcoming election cycle.

“The Marist Poll has always been about education,” says Barbara Carvalho, Director of The Marist Poll, noting that the Poll is closely tied to the academics of the College with more than 200 students working in the call center each year and senior Marist Poll staff teaching courses. “The Marist Poll Academy is a natural extension of the College’s educational mission.”

Marist, which was recently named a Most Innovative School by U.S. News, has long been at the forefront of groundbreaking educational offerings. “The Marist Poll Academy is emblematic of the kind of work Marist is known for,” said Sean Kaylor, Vice President for Enrollment, Marketing, and Communication. “Offering this comprehensive, well-crafted free tool perfectly aligns with Marist’s mission of promoting informed and ethical decision making and brings the expertise of The Marist Poll to a much wider audience.”

To check out The Marist Poll Academy, please visit academy.maristpoll.marist.edu.

About the Marist Institute for Public Opinion

Founded in 1978, the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion became the first college-based survey center in the nation to include undergraduates in conducting survey research.  Today, The Marist Poll is proud to have nearly 300 students on its team each semester. 

Over its more than 40 year history, more than 3,000 Marist College students have participated in polling, workshops, courses and seminars, field trips, and internships.

What began as a classroom project with one hundred students conducting an exit poll of Dutchess County, New York on Election Day, has blossomed into a state of the art survey research center and a one of a kind educational opportunity for students. 

The Marist Poll now regularly partners with NBC News to conduct scientific public opinion polls in critical states across the nation and NPR and The PBS NewsHour to measure the pulse of the country.  On the regional and local levels, The Marist Poll partners with NBC 4 New York to measure elections and key issues facing residents.  These unprecedented media partnerships provide Marist College students and the public with a front row seat to the dialogue of the day.

The success of The Marist Poll is recognized worldwide by journalists and academics.  For its work during the 2016 presidential election, The Marist Poll was rated number one for accuracy by Bloomberg Politics, and along with its battleground state polling partners -- NBC News and The Wall Street Journal -- The Marist Poll also received an “A” rating from Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.