Residents of one Idaho school district are far more familiar Common Core State Standards than the average American, a new survey found.

In Blaine County, 68 percent of those surveyed said they knew that Idaho had adopted Idaho Core Standards. Just 32 percent of the 424 people surveyed said they did not know the state had adopted a version of the Common Core State Standards.

This summer, 62 percent of the people who responded to a national PDK/Gallup poll said they hadn’t heard of the Common Core.  In Blaine County, just 20 percent of respondents to the local survey said they were not at all familiar with the standards.

Last month, Blaine County officials surveyed residents in an attempt to gauge how familiar they are with the new standards, which are being taught statewide for the first time this year. School district employees also asked residents how they would like to obtain information on the new standards in the future.

“Rather than guessing what parents are thinking, we asked questions and gained a valuable parent perspective on a complex subject,” district spokeswoman Heather Crocker said. “The value is in the fact that now we know what information parents want and how they want to receive that information.”

Looking closer at the Blaine County survey results, 38 percent of those surveyed said they were either moderately familiar or extremely with Idaho Core Standards. Forty-two percent of respondents said they were just slightly familiar with the standards, and 20 percent said they were not at all familiar.

Most people (59 percent) said they want to receive future information on the core standards via a school website. The district’s weekly update (46 percent), the district website (41 percent) and parent-teacher conferences (38 percent) were also popular choices for community members to receive updates about Idaho Core Standards.

Blaine County officials will host a panel discussion on Tuesday that will provide an overview of the new standards. Speakers scheduled to participate in the panel discussion include Evelyn Johnson, executive director of the Lee Pesky Learning Center, Idaho Business for Education CEO Rod Gramer, Wood River High School English teacher Darlene Dyer and others.

The panel discussion is open to the public and begins at 6 p.m. at the Community Library, 415 Spruce Ave., in Ketchum.