Recently reconstituted data from 1981 reveal that Iowans had doubts about their own knowledge of Iowa history and were split on which features of Iowa history should be covered in school. These results come from IPOL’s efforts to recover lost data from historical Iowa Polls, starting with Iowa Poll #249, a random sample survey of 1021 Iowans from October 1981. Iowans were first asked “If you were to grade your knowledge of Iowa history on a report card, would you give yourself an A, B, C, D, or F?”. 50% of Iowans graded their knowledge of Iowa history a “C”, while only 2% of Iowans graded their knowledge of Iowa history an “A”. In the middle, 19% of Iowans grade themselves a “D”, 15% of Iowans grade themselves a “B”, and 8% of Iowans grade themselves an “F”. The second question asked “Which one of the following areas do you think teachers of Iowa history should emphasize the most?” 33% of Iowans indicated that places of interest and geographical features were the most important subject to teach, while only 12% of Iowans indicated that customs of the people was the most important subject to teach. Between these responses, 27% viewed economic and political forces that shape Iowa as the most important subject and 22% viewed important people, dates, and events as the most important.

For the question asking respondents to grade their own knowledge of Iowa history, we found that responses did not vary based on party identification or sex. Responses for the subject of Iowa history that should be emphasized in schools did vary by partisanship. 38% of Republicans and 34% of Independents thought that places of interest and geographic features should be taught the most, while 30% of Democrats viewed economic and political forces that shape Iowa as the most important subject to emphasize.

Iowa Poll #249, conducted by the Des Moines Register, was administered to a random sample of Iowans in October 1981. In addition to the questions about the constitution, the survey asked respondents their opinions on a wide variety of topics, including the Iowa Caucuses, the Iowa gubernatorial race, Iowa history, the Ten Commandments, and what Iowans were least thankful for in 1981. Understanding Iowans’ past opinions on these topics can help us understand how perspectives have changed and what ideas have remained popular. IPOL has also been working with UI Libraries and the Des Moines Register to restore data from dozens of Iowa Polls from the 1960s to early 1980s. More information about the project can be found here. We are working to release a full report on our findings as we analyze additional questions.