A Dismal Picture

ABPTL is back for a few days after being off last week.

Earlier this year EducationWeek released data from the 50 states, asking teachers, beyond salary, what would improve their working conditions inside the classroom.

According to EdWeek,

“Salary is one major factor long linked to teacher morale. In an effort to look more holistically at the forces influencing educators’ satisfaction on the job, the EdWeek Research Center asked about factors other than salary that teachers thought would improve their morale.”

“Some of these factors, like smaller class sizes, show more variation among the states than others, likely a result of different local contexts and policies. A majority of teachers did say they wanted smaller classes – around 19 students – rather than the current 25 students per classroom.”

“Two considerations that teachers consistently selected across state as more likely to help boost their morale are more planning time and changes to student discipline.”

On average, 54% of the teachers polled across the states said more planning time during the week would improve their morale. There was little variance between the states regarding what teachers thought planning time was most important to workplace morale.

53% of teachers polled thought changes to how administrators and policies address student discipline would be a morale booster. There was wider variance between the states on this question with 43% of Michigan’s teachers believing improved student discipline would impact their morale, while 64% of New York’s classroom leaders thought behaviors to be most important.

Smaller classes produced even more variance between the states. Whereas only 32% of New Jersey’s teachers thought classroom size to be a major consideration when it came to teacher morale, 64% of Alaska’s teachers believed it to be the most important factor.

Permitting mental wellness days scored 37% nationally when teachers considered their importance to improving morale, while shifting school leadership styles and approaches netted a 36% approval rating.

Only 31% of those teachers polled nationally thought their salaries were better or equal to what they expected to be paid. Over half of Washington’s teachers polled answered positively about their salaries. Benefits showed the most variance across the 50 states.

Almost 70% of teachers surveyed thought their work schedules were better or equal to other professions.

Only 18% of teachers polled thought their rooms met the ideal class size, with Maine and North Dakota teachers scoring the lowest at 15%.

Finally, the U.S. average for income derived outside of teaching stands at about $4,500. Most of that income probably came from teaching summer school or sponsoring extra-curricular activities.

Pretty dismal picture.

The question is whether this dismal picture can be improved, or, more importantly, is anyone interested in improving the picture.

If the answer is yes to both questions, then why hasn’t the teaching profession improved its status over the past 50 years?

If the answer is no to both questions, then why aren’t we spending more time creating a different learning system that rewards adult learning leaders the way they deserve to be rewarded?

Til tomorrow. SVB