Access to reliable technology. Help from classroom aides. Out-of-classroom duties. Planning time with colleagues. Administrator accessibility. All those working conditions and more play a vital part in whether good teachers feel sufficiently satisfied to stay in their schools.
Now, policymakers are beginning to gather evidence on just how much those details matter.
And not just for the sake of the teacher. Findings from two recent surveys are being linked with student-performance data in ways that allow educators to determine which aspects of teachers鈥� jobs make the most difference in achievement.
The surveys, and, are available from . ()
The federal No Child Left Behind Act has focused attention on having 鈥渉ighly qualified鈥� teachers in the classroom, said Eric Hirsch, the vice president of policy and partnerships at the Southeastern Center for Teaching Quality, the Chapel Hill, N.C.-based organization that conducted the surveys of teachers and administrators in North Carolina and South Carolina.
鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not enough,鈥� he said, 鈥渢o just take a highly qualified teacher and put them in a classroom and in a school that does not provide them with the working conditions that allow them to be successful.鈥�
While some common themes and findings emerge from both reports, what鈥檚 most groundbreaking about the work, Mr. Hirsch said, is that it gives state, district, and building-level school leaders data on individual schools and a specific place to start tackling those issues that matter the most to teachers.
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鈥淭he power of the initiative is that we鈥檙e not just talking aggregate data anymore,鈥� Mr. Hirsch said. 鈥淪chools can base decisions on what their teaching corps says.鈥�
One of the most frustrating problems that Kenneth Russell, a social studies teacher at Dalton High School in Dalton, Ga., faces is the lag in time to get computer technical support.
鈥淥ur technology people are overextended,鈥� he said, noting that technicians are only on site a couple of days a week. 鈥淥f course, things don鈥檛 break down on that particular day. That kind of situation does affect your stress level and your morale.鈥�
Student Learning
In North Carolina, 30,000 teachers and 4,000 principals and other administrators responded to the online survey. And in South Carolina, 15,200 educators responded, about 13,500 of them teachers.
Similar work is also under way in Georgia, Ohio, and Virginia.
The National Education Association, which contributed $20,000 to the center for the work, would like to see every state ask its teachers to weigh in on their working conditions, as those states are doing.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine why any state would not utilize this system, and we have the network to take this nationwide,鈥� said John Wilson, the executive director of the 2.7 million-member union. 鈥淭his is another piece of data that will cause us to improve student achievement.鈥�
While the issues that matter to teachers鈥攚hether it鈥檚 technology, or planning time, or extracurricular duties鈥攄iffer, the surveys provide some overall indications of what is important to most teachers, no matter where they work.
In both North Carolina and South Carolina, the researchers found that working conditions are important predictors of whether students are learning.
Teachers said that time for teaching, planning, paperwork, and empowerment contributed the most to student performance.
Melissa E. Bartlett, an 8th grade language arts teacher at Lakeshore Middle School in the 18,600-student Iredell-Statesville school district in North Carolina, said she thinks not having enough time is a universal problem for teachers, whether they work in a high- or a low-achieving school.
鈥淭ime is an equal problem. It鈥檚 bad everywhere,鈥� she said on a recent evening in which she had a 鈥渂ag of papers鈥� to grade. 鈥淚t never ends.鈥�
Oddly enough, however, the researchers found that time actually did not have a significant relationship to student achievement.
The surveys do show a strong connection between professional development and a school鈥檚 鈥渁dequate yearly progress,鈥� the annual measure of student achievement required under the 3-year-old No Child Left Behind law. The quality of facilities and resources was also a strong predictor of AYP status.
Favorable working conditions also contribute to teacher retention. Teachers in both states overwhelmingly said that having a collegial atmosphere was the most important factor in deciding whether to stay in their schools or look elsewhere.
In North Carolina, the survey revealed different perceptions from teachers and administrators on the same issue.
For instance, on a 1-to-5 scale鈥攚ith 1 being 鈥渟trongly disagree鈥� and 5 being 鈥渟trongly agree鈥濃�攖he average teacher rating was 2.72 on the statement that they were 鈥減rotected from duties that interfere with their essential role of educating students.鈥� On the same statement, the average rating from principals was 3.8.
Such a finding, Mr. Hirsch said, could have a big effect on whether anything is actually done to address such concerns. 鈥淚f principals don鈥檛 see a problem, where is the impetus to reform?鈥� he said.
In contrast, teachers and principals in South Carolina were pretty much in agreement on all the issues, although the low response rate from principals raises questions about how representative the responses were.
Some teachers also say that while they want flexibility in the classroom, it鈥檚 also important to them that their administrators see what they鈥檙e doing.
鈥淭eachers must be trusted and supported by their administration,鈥� said Ron Matthews, an 8th grade mathematics teacher at the 590-student Statesville Middle School in Statesville, N.C. 鈥淟ikewise, the administration needs to know, by being present, what is happening in the classrooms.鈥�
Mr. Russell, the Georgia social studies teacher, said that administrators鈥� absence from campus is a problem in his school as well. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 see them an awful lot because the central office keeps them in meetings,鈥� he said.
Not About Pay
Regardless of teachers鈥� backgrounds鈥攚hite or African-American, male or female, from a traditional school of education or an alternative-preparation program鈥攖hey tend to view working conditions the same way, the surveys show.
Elementary teachers, though, are generally more positive about their working environments than those who teach at the secondary level鈥攁n outcome that Mr. Hirsch largely attributes to the more collegial atmosphere in what tend to be smaller elementary schools.
The researchers also found that working conditions have ripple effects: When one area is rated highly, the rest tend to be strong as well. If leadership is strong, say, so is professional development.
The Southeastern Center for Teaching Quality, a private, nonprofit research and policy-development center subsidized by several foundations and corporations, intentionally omitted questions about pay and benefits. Instead, the surveys were designed to focus on issues over which individual schools have some control, and salary schedules are usually not among them.
鈥淥ne of the good things about not including salary is that it focuses the discussion more on teaching and learning,鈥� Mr. Hirsch said. 鈥淪alary does matter, but it would be too easy to let salary overwhelm the data.鈥�
Added Thomas Blanford, the associate director of the teacher-quality department at the NEA: 鈥淲e sort of facetiously say, 鈥業f you鈥檙e not going to pay teachers a lot of money, they better love their jobs.鈥� 鈥�
In part, the findings confirm earlier studies by Richard M. Ingersoll, an associate education professor at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He found that it takes both higher wages and such features as opportunities for advancement and the presence of professional communities to keep teachers.
A 鈥楲ocal Context鈥�
Until now, the best window into what teachers felt about their jobs and what kept them in the schools where they worked has been the National Center for Education Statistics鈥� Schools and Staffing Survey, which began in the mid-1980s and was last administered during the 2003-04 school year.
But national surveys don鈥檛 provide districts and principals with feedback on what needs to be addressed in their own schools, say those involved in the new surveys.
鈥淵ou can get large-scale surveys, but until you see it in your local context, it doesn鈥檛 have as much meaning,鈥� said Patricia Paterson, the director of teacher-quality initiatives for the board of regents of the University System of Georgia.
Ms. Bartlett, the language arts teacher in North Carolina鈥檚 Iredell-Statesville district, agreed. 鈥淚 think data will make things more transparent,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e always thought, 鈥榃ell my God, I don鈥檛 have enough time.鈥� The impact of this is that it actually quantifies what we teachers intuitively already knew.鈥�
The Georgia survey, which is being underwritten by an $80,000 grant from the BellSouth Foundation in Atlanta, has been piloted in 11 districts, and results will be available next month.
To make the findings resonate beyond the school buildings, each district has formed a partnership with a local chamber of commerce, which will be involved in having community-level discussions of the results and drafting a plan to address the concerns.
鈥淭his is not just for the school districts to deal with,鈥� Ms. Paterson said.
In North Carolina, Gov. Michael F. Easley has already begun responding to the results by recognizing what he calls 鈥淩eal DEAL鈥� schools, or those with 鈥渄edicated educators, administrators, and learners鈥� that rank high on both student-performance measures and working conditions.
And in his 2005-07 biennial budget, the Democrat is asking for $215,000 in the first year and $290,000 in the second to continue the survey and analysis. Also in his request is $2 million for 鈥渃ustom professional development,鈥� based on the survey results, for the 16 districts that are part of the state鈥檚 school finance lawsuit.
Political support is necessary if working-conditions surveys are going to become more than just another set of reports, said Mr. Wilson, the NEA executive director, who came to that job from the union鈥檚 North Carolina affiliate.
鈥淚 think it would have sat on the shelf had [Gov. Easley] not provided his voice,鈥� he said.
A few districts in North Carolina are also moving forward with initiatives on their own. In the Iredell-Statesville district, north of Charlotte, the 鈥渢eachers of the year鈥� from every school were asked to participate in a forum to review the data from their own schools and then work on suggestions for fixing problem areas.
Issues that rose to the top of the list included poor air quality in older buildings, a reduction in class size without losing teaching assistants, and higher visibility of central-office personnel in the schools.
Teachers also wanted staff development to occur during school hours鈥攁nd trained substitutes to stand in for them.
鈥淚f they are gone during the day, they don鈥檛 want babysitters,鈥� said Alvera Lesane, the director of staff development for the 18,500-student district.
Now that the data are becoming available, Mr. Hirsch and others say district and school leaders have a responsibility to take action.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing worse,鈥� Mr. Hirsch said, 鈥渢han asking teachers what they think and then not doing anything about it.鈥�
