A survey of over 40,000 teaches is making headlines. The survey was conducted by the Gates Foundation and Scholastic Education and can be found here. The survey asked teachers about the state of American education, about the challenges facing students, and about the variety of supports and tools that teachers need to tackle those challenges. In the opening letter the sponsors cite five ways that teachers believe will address the challenges facing today’s schools and ensure that all students learn at high levels.
1. Establish Clear Standards, Common Across States
2. Use Multiple Measures to Evaluate Student Performance
3. Innovate to Reach Today’s Students
4. Accurately Measure Teacher Performance and Provide Non-Monetary Rewards
5. Bridge School and Home to Raise Student Achievement
The results are informative and the information is disaggregated in a variety of ways with state results beginning on page 79 of the report. This Seattle Times article summarizes some of the findings including differences between Washington and the average of all states. A second review can be found at the Washington Post where Foundation director Vicki Phillips shared some of the rational for the survey.
"No doubt we wanted to put some of the big agenda items out there that are under discussion, some of which we care deeply about," said Vicki L. Phillips, a foundation official who oversees grants in elementary and secondary education. Among the foundation's priorities, she said, are common standards, stronger data systems and compensation linked to performance. Last year the foundation announced it is investing $290 million on experiments in tenure, evaluation, compensation, training and mentoring -- all meant to promote effective teaching in Pittsburgh, Memphis, Los Angeles and Tampa. Teachers' unions have collaborated with local administrators and the foundation on the initiative.
It is interesting to note that the answer to the question about what’s most important in keeping good teachers, the number one choice nationally was supportive leadership or good principals followed by higher salaries. In our state they were reversed with higher salaries first. Any ideas on why that might be the case?
We learn from the responses that only 22% believe that principal evaluations are an accurate measure of their work. Only 28% felt performance pay would have a strong impact and 30% felt it would have no impact. This is important information as we seek better ways to support teachers and influence achievement for all students. It is interesting to note that some findings support the Foundation’s priorities while others do not and that they will not be changing their priorities because of the survey results.
The survey findings won't cause the foundation to make major changes, Phillips said, but they do provide food for thought about how it tries to help improve the quality of teaching. That's been a focus of the foundation's education giving since Phillips arrived several years ago.
1 comment:
I find surveys like this quite interesting. I have a strong bias toward using research to answer questions such as whether extending the school day of year would impact student achievement. While it can be intersting and useful to know what people believe is true, I don't believe that anyone should make an education policy decision based upon the opinions of teachers. Similarly, it wouldn't make sense to me to make a policy decision about merit pay based upon whether teachers think that merit pay would effect student learning. I would turn to research to answer that question. The Gates Foundation says the survey finding won't lead to their making major changes to their plans. While the data won't impact the direction they want to go I bet it certainly will impact the PR campaign they use to try to get there. Rightly so.
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