What Teachers Think

Leaders rarely consult teachers before coming up with their plans for changing schools, so for that alone, the think tank Education Sector deserves credit for its new survey of teacher opinions: They thought it might be interesting to ask those who do the work some questions about how it can be done better.

And the answers were interesting -- in some cases, very surprising.

One surprise: a fast-growing number believe teachers unions are "absolutely essential": 54 percent in 2007 vs. 46 percent four years earlier.

Almost all of that increase is due to a new attitude among newcomers to the profession. In 2003, only 30 percent of new teachers thought unions are "absolutely essential" but in 2007, it was 51 percent.

The conventional wisdom has been that unionists will face growing problems recruiting new members because the labor movement has been shrinking for decades, so young people have grown up in a mostly non-union world. But apparently the tide is moving the other way. Veteran teachers still like unions more than new teachers, but the gap has shrunk dramatically (57 percent of those with more than 20 years' experience felt unions were "absolutely essential" in 2003, vs. 60 percent in 2007).

Why do younger teachers favor unions more than they did a few years ago. No Child Left Behind is one possibility: Teachers see the insanity of some of the law's provisions up close, and feel that in unity there is strength.

But the union question was only one of several interesting areas explored by this survey.

Here are some others. (I'm paraphrasing--they used a lot of wordy questions.)

Is it harder than it should be to get ineffective tenured teachers out of the classroom?
Fifty-five percent, Yes. Thirteen percent, No. (The rest not sure.)
Half said the union sometimes fights to protect teachers who should be out of the classroom, and 63 percent would support their union taking the lead to simplify the process for removing ineffective teachers. (Of course, the problem is finding ways that are fair and that don't open the door to administrators getting rid of people who annoy them. But some locals are working on that.)

Should there be extra pay for teachers who:

• Work in tough, low-performing schools? Eighty percent, Yes, up from 70 percent four years ago.
• Earn National Board Certification? Sixty-four percent, Yes, also higher than in 2003.
• Have students who score higher than similar students on standardized tests? Thirty-four percent, Yes, and that's down a little over the past few years.

The whole survey is worth reading.

-- Alain Jehlen