What Teachers Are Thinking

Here is a round-up of recent research on teacher opinions and teachers' views on NCLB and high-stakes testing.

From PEN Weekly Newsblast: “The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher (pdf), conducted by Harris Interactive each year since 1984, explores teachers' opinions and brings them to the attention of the American public and policymakers.”

And a link to a large 50-state survey by TeacherNetwork.org, which showed that "Survey Reveals that Only 1% of Teachers Find No Child Left Behind an Effective Way to Assess the Quality of Schools and 69% Report It’s Pushing Teachers Out of the Profession."

And below are the results of two other recent surveys noted by Monty Neill:

NY State Union of Teachers has released a survey (pdf) showing strong opposition to NCLB and exposing the detrimental effects of high-stakes testing on teaching and learning. And from that you can link to the survey report, which is worth looking at for the details on the kinds of damage teachers see being caused by high-stakes testing and NLCB.

And, finally, a survey and in-depth interviews with teachers in Southern CA finds similar concern and opposition.