Teacher Polls Look to Sway Policymakers

Perhaps at no other time in the history of American education has there been more publicly available information about what teachers think about their profession, their students, and the conditions under which they work. As advocates pore over the results of teacher surveys being conducted nationally, at the state level, and even at individual schools, observers are beginning to ask questions about how the information can be used to inform policies to improve teachers' working conditions and promote teacher and leadership effectiveness. In an apparent nod to the importance of hearing directly from teachers, the Obama administration has proposed in its blueprint for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act that states collect and report information on a variety of school factors, including teachers' perceptions of their working conditions and whether there is a pattern of teacher absenteeism indicative of the cultural norms of those schools. Amid more surveys on teachers' views, the Obama administration wants districts and states to do their own on schools' working conditions.