Poll Finds Teachers Happier They’re More Pleased With Job Than A Decade Ago, But Worried About Growing Problems

Teachers like their jobs more today than a decade ago and are more likely to recommend the profession to others, according to an annual survey sponsored by a life insurance company and a nonprofit states’ group.

One possible reason: Teachers are nearly twice as likely now than in 1985 to say their jobs pay them a decent salary, the poll done by Louis Harris and Associates found. And more teachers felt they were recognized when they had performed well.

“There is a real, objective basis for these findings, and that is the rise in teacher salaries and the restructuring many schools have undertaken,” said Linda Darling-Hammond, a researcher at Columbia Teachers College.

But there was bad news, too. Urban teachers said public support for schools plummeted in the last decade, while suburban teachers saw it rise.

The survey released Wednesday found other evidence of what it called “a slow, steady and dangerous drift toward inequality” between urban and suburban schools.

City teachers were less pleased with their schools’ curriculums and academic standards. And they worried more about problems like drugs, teen pregnancy, overcrowded classrooms and violence than suburban teachers did.

The survey, done annually since 1984 for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., was also sponsored this year by the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit Denver group financed by state governments. Each state is represented by seven commissioners, including its governor.

A random sample of 1,011 public school teachers were interviewed by phone nationwide over the summer. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points.

The survey found 54 percent of teachers very satisfied with teaching as a career compared to 44 percent in 1985. Two-thirds said they would recommend the career to young people.

Seventeen percent agreed strongly that their jobs allow them to earn decent salaries, and 46 percent agreed somewhat. That was up from 8 percent and 29 percent, respectively, a decade ago.

Teachers’ salaries steadily rose throughout that period before levelling off in the last few years, Darling-Hammond noted. The average public teacher salary nationwide last school year was $36,744, a recent teachers union survey found.

In addition, many schools have undertaken reforms that give teachers more decision-making power, Darling-Hammond and others noted.

“Teachers know more about what works in the classroom, and they have a clearer idea of their role,” said Elaine Griffith, the nation’s teacher of the year.

Asked why they like their jobs, teachers most often mentioned their students, the poll found.

Asked what could be done to improve schools, teachers cited emphasizing discipline, emphasizing basics such as reading and math, broadening the curriculum to include computers and foreign language and tightening graduation requirements.

Those responses come at a time when one of the nation’s two big teachers unions, the American Federation of Teachers, has begun a campaign to get principals and communities to agree to enforce tighter discipline.

The AFT campaign has been criticized by some liberal groups that believe it could result in unfair penalties for disruptive children.