During the teachers’ strike in West Virginia earlier this year, educators complained most about their health care benefits and their pay. However, they also cited what they believe to be a general lack of respect for the teaching profession.
These teachers are not alone. USA Today published an in-depth report on the state of public education. The newspaper followed 15 teachers from different parts of the country for a day to chronicle their frustrations, pressures and hard-earned victories.
“We found that teachers are worried about more than money,” the newspaper concluded. “They feel misunderstood, unheard and, above all, disrespected.”
Here are some of the key findings and statistics from the report:
–Nearly one in ten teachers (8 percent) leaves the profession each year and 20 to 30 percent of beginning teachers quit within five years.
–Teachers are five times more likely than other full-time workers to maintain a second job. Nearly one in five teachers supplements their income with part-time work.
–Teachers spend an average of 53 hours a week on school related work, including evenings and weekends, but only about half of that time (27 hours) is for instruction.
–Ninety percent of teachers say they spend their own money on at least some teaching supplies. The average is nearly $500 a year.
For these and other reasons, not as many young people are going into teaching. A UCLA study shows that in the 1970’s about ten percent of incoming college freshmen studied education. Today it’s down to less than five percent.
A survey by PDK Poll asked parents if they would like their child to become a teacher. In 1969, 75 percent said yes. But now, for the first time in the survey, more than half say they do not want their child to teach school (54 percent say no, while only 46 percent said yes).
As a result, we have a nationwide shortage of at least 100,000 teachers. The problem is acute in West Virginia where last school year over 700 classrooms were led by a teacher not certified to teach the subject.
Meanwhile, a nationwide survey found that only 39 percent of school teachers say they are satisfied with their jobs.
Test scores in West Virginia and across the country are generally poor. Just this week a new report showed that 35 percent of the 2018 high school graduates who took the ACT college entrance exam met none of the four benchmarks that determine college readiness.
Teachers are a convenient target for poor performance. Certainly teachers are the most important factor in determining student achievement. However, it is evident that teachers in West Virginia and across the country are increasingly frustrated and demoralized and that cannot lead to good outcomes.