Welcome to the Saint Paul Federation of Teachers
Teachers' top Choice: support-not salaries
Seattle Times
What do teachers want?
Supportive principals more than higher salaries. Digital media more than textbooks.
Evaluations based on how much their students learn, rather than principals'
observations. Those are a few findings from what's thought to be the largest survey
of U.S. public-school teachers, sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
and the Scholastic Publishing company.
About 40,000 teachers answered questions about what they need to help more students
achieve, and what they think about issues such as merit pay, testing and learning standards.
It offers a rich look at the challenges of teachers and underscores how deeply many care
about their work. Seven out of 10, for example, said they attend student events at night
or on weekends. Highlights included:
While 92 percent of teachers said tests given in class are
essential or very important in measuring student achievement,
just 27 percent said the same aboutstate standardized tests. Just 22 percent said they thought evaluations by principals were
a very accurate measure of their work. Forty percent said common learning standards in all states would
have a strong impact on student achievement. When asked what's most important in keeping good teachers, the top
choice was "supportive leadership" followed by higher salaries.
