Met Life Survey of the American School Teacher, 2006: Expectations and Experiences

On Thursday, Met Life released their annual survey describing attitudes and experiences of American teachers. In many years, this annual study challenges widely-held perceptions of teachers and our work in the classroom. This year was no exception. It points out that professional respect is a critical component of teacher satisfaction, and is even more important to experienced teachers than early-career colleagues. A few highlights:

• Being treated as a professional by the community is a key driver of teacher satisfaction.
  Dissatisfied teachers are more than twice as likely as satisfied teachers to feel that they are not treated as a professional by the community (36% vs. 15%).
• One-quarter of teachers (27%) say it is likely they will leave the profession in the next five years.
• Teachers who plan to leave are more likely than others to report worse experiences than
  expected with the professional prestige of teaching (44% vs. 34%), salary and benefits (40% vs. 30%) and control over their own work (24% vs. 13%).

--BUT--our problems with teacher retention are more significant with long-term professionals than new teachers:

• Teachers with 21 or more years experience are nearly four times as likely as new teachers (less than five years experience) to plan to leave teaching to go into a different occupation (44% vs. 12%).

--AND--in some ways, new teachers are better prepared for meeting challenges posed by issues that have arisen in recent years than their more experienced counter-parts:

• New teachers (less than five years experience) are more likely than their peers with 21 or more years experience to feel prepared to engage families in supporting their children’s education (42% vs. 27%), work with children with varying abilities (42% vs. 30%) and maintain order and discipline (44% vs. 34%).
• New teachers are more likely than their veteran peers to have mentors (82% vs. 16%).
• New teachers’ expectations are more aligned with the realities of teaching. They are less likely to report that the number of special needs students they would work with (34% vs. 44%) and their professional prestige (21% vs. 41%) were worse than they expected upon entering the profession.

To me, this suggests that we cannot neglect the need to provide support, growth, and renewal experiences for experienced teachers. Through innovative teacher education and induction programs, there is evidence that we are making progress in equipping early-career teachers to succeed. Now, we must also take seriously the challenge of fighting burn-out, and nurturing the talents and capacity of veteran teachers who have so much to offer the next generation of students. What did you find interesting in the survey results?