Education Week: State of Mind - The Diigo Meta page

• 03 Nov 09
  

  Vicki Davis
  • how to identify, retain, and support the most effective teachers
  • effective teachers are distributed among all schools,
  • 27 more annotations...
  • • “Disheartened,” “Contented,” and “Idealists.”
    • Members of that group, which accounts for 40 percent of K-12 teachers in the United States, tend to have been teaching longer and be older than the Idealists.
    • More than half teach in low-income schools.
    • school administration
    • disorder in the classroom
    • undue focus on testing
    • Only 14 percent rated their principals as “excellent” at supporting them as teachers
    • 61 percent cited lack of support from administrators as a major drawback to teaching.
    • viewed teaching as a lifelong career
    • three-fourths feel that they have sufficient time to craft good lesson plans.
    • 94 percent have been in the classroom for more than 10 years, a majority have graduate degrees, and about two-thirds are teaching in middle-income or affluent schools.
    • the Idealists—23 percent of teachers overall—who voiced the strongest sense of mission about teaching.
    • 4 percent strongly agreed that all their students, “given the right support, can go to college,
    • 36 percent said that even though they intend to stay in education, they plan to leave classroom teaching for other jobs in the field.
    • half the Idealists believe their students’ test scores have increased significantly as a result of their teaching, a higher percentage than the other teachers in the survey.
    • “Good teachers don’t join for the money or bonuses. They join because they want to make a difference.”
    • bitterness characterized the Disheartened
    • Twice as many spoke of likely burnout as did the Contented and Idealists.
    • student-behavior problems and a lack of a supportive administration are major issues feeding discontent among teachers, alongside the perception of low pay.
    • Perceived lack of administrator support, discipline problems, class size, low pay, and lack of prestige loomed as much larger negatives for the Disheartened.
    • Low salaries and “little prestige” were not top issues,
    • The Disheartened were more likely to mention higher pay
    • removing students with severe behavior problems from the classroom
    • More than a third of Idealists voiced a desire to move eventually into other jobs in education.
    • Others may be good teachers trapped in dysfunctional schools and, in the right environment, might change their views and become Idealists.

      • 

        Vicki Davis on 2009-11-03

        Am so glad to see that this article recognizes that it is not all about the teacher - sometimes it is a FUNCTION of the environment.
    • “Copers,” whose main focus is successfully completing the work of each day, and “Transformers,” who aim to change the schools they manage.
    • he degree to which the most idealistic teachers could be Transformers, effectively helping struggling students become eager and accomplished learners,”

Public Stiky Notes

• 
  Vicki Davis on 2009-11-03
  Am so glad to see that this article recognizes that it is not all about the teacher - sometimes it is a FUNCTION of the environment.

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