Listen to Us: Teacher Views and Voices A survey report from the Center on Education Policy Washington, DC

Why teachers join the profession

Teachers’ perceptions of their school, colleagues, and job

Teachers’ perceptions of their preparedness

Teachers value collaboration

Why teachers collaborate

Most significant challenges teachers face

Teachers’ perceptions about whether their opinions are factored into decision-making

Compensation for teachers’ additional activities

Actions that would help teachers in their day-to-day teaching

Teacher autonomy under new state standards

Impact of uncertainty about standards and assessments insert curriculum slide after 9

Most important skills for college and careers

Curricular resources for teaching state math and ELA standards 2015-2016

Sharing of math and ELA curricula developed, revised, or adapted by teachers

Extent to which spring 2015 assessment data caused teachers to modify their practice Insert additional slides about assessment data.

Resources teachers use to understand assessment data

Teachers’ views of alignment between state assessments and standards

Teacher-estimated time per year spent preparing students for mandated tests

Teacher-estimated time per year that students spend taking mandated tests

Teacher views on whether the time students spend taking tests is appropriate

Teacher views about which tests to keep, reduce or eliminate Before slide 16, insert slides about how many teachers have been evaluated using test scores

Teacher evaluations that include student test scores

Helpfulness of teacher evaluation feedback

Key Takeaways The teaching profession has become increasingly complex and demanding. Teachers are feeling the impact of political turmoil and changing agendas. Teachers feel their voices are not factored into decision-making at the district, state, and national levels.

Key Takeaways (continued) Many teachers are taking on additional responsibilities at school but very few are compensated for the time and effort. Teachers feel more time for classroom planning and smaller class sizes would help improve instruction.

Key Takeaways (continued) Teachers are maintaining autonomy in their classrooms, despite concerns about the Common Core and other new standards. Teachers collaborate frequently with colleagues to develop/revise curricula and to understand student assessment data.

Key Takeaways (continued) Although most teachers feel too much time is devoted to preparing for and taking standardized tests, they do not want to eliminate district and state assessments. A little more than half the teachers evaluated said student test scores were among the criteria used in the evaluation. Those teachers were split about how helpful those evaluations were for improving their practice.

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