Elena Silva: The ConnCAN Interview

Recently, Education Sector’s Elena Silva co-authored a study based on a survey of 1,010 K-12 public school teachers as well as focus groups with public school teachers in five cities across the country. ConnCAN caught up with her to find out what she learned.

 Download the Education Sector Report

Tell us a little bit about Education Sector and why it was interested in doing this study.

Education Sector is an independent non-partisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., with four pillar areas of interest: teacher quality, undergraduate education, school choice, and accountability. Our primary goal in producing this report was to explore how teachers feel about their profession and how those views have changed over time. There are a lot of ways teachers’ views get presented to policymakers and the public, but we felt it was important to contribute to an independent body of research on this key topic.

What are some misconceptions that people may have about teachers’ view of education that this survey can help correct?

There’s a sense in the general public—maybe among teachers themselves—that teachers are on one side or the other of the education reform debate. The fact is that our survey shows they don’t fall neatly into any camp. They are open to some reform ideas and proposals, particularly when they are conceptual in nature, but are skeptical about the specifics. Teachers actually feel very strongly about the problems they face in their profession, and they want to see changes. At the same time, we also found that teachers are very supportive of unions and the role they play in education.

This survey was designed as a companion to a similar survey conducted in 2003. How have things changed?

Teachers—even new ones—are more likely to say unions are more essential now than they were in 2003. That’s an interesting change. It could be because teachers are very much under the spotlight right now, and both teachers and schools are under a lot of pressure to get results. The union is the obvious thing to point to and say, “They’re on my side, and they’ll back me if I need them.” Still, I think there’s something larger going on. Younger workers, in particular, while not wanting to give up the securities of the traditional teaching job, are also looking for more flexibility and more mobility. So we see teachers holding tight to the union, perhaps more now than before, but at the same time showing increasing support for some reforms.

What differences did you find between the views of new teachers and veteran teachers?

Newcomers are more likely to favor reforms that in the past have sparked controversy, particularly in the area of financial incentives. Across the board there are some teachers who will support these financial incentives, but it’s the newcomers who are really willing to give them a try.

Newer teachers are more likely to say that teachers who work in tough neighborhoods or in low-performing schools should get financial incentives. They’re more likely to say that teachers who get national board accreditation should get financial bonuses. By and large, teachers are still opposed to using test scores as a measure of performance, particularly for pay, but nearly 40 percent of newer teachers are open to pay bonuses for teachers who consistently get higher ratings on student test scores, compared to just 20 percent of veteran teachers.

It seems that very few education reforms now under debate enjoyed the support of a majority of teachers in your survey. Is that true, and if so, why do you think that is the case?

That’s right. Teachers recognize problems in their profession, but they’re still pretty wary of big change. Part of what the survey shows is there’s a huge amount of work to be done in communicating what the possibilities are for teachers. There are a lot of reform ideas that teachers might be open to, but they want and deserve to know more before signing up. There’s a gap there that needs to be closed.

For example, we asked a question about whether or not teachers should be receiving extra compensation based on test scores. Then we asked the question differently, focusing specifically on compensation linked to the growth of scores or value-added measures. We saw a little bit of a difference, an increase in the number of teachers that would favor a financial reward for teachers whose students make more academic progress over time. Now, in the focus groups, we were able to explore even deeper by saying, “This is how it worked, would work, or could work. What do you think about that possibility?” And the typical response was, “If someone could show me how this could be fair, I would be open to it.”

Inside Connecticut schools the issue of teacher evaluations is a hot topic. What did you learn about what’s working and what’s not for teachers nationwide?

Teachers are on board with the importance of the evaluations, but when you ask them about their experiences with them, they’re quite likely to say it was just a formality, or that it was well intentioned but not particularly helpful to their teaching practice. Only about a quarter of teachers said it was a useful tool for becoming a more effective teacher.

What role do teachers want their unions and district officials to play in solving these problems?

The results suggest that both districts and unions have a role to play. You might take away from this survey the specific ways teachers might want their unions to get involved: negotiating more meaningful ways to evaluate teachers, leading efforts to retrain ineffective teachers or guide them out of the profession, expanding the career ladder for teachers.

But it would be a mistake to ignore the implication for districts, which is that they have to address some of the basic working conditions for teachers before there is going to be any movement toward reform. Teachers are wary of the politics of districts and the politicization of schools. Less than half of the teachers we surveyed characterized the relationship between district and union leaders as one of cooperation and trust; a third said the relationship was mostly about conflict and distrust. This has to change if we want to see meaningful and sustainable reforms.

What would be the one thing you want people to take away from this study?

Teachers are open to education reform, but they are also demanding more information, more support, and more security. Given those things, they will push for the changes needed to improve their profession—maybe even in some pretty bold ways that will surprise people. But we’re not there yet and aren’t likely to get there unless union and district leaders can come together to advance and improve reform proposals.