{"id":1017,"date":"2012-04-18T17:03:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-18T21:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.vassp.org\/?p=1017"},"modified":"2012-04-18T17:03:27","modified_gmt":"2012-04-18T21:03:27","slug":"what-do-teachers-want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/?p=1017","title":{"rendered":"What Do Teachers Want?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The title for this blog may bring many thoughts to building principals, some thoughts humorous and\u00a0some serious.\u00a0 Some of these responses in your mind may be longer planning blocks, more compensation, or fewer visits in their classrooms by you! Actually, none of these responses are close and thankfully so.\u00a0The classroom teachers\u00a0did respond in the majority to issues that effect student learning and success and greater achievement for all students in their schools.\u00a0 The opening question for this blog belongs to a recent blog in Education Week (<a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/Bridging-Differences\/2012\/04\/what_do_teachers_want.html\">http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/Bridging-Differences\/2012\/04\/what_do_teachers_want.html<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>This blog, written by Diane Ravitch, outlines and compares the results of two surveys regarding teacher job satisfaction, reasons for their discontent and also their thoughts as to what can or should\u00a0be done to improve public education in our nation.<\/p>\n<p>One survey is the Metlife Survey of the American Teacher. In this survey, teachers expressed their feelings of career dissatisfaction which is resulting\u00a0in teachers making decisions to leave for another occupation.\u00a0 Among the issues related to teachers making this decision are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The declining economy<\/li>\n<li>Staff reductions which increase classroom student numbers<\/li>\n<li>Budget cuts that effect\u00a0programs for needy students<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Issues that teachers noted that help them be more successful as educators are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>More family involvement<\/li>\n<li>High expectations for student learners<\/li>\n<li>Effective school leadership<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The second survey was Primary Sources 2012: America&#8217;s Teachers on the Teaching Profession\u00a0which was developed and put out by Scholastic and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.\u00a0 The 10,000 classroom teachers who participated were surveyed regarding their schools, classrooms and how teachers should be evaluated, supported and rewarded. Among the factors identified thought to help maintain teacher retention\u00a0by these teachers are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Strong school leaders<\/li>\n<li>Family involvement<\/li>\n<li>High quality curriculum and resources<\/li>\n<li>Quality in-school support personnel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These two national surveys provide school leaders with a reinforcement of practices that are in place and a mandate\u00a0to continue to with these to help improve student success. It is important and not coincidental at all that strong leaders are common to both surveys. You know from your experience that\u00a0strong school leadership makes the difference for success\u00a0in your school for students and staff. Teachers nationwide have expressed their feelings about leadership and most likely, your staff would agree.<\/p>\n<p>Virginia school leaders have a history and pattern for providing effective school leadership. Our students, parents, teachers and communities deserve nothing less. Keep up the good work!<\/p>\n<h1><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The title for this blog may bring many thoughts to building principals, some thoughts humorous and\u00a0some serious.\u00a0 Some of these responses in your mind may be longer planning blocks, more compensation, or fewer visits in their classrooms by you! Actually, none of these responses are close and thankfully so.\u00a0The classroom teachers\u00a0did respond in the majority &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/?p=1017\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-1017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home","tag-effective-leadership","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1017"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1020,"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1017\/revisions\/1020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.vassp.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}