Teacher Attitudes Surveyed

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Most people would agree on the importance of teachers. More than 50% of our teaching force in today's classrooms has ten years or less experience and a new survey by TEACH PLUS reports on attitudes of teachers who began their careers less than a decade ago.

Those who entered the profession before No Child Left Behind are more receptive to student growth data in evaluation, performance-based tenure and compensation systems. They believe that greater accountability and high standards will elevate the profession.

With regard to working conditions, all are practically unanimous: time in school for collaboration, more flexible class groupings and better teacher preparation.

Raising salaries was cited by all teachers as a key to raising the status of the profession and slightly over half of those surveyed suggest raising taxes as a strategy and not trading off a longer year, a new pension system or class size to pay for the salary increases.

Read more at TeachPlus.org.