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Scholastic and the Gates Foundation Release Survey of 11,000 Teachers

Posted on 27.09.2011 by John Bailey

As part of the NBC News 2011 Education Nation, Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation released a first look at select findings of the 2011 Primary Sources study. The complete results will be released to the public in January of 2012. 

A few interesting results from the survey of 11,000 teachers:

• Teachers Want Help With Common Core:  71% of teachers in 48 states and the District of Columbia say they have heard of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. Of the teachers who are aware of the Common Core Standards, however, only 22% say they are “very prepared” to teach the standards.

• Teachers Want Tools:  

  • 64% need student-centered technology and resources to help students best learn to these new standards,

  • 63% need professional development focused on the requirements of the standards,

  • 61% need professional development on how to teach parts of the standards that are new to them, and

  • 59% need curricula and learning tools aligned to the new standards in English and Mathematics.

• Teachers’ views of tenure reflect a desire for additional, nuanced evaluation

  • 93% of teachers agree (65% strongly, 27% somewhat) that tenure should not protect ineffective teachers,

  • 89% agree (41% strongly, 48% somewhat) that tenure should reflect evaluations of teacher effectiveness,

  • 80% agree (35% strongly, 45% somewhat) that tenure should be reevaluated at regular intervals, and

  • On average, teachers think that tenure should be granted at 5.4 years of experience.