Read Teacher Working Conditions: A Review and Look to the Future (November 2008)

Between 2004 and 2008, the Center for Teaching Quality studied teacher working conditions across the nation, surveying more than 200,000 educators in an effort to identify factors that may impede maximum student learning. In a recent review of our studies in seven different states, CTQ surfaced a "top ten" list of trends and issues:

1. Most teachers want to remain in teaching and are committed to their students.
2. Teachers who intend to leave their schools and teaching are more likely to have grave concerns about their lack of empowerment, poor school leadership, and the low levels of trust and respect inside their buildings.
3. Teachers and administrators view teaching and learning conditions differently — and often quite dramatically so.
4. New teachers who have quality support are more likely to report they will remain in teaching.
5. Teachers who report relatively low levels of satisfaction with their professional development often do not have access to the kinds of training they believe they need.
6. Except in a few instances, and not surprisingly, new teachers were less concerned about issues of empowerment.
7. Elementary school teachers were far more positive about their working conditions, when compared to their middle and high school counterparts.
8. Teachers with different preparation and career intentions view teacher working conditions differently — which can have consequences for whether they stay in teaching.
9. Out-of-field assignments and teaching in high-stakes grades can have powerful impact on teachers' perceptions of working conditions — and subsequently on their willingness to stay in a certain school.
10. Teacher working conditions may vary more inside of schools than between them.

CTQ's own analyses, as well as those of a number of well-respected researchers, have found some important relationships between certain clusters of working conditions — for example, school leadership — and teacher retention and student achievement. However, limitations of current instruments (that define working conditions too narrowly) and data (that do not distinguish between different types of retention) suggest caution must be used in making specific causal claims. States and districts need to develop teacher, student, and administrator data systems that can track teacher and administrator teaching and learning conditions survey responses longitudinally and link these data with actual teacher turnover figures and robust measures of student achievement.

Currently, with support from the Ford Foundation, CTQ is conducting case studies in two urban communities to learn more about how different teachers are affected by different working conditions. The Spencer Foundation is supporting our efforts to rethink how to measure these working conditions for the schools of the future.

Given the new demands on public schools and the need for all students to meet higher academic standards and participate successfully in a global economy, policymakers must focus more on the conditions that allow teachers to teach effectively for the 21st century. Watch for an upcoming report from CTQ detailing how policymakers, practitioners, and researchers can more aptly define and improve teacher working conditions for the new millennium.