Where We Are

Over the last three years, the Center for Teaching Quality has conducted teacher working conditions studies in seven states and one school district. These population- and web-based surveys have generated increasingly higher response rates — including in Mississippi where approximately 67 percent of the state’s teachers responded to a survey in 2007 asking them to assess key issues related to time, teacher empowerment, school leadership, professional development, and facilities & resources. Our analyses have revealed that teacher working conditions are actually student learning conditions. Our 2007 efforts have produced provocative findings, with state reports recently released for Arizona, and Ohio as well as a district-level report for the Clark County, NV School District. (A Mississippi report is currently forthcoming).

What's New

• What the Research Reveals: The National Education Association, our partner in assessing workplace conditions, has just published a comprehensive review of what matters most for teachers in their efforts to improve student learning. Based on the analysis of one of the leading scholars in the field, Susan Moore Johnson of Harvard University, the NEA points to the 11 key benchmarks for improving workplace conditions: teaching assignments, working relationships among teachers, new teacher support, student supports, curricular supports, resources and materials, assessment, professional development, professional influence and career growth, facilities, and principal’s leadership.

• We are proud that both a prestigious Spencer Foundation award and new partnerships with both states and school districts will enable us to “drill deeper” into the conditions that undergird quality teaching and learning.
• We're also excited to see that Education Week recognized the importance of teaching and learning conditions in its influential Quality Counts 2008. Click here to see how "Working Conditions Trump Pay."

Arizona: In 2007, under the leadership of Governor Janet Napolitano and the Arizona Education Association (AEA) nearly 32,000 educators (about 53 percent of eligible respondents) completed the survey. Our analyses surfaced key links between certain conditions and teachers’ intentions to stay in teaching. New and more sophisticated analyses revealed how teaching and learning conditions relate to student achievement. CTQ trained over 100 school administrators and teacher leaders on how to use the data – using new tools for practitioners to create the conditions necessary for teachers to be successful. Click here to read the Arizona report, with more details at www.aztwc.org. (For more information contact Alice Williams about CTQ’s new tools for using teaching and learning conditions data).

Mississippi: The Mississippi Teacher Center, along with its the Mississippi Education Association and the Governor’s Office created Project CLEAR Voice (Cultivate Learning Environments to Accelerate Recruitment and Retention), offering every licensed educator the opportunity to rate their teaching and learning conditions. In Spring 2007, over 25,000 of Mississippi's educators responded — representing a stunning 67 percent of available respondees. Over 85% of the state’s educators want to remain teaching at their current school. However, teachers who intend to stay in their current teaching position are 3 times more likely to agree that school leadership is effective and that an atmosphere of trust is present than their peers who wish to leave the school or district. Teachers in high-poverty schools are less likely to report that key working conditions are in place in their schools. In early February 2008 the MTC, MEA, and CTQ will release a new report on the state’s teaching and learning conditions as well as a provocative set of recommendations from Mississippi’s National Board Certified Teachers on how to support and staff high needs schools. Click here to read the Mississippi report or learn more about the initiative at www.projectclearvoice.com.

Ohio: In 2007, CTQ, in collaboration with the Ohio Department of Education and Ohio Education Association, assembled survey data from over 8,000 educators from 63 school districts. Focusing on issues of supply and demand, our analyses revealed that teachers planning to leave their school or teaching altogether are most frustrated by their perceived low levels of empowerment and poor quality of school leadership. However, the state’s dissatisfied teachers are more likely to move to new schools rather than leave the district. See the final Ohio report here and learn more about the Ohio initiative at www.ohiotlc.org.

Clark County School District (NV): The Center for Teaching Quality is proud to partner with the Clark County School District (Las Vegas, NV) and the the Clark County Education Association in administering and analyzing survey responses of approximately 9,000 district educators (a 48% response rate). The 2007 survey, which replicated one conducted in 2006, found that teacher movers and leavers are most dissatisfied with school leadership and with their perceived levels of empowerment, but that financial considerations are the greatest influence on early-career leavers. Almost 50% of the district’s new teachers work second-jobs, limiting their ability to capitalize on much needed professional development necessary to meet the needs of the district’s diverse student population. The survey also revealed that many novice teachers are not mentored at all, but those who are mentored are more likely to remain in the classroom and in the district. We also found that one out of thirteen new teachers are actually mentoring other novices. CTQ, employing more robust statistical methods than those used in previous years, found significant connections between teaching and learning conditions and student achievement at the elementary level. In addition, CTQ researchers found improved conditions at the district’s Empowerment Schools, a partnerhip of the district, the CCEA, and the Council for a Better Nevada. Read the final report on Clark County's teaching and learning conditions here, and learn more about the Clark County initiative at www.nvtlc.org.

National Education Association
CTQ is proud of its partnership with the National Education Association, which has helped launch our independent investigations of teaching and learning conditions.