"Profile of Teachers in the U.S. 2011" Results of a National Survey of K-12 Public School Teachers Conducted by the National Center for Education Information

Teachers strongly oppose many current education reform proposals, but the teaching profession is undergoing a profound transformation due to an influx of new teachers coming from non-traditional backgrounds

WASHINGTON, July 29, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --  A just completed national survey of public school teachers conducted by the National Center for Education Information (NCEI) shows an overall teaching force diametrically opposed to such reform proposals as getting rid of tenure for teachers and evaluating a teacher's effectiveness on student achievement data.  However, nine out of 10 teachers favor getting rid of incompetent teachers regardless of seniority.

The Profile of Teachers in the U.S. survey also finds a dramatic shift in who is entering the profession in the last five years and how they are getting there.

Four out of 10 public school teachers hired since 2005 entered teaching through alternative teacher preparation programs – up from 22 percent of new teachers hired between 2000-2004, eight percent in the 90s and four percent in the 80s.  The proportion of teachers who've entered the profession through traditional college, campus-based teacher education programs has dropped from nearly all (95 percent) 15 years ago to 67 percent in 2011.

"Nowhere are the differences between alternatively prepared and traditionally prepared teachers more pronounced than in attitudes about what would improve American education and what would make teaching more a profession," said Emily Feistritzer, NCEI president and author of the report.

These are among the findings of a national survey of 1,076 randomly selected K-12 public school teachers conducted by the National Center for Education Information, Nov.10, 2010 – June 26, 2011 and published in the 86-page report, PROFILE OF TEACHERS IN THE U.S. 2011.

NCEI conducted similar surveys of teachers in 2005, 1986, 1990 and 1996.  Comparisons are made in the report between teachers now and in those earlier years.  

The National Center for Education Information (NCEI) is a private, non-partisan research organization in Washington, D.C. specializing in survey research and data analysis since 1979.

Full results of the survey can be found at www.ncei.com

SOURCE National Center for Education Information