Aug. 4, 2000

TEACHING IS A CALLING, NOT JUST A JOB

Most teachers feel "A Sense of Calling," the title of a new study by the research group Public Agenda on who teaches and why. Money matters, too, of course, but often less than intangible measures of satisfaction such as respect and support.

This study, the latest in a series on education, compared new teachers' views of their chosen career with the views of a similar group of young college graduates in other jobs. The things that teachers say are most important about a job are also overwhelmingly what they believe teaching provides them: they are doing work they love (96 percent) and it is work that contributes to society and helps others (97 percent).

The teachers are much less likely to say that having good opportunities for advancement or being paid well are absolutely essential. Which is probably just as well, since only 31 percent of them think they are paid well, while 72 percent of the nonteachers say they are.

In answer to a slightly different question, 75 percent of public-school teachers agree or strongly agree with the statement "I am seriously underpaid," and 69 percent with the statement "I resent the fact that people who have easier and less important jobs get paid far more than I do."

Private-school teachers are even more likely, 83 percent, to say they're underpaid -- which is entirely reasonable, because about the same percentage say they earn less than $25,000 a year. But they're slightly less likely (58 percent) to resent the fact.

Partly that's because they are more satisfied in other ways. Private-school teachers are much more likely to say they are respected and appreciated, and that they can count on parental support.

On the other hand, one teacher from a New York City public school said, "There are two kinds of parents. One you never see, they are invisible. The other will bite your head off because you gave Johnny the C he deserved, not the A they were expecting."

To gauge the importance of these other factors, the survey asked teachers which of two otherwise identical schools they would prefer, given a choice.

They said they valued a school with better student behavior and parental support over one with a significantly higher salary, by 86 percent over 12 percent. Smaller, but still substantial, majorities favored schools with strongly supportive administrators, highly motivated and effective teachers and a compatible teaching philosophy over mere money.

These responses have to be interpreted with caution. What people say they want -- their expressed preferences -- and their revealed preferences, what they do when they really have the choice, are often different. And their perception of themselves as dedicated and idealistic is a subtle inducement to give the appropriately public-spirited answer.

In the real world, moreover, the choice is not between a higher salary and better-behaved students, which often enough go together in affluent suburbs.

The real choice is between having both those desirable circumstances and having neither. And the teachers recognize that. More than 80 percent of them support the idea that teachers who work "in difficult schools with hard-to-educate children" should get higher salaries. Fewer, 69 percent, think it's a good idea to pay teachers more if they are "highly effective in improving student academic performance" and less than half agree that teachers in subjects with severe shortages should earn more.

But the results suggest, says Public Agenda President Deborah Wadsworth, "that raising teacher salaries by itself won't (and probably shouldn't) radically change who enters the field or who decides to stay once there." Both current teachers and those who might switch into teaching, Wadsworth says, "want schools with manageable classes, supportive administrations and youngsters who are eager to learn."

Besides salaries, the report includes chapters on certification, teacher preparation and working conditions. A longer summary is available on the Web at http://www.publicagenda.org, or you can register (free) and download the full text of this and the other studies in the series.

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