A Study of Teachers’ Attitudes on Testing and Performance Evaluation

From the Marshall Memo #430

In this Education Week article, Anthony Rebora reports on a study just released by the Gates Foundation and Scholastic. The survey of 10,000 public school teachers found:

• Only 28 percent see state-required tests as an essential or very important gauge of student achievement.
• Only 26 percent say standardized tests are an accurate reflection of what students know.
• Only 45 percent say students take standardized tests seriously or try to do their best.
• 85 percent agree that their students’ growth over the course of the year should contribute significantly to teachers’ evaluations.
• Most teachers see ongoing formative assessments, class participation, and performance on class assignments as much more important measures of student learning than standardized tests.
• Teachers rank family involvement, quality curriculum, high expectations, and effective school leadership as having the biggest potential impact on student achievement.
• Most teachers believe they should be evaluated and observed more often than they are now, using a variety of methods.
• Large majorities of teachers are in favor of tying tenure decisions to evaluations of effectiveness and having tenure status reassessed at regular intervals.
• 63 percent of teachers believe their students will leave school prepared for college.
• Veteran teachers say they are seeing increasing numbers of students struggling with poverty, homelessness, hunger, and behavioral issues.
• All this notwithstanding, 42 percent of teachers say they are “very satisfied” with their jobs and 47 percent say they are “satisfied.” 

“Teachers Place Little Value on Standardized Testing” by Anthony Rebora in Education Week, Mar. 28, 2012 (Vol. 31, #26, p. 14); the report is entitled “Primary Sources: 2012: America’s Teachers on the Teaching Profession” and is available at 

http://www.scholastic.com/primarysources/pdfs/Gates2012_full.pdf