Teacher Satisfaction at 20-Year High, MetLife Survey Finds

Teachers’ satisfaction with their careers has increased significantly over the past two decades, according to an annual survey by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. and the Committee for Economic Development, which tracks the opinions of teachers, principals, and education deans.

The “MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Expectations and Experiences” of 2006 also compares this year’s data with the results of 22 earlier MetLife polls. Notably, teacher satisfaction is at a 20-year high: Fifty-six percent of the 1,001 teachers polled earlier this year reported being “very satisfied” with their careers, in comparison with just 40 percent in 1984, the first year of the survey.

That outcome is somewhat surprising, given anecdotal and survey evidence in recent years suggesting that teachers have gotten discouraged with what they see as an increasing loss of autonomy over their classrooms and an...