Special Report
Education

Poll: Teachers Support Standards-With Hesitation

By Kathryn M. Doherty — January 11, 2001 3 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Education Week’s “National Survey of Public School Teachers, 2000" was conducted by Belden Russonello & Stewart, a Washington-based opinion-research group. The national survey of 1,019 public school teachers was conducted by telephone Aug. 28 through Sept. 17, 2000.

Teachers of English, mathematics, science, and social studies in K-12 were polled. The sample for the survey was randomly selected from a list of more than 2 million public school teachers compiled by Market Data Retrieval, a Shelton, Conn.-based company that conducts education market research.

All sample surveys are subject to possible sampling error; that is, the results may differ from those that would be obtained if the entire population under study were interviewed. The margin of sampling error for the entire survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at a 95 percent level of confidence.

The sampling error is larger for subgroups in the survey. To ensure that each subgroup was represented in the correct proportion to the population as a whole, the data have been weighted by grade level taught, urbanicity of the school district, and U.S. Census region, based on the National Center for Education Statistics’ estimates for public school teachers in the United States.

Selected Highlights:

  • Public school teachers support standards. Eighty-seven percent of teachers agreed that raising standards was a “move in the right direction,’ and 74 percent said the level of standards in their states was “about right.’ Also, a majority of teachers reported that students were working harder and learning more than in past years.
  • Teachers reported that behavior was changing in classrooms. Seventy-nine percent said the curriculum was more demanding than it was three years earlier, and 64 percent of those teachers attributed the change to standards. Sixty-three percent said teacher expectations of students were higher than three years earlier. Sixty-six percent said that students were writing more, and 69 percent said teachers were collaborating more than before.
  • But the survey results also suggest that in the past year, teachers received only modest training to implement standards. In the past year, 28 percent had no training in understanding and using state academic standards; 30 percent had no training that provided an overview of a state test or assessment; and nearly half had no training in how to use test results for diagnostic purposes.
  • Having the tools needed to implement standards is also an issue for teachers. About two-thirds of teachers reported having “some” or “little” access to training in state assessments, and more than half the teachers in the survey reported having “some” or “little” access to units, lesson plans, or modules that matched state standards. Seventy percent of teachers said they did not have enough time to cover the material needed to meet standards.
  • Teachers are feeling pressure from state testing and accountability systems and believe there is too much focus on state tests. Sixty-seven percent of teachers said their teaching had become “somewhat” or “far too much” focused on state tests. And 66 percent said they were concentrating on tested information to the detriment of other important areas of learning. Seventy-nine percent of those surveyed had instructed their classes in such test-taking skills as pacing and filling in bubbles to answer multiple-choice questions.
  • Teachers are generally opposed to making decisions about student promotion or graduation based solely on state tests. Only 11 percent of teachers would support a policy to require that all students pass tests before moving up to the next grade; 88 percent said teachers and principals should consider test scores along with grades and their own individual assessments of students. Only 37 percent of teachers supported high school exit exams without attention to other parts of students’ records.

In March 2024, Education Week announced the end of the Quality Counts report after 25 years of serving as a comprehensive K-12 education scorecard. In response to new challenges and a shifting landscape, we are refocusing our efforts on research and analysis to better serve the K-12 community. For more information, please go here for the full context or learn more about the EdWeek Research Center.

A version of this article appeared in the January 11, 2001 edition of Education Week

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education In Their Own Words The Stories That Stuck With Us, 2023 Edition
Our newsroom selected five stories as among the highlights of our work. Here's why.
4 min read
102523 IMSE Reading BS
Adria Malcolm for Education Week
Education Opinion The 10 Most-Read Opinions of 2023
Here are Education Week’s most-read Opinion blog posts and essays of 2023.
2 min read
Collage of lead images for various opinion stories.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty
Education Letter to the Editor EdWeek's Most-Read Letters of 2023
Read the most-read Letters to the Editor of the past year.
1 min read
Illustration of a line of diverse hands holding up speech bubbles in front of a subtle textured newspaper background
iStock/Getty
Education Briefly Stated: November 1, 2023
Here's a look at some recent Education Week articles you may have missed.
8 min read