MetLife Teacher Survey

The Institute for Education and the Arts shares this teacher survey.

2006 METLIFE SURVEY OF THE AMERICAN TEACHER:
EXPERIENCES AND EXPECTATIONS

From the Executive Summary:

“The 2006 MetLife Survey … examines what it takes to be a teacher in American public schools today and the experiences that contribute to a fulfilling career in the field. To address these issues, the MetLife Survey turned to teachers themselves, school principals, and . . . education school deans and chairpersons of education programs. The state of the profession was examined at key points throughout the lifecycle of a teacher’s career, from preparation in college and graduate school and expectations before entering the classroom, to experiences after entering the nation’s K-12 schools.

“Over the past two decades, teachers’ satisfaction with their career has increased . . . One reason to measure teacher satisfaction is as an indication of whether or not a teacher will remain in the profession. Although analyses of this year’s MetLife Survey data indicate that teacher satisfaction is one of the predictors of whether a teacher intends to switch careers, it is not the only one. Evidence of this can be found in the number of teachers who plan to leave teaching in the next five years. One-quarter of teachers (27%) say they are likely to leave teaching. Despite the fact that teachers’ career satisfaction has increased by over 20 points since 1986, the number of teachers at-risk for changing careers has stayed the same. These results indicate that retaining high-quality teachers in the profession is as much of an issue today as it was two decades ago.”

Read the 2006 report, as well as reports from past years, here.

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