HEY, TEACHER: "The MetLife Survey of the American Teacher" finds that, well, life isn't so sweet for many of the 1,001 public K-12 teachers interviewed for this survey. A mere 44% of the teachers polled pronounced themselves "very satisfied" with their jobs, down from 59% in 2009. Worse, many lack current materials: David Nagel reports in THE Journal that "in urban areas, 43% of teachers reported that technology and educational materials have not been kept up to date." The same holds true for a third of teachers in suburban areas. One brighter spot: parents are more involved. A whopping 64% of the 947 students interviewed said they talk about things that happen at school with their parents every day, up from 40% way back in 1988. And 46% of students say their parents visit school at least once a month, up from 16% in 1988. Get the executive summary here. There are interesting stats in the main report about parents' impressions of schools.
