Public education is a significant election issue for many voters, and a new poll shows that Americans’ top educational priorities are preparing students to enter the workforce and attracting and retaining good teachers. Supporting educators and preparing students are bipartisan priorities, according to the poll, which was released today.
Conducted annually for over 50 years, PDK’s Poll of the Public’s Attitudes Toward the Public Schools provides a trusted snapshot of Americans’ views of schools and education issues. This election-year installment showed some differences across political party affiliation and background characteristics on several education topics, but the importance of teachers was an area of widespread agreement.
“Parents and other citizens know that teachers matter more to students’ achievement than any other aspect of schooling, so it is heartening to see that Americans across political parties, who hold divided views on any number of issues, are taking a unified position about the importance of finding and supporting great educators,” said Frederick Brown, president and CEO of Learning Forward. “Parents should also know that professional learning is a powerful and proven strategy for support and for addressing educator shortages and attrition,” he said.
Brown said that policies and practices designed to elevate the teaching profession are paramount and long overdue. “Competitive pay certainly plays into attracting bright talent into the field and keeping educators in the profession, but it’s not the whole answer,” he said. “Teachers who have on-the-job opportunities to collaborate with peers, meet with an instructional coach or mentor, and hone their craft are more likely to stay.” Ensuring high-quality professional learning is available to all educators needs to be a central policy discussion about elevating teachers, Brown said.
Brown said educator learning that is relevant to what’s happening in teachers’ classrooms and tied to their career ladder are part of what defines the modern paradigm of quality professional learning that leads to improved student outcomes. “The old PD mindset is giving way to a dynamic model of learning where teachers focus on curriculum, best practices, and strategies to ensure every student succeeds,” he said.
One recent study found that, on average, teachers with no professional learning in a school year showed only a 60% chance of retention, while teachers with over 20 hours of professional learning demonstrated an 85% chance of staying in the profession. Another study found that early-career teachers of color are almost four times more likely to continue teaching when they have access to high-quality professional learning through coaching and mentoring than teachers who do not.
In Missouri, where state education leaders use their federal Title IIA grant dollars for systemwide principal and teacher professional learning programs, the retention of teachers who completed the state’s Beginning Teacher Assistance Programs was 89% compared to the state average of 75% for the same school year, according to recent impact data published by the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
The 2024 PDK poll also found that support for an increased federal focus on the items named as educational priorities is accompanied by support for greater funding for education in general. Sixty-one percent of Americans (rising to 71% of public school parents) prefer a candidate for political office who favors increased funding for the public schools.
Brown was recently elected board chair of Learning First Alliance, an alliance of associations advancing trust, investment, and equity in public education for each and every learner. Learning Forward and PDK are member organizations.
