Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 21, 1995 TAG: 9506210109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
More than half of Roanoke's teachers say they don't have enough time in their daily schedules to prepare for classes. Many complain that teaching supplies and equipment are not always available in adequate supply.
Some believe that building facilities sometimes are inadequate to support the instructional program. And some are dissatisfied with the way discipline problems are handled by other teachers.
The faculty workload is not always divided fairly, some say.
Many believe that the status of teachers as a profession in the community is low, according to a recent survey of teachers' opinions.
Yet despite the problems cited, the teachers exhibit a high degree of job satisfaction.
What emerges is a picture of teachers who generally are satisfied with conditions in schools but who have concerns about specific issues.
Eighty percent agreed with the statement, "All things considered, I am satisfied with being a teacher."
Seventy-four percent agreed with the statement, "For the most part, I am satisfied with our school."
In the survey, the teachers had the opportunity to indicate a degree of agreement or disagreement with 67 statements in seven categories, including administration, instruction, school-community relations and job satisfaction.
Eighty-eight percent of Roanoke's 1,050 teachers responded to the survey, which was ordered by the School Board to help determine teachers' morale and attitudes.
The surveys were scored independently by the National Study of School Evaluation in Schaumberg, Ill., and the results were returned to the city.
Superintendent Wayne Harris said he is concerned that some teachers feel they lack the time to prepare for classes and don't have adequate materials. He said he also is troubled that some teachers feel that discipline problems are not handled consistently by other teachers.
Harris said he will take up the discipline and materials issues with school principals. "We need to work on those things," he said.
Harris said he particularly sympathizes with elementary teachers' complaints that they don't have enough planning time. Middle- and high school teachers have planning time in their daily schedules, he said, but not elementary teachers.
He said the problem cannot be solved easily. It would require more money to pay teachers to work a longer day, he said.
Harris said he felt good about the results showing that most teachers feel comfortable talking with their principals about concerns.
About 80 percent of teachers said they could talk with their principal with relative ease. About the same said the principal is open and fair when dealing with teachers.
"We keep hearing that people are afraid to speak up because they are concerned about what might happen to them," Harris said.
The results showed no pervasive fear among teachers of talking with their principals, Harris said. But he still is concerned - even if there are only a few.
Results were provided for each school, but Harris would not release the data by school, because he said that would identify principals and complaints about them. It could hamper principals' efforts to address the issues, he said.
Harris will meet with each principal to discuss the findings and develop a plan for addressing problems.
Gary Waldo, executive director of the Roanoke Education Association, believes individual schools' results should be released, but said he was willing to trust the School Board's handling of the issue.
"If there are serious and long-standing problems at certain schools, I think the public ought to know," Waldo said. "I don't want anyone ruined professionally, but I would prefer the details to be released."
Nelson Harris, chairman of the School Board, said he does not see a need for the individual school results to be released.
"We can't micromanage the school system, and the gist of the survey was to give us an overall perspective of opinions and conditions," he said.
The chairman said the findings that some teachers believe that teaching materials and building facilities are inadequate will be helpful as the board considers budget requests.
Nelson Harris said the survey showed that a majority of teachers feel they are regularly involved in curriculum development and have freedom in the selection of teaching materials.
He said most believe that the total educational program offered to students is of high quality and that the school's spending priorities are appropriate.
by CNB