This week, Educators for Excellence released their 2020 Teacher Survey and I was thrilled to see how they featured the breakout of charter school teacher responses this year. Scroll down for my top five takeaways from this year’s report!
Charter school teachers feel more valued.
The poll found that charter school teachers are 22 percentage points more likely to say they feel “very valued”—that’s incredible! Need some ideas for how to better support the teachers are your school? Last year we shared the best practices on building an effective staff from three successful charter school leaders.
Charter school teachers are well-trained.
Charter school teachers were more likely to report that they received training in areas including engaging parents, supporting students social and emotional well-being, understanding policy issues, and delivering culturally responsive instruction. (By the way, we love offering these types of professional development opportunities at the National Charter Schools Conference, so if you’re looking to add some skills I hope you’ll join us in Orlando!)
Charter school teachers are prepared for the classroom.
I love reading stories about innovative teacher training programs that involve time in actual classrooms (like this program at IDEA Public Schools) so I was happy to see 37 percent of charter school teachers report that they felt their preparation programs trained them “very well” for the realities of the classroom (compared to only 9% of district teachers).
Charter school teachers are active in selecting curricula.
One of the most compelling charter school teacher stories I’ve heard was from a teacher who described how she was able to make decisions about her students’ reading materials AFTER she met her students for the year. So I wasn’t surprised to hear that charter school teachers reported they played an active role in choosing the curricula for their classrooms. If you’re looking for good options, several charter networks have started to share their curricula!
All teachers support school choice.
Nearly all of the teachers surveyed—96 percent!—support some form of school choice. A majority of the teachers surveyed, both district and charter, support school choice when it embodies many of the qualities of charter schools: equally accessible to all students, doesn’t shift funds from public schools, doesn’t discriminate against students, and increases academic achievement for low-income students.
With so many charter schools offering a great work environment for teachers, it’s no surprise that our Charter School Job Board is one of our most popular web pages. If you want to join the charter teachers who reported feeling valued, prepared, and engaged, I encourage you to check out some of the job postings!
Kim McCabe is the senior director of communications at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
