NWPE Survey of Washington State Educators

Click Here for 2003 NWPE Survey

Update: 2004 WASL Survey Report to Washington State Senate

Many organizations give position statements without actually knowing what their constituents believe on important issues. Northwest Professional Educators (NWPE) is dedicated to determining educators’ actual views on important issues and sharing this information with policy makers.

The statewide survey of NWPE members yielded a response rate of 32%. Forty seven educators who are not members of NWPE also responded to the survey providing the views of 107 educators in total. Responses for educators who are not members of NWPE were calculated in the figures for “all” respondents.

This report covers four major areas: Education Reform, Education Funding, Legislative/Policy Issues, and Current Concerns of Educators.

EDUCATION REFORM: Educators were surveyed on their views of the effectiveness of Washington’s current education reform process. This reform agenda was initiated in 1992 and established Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs) and the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL). Some notable results indicate that:

67% believe that the WASL distracts from classroom instruction;
75% believe that the WASL has caused a narrowing of curriculum to students’ detriment;
72% believe that EALRs and the WASL have impeded teacher authority to make routine decisions on classroom management and instructional methods;
31% are aware of ethical violations in WASL administration,
69% believe that the expenditure of state funds on the education reform agenda tied to the WASL has not been an efficient and effective use of state education dollars for raising student achievement;
46% believe teachers’ working conditions have deteriorated since the implementation of the education reform system; and
77% believe the WASL should be discontinued in favor of an effective but less costly student assessment and accountability system that includes multiple measures such as locally chosen assessment tools and standardized tests such as the ITBS, NAEP as a sampling to determine program strengths, etc.

NWPE calls on legislators and education policy makers to consider these results, analyze other sources of information, and determine whether the original intentions of Washington’s education reform agenda are being realized. If not, we call for an appropriate course correction as soon as possible for the sake of our students, our profession, and the state’s tenuous economic situation.

EDUCATION FUNDING:

65% oppose instituting a state income tax;
55% oppose temporary tax increases and/or “sin” tax to maintain education funding;
55% support cutting other programs and/or raising taxes to fully fund teachers’ COLAs; and
64% support cutting other programs and/or raising taxes to fully fund class size initiative.

LEGISLATIVE/POLICY: Some issues with significant interest among educators revealed:

73% believe unfunded mandates should be considered “not mandatory;”
58% believe teacher strikes should be prohibited (70% among NWPE members); and
57% support HB 1194 requiring teaching the relationship of the Declaration of Independence to the state and federal constitutions (65% among NWPE members).

Additional issues such as charter schools, retire/rehire policy, and flexible compensation packages to attract and retain high quality teachers were surveyed. These are reported on later in this document.

EDUCATOR CONCERNS: The percentage of respondents who indicated moderate to high concern with the issues listed is detailed below:

89% Class Size
87% Discipline
86% Pay
83% Benefits
82% Teacher quality
78% Teacher authority to make routine classroom decisions for students
69% Religious or political intolerance in schools
69% High turnover of new teachers
67% Paperwork
63% Availability of high quality teacher coursework
61% Supplies
60% Reliability of union support for all bargaining unit members

The above results reveal that in addition to their concerns with pay and benefits, educators have serious concerns with teacher quality and working conditions. Teachers do not feel empowered as professionals and often work in environments of religious and political hostility. In addition, despite the fact that educators pay mandatory fees for collective bargaining, they do not trust that they will receive nondiscriminatory union representation. All of these factors must be considered and improved if Washington State expects to attract and retain high, quality, committed education professionals.

Please see the following pages for details on the views of educators on numerous education issues such as charter schools, teacher strikes, performance pay, and more.

EDUCATION REFORM