CUBE Report on Schools "Where We Teach": And we don't mean "Ice Cube"

Many teachers see failure in students' future

More teachers than administrators agree or strongly agree with the statement:

"Most students at this school would not be successful at a community college or university."

Strongly disagree/disagree
• Teachers: 58.1%
• Administrators: 85.2%

Agree/strongly agree
• Teachers: 23.6%
• Administrators: 7%

Not sure
• Teachers: 18.4%
• Administrators: 7.4%

Source: National School Boards Association

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

Ask a teacher whether her students are on track to earn a college degree, and she'll probably say "Sure."

Grant her anonymity, and you may get a different point of view.

In a wide-ranging survey being released Tuesday, nearly one in four teachers in urban schools paint a sobering picture of students there. They say most children "would not be successful at a community college or university."

Even more say students "are not motivated to learn."

In all, 23.6% of public school teachers at all levels say success in college would elude most students in their school. An additional 18% say they aren't sure.

The results were surprising even to the study's author, Brian Perkins, a professor of education law and policy at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Conn.

"I anticipated that there would be some teachers who feel that way," he says. "What I did not anticipate was the number who responded that they didn't think students would be successful."

White teachers seem to have the bleakest view: 24.5% predict failure in college, higher than among black (22.1%) or Hispanic (17.6%) teachers.

Administrators paint a rosier picture: Only 7% predict the same for their students. But 15.6% say their students "are not motivated to learn."

Part of the problem could be a perceived lack of support from parents: 57% of teachers say parents "are supportive" of the school and its activities; 28% say parents aren't supportive.

John Mitchell, director of educational issues for the American Federation of Teachers, says the findings could be largely the result of events that happened in the day or so before the survey.

"You go through a lot in a day, and you have days when you feel optimistic and days when you don't," he says.

But he says the results shouldn't be considered "a statement of (teachers') aspirations for the kids — it may very well be a statement that these kids aren't getting enough to make it through college."

Other findings:

•One in eight teachers say their school is not a safe place.

•65.8% of black administrators say children are bullied regularly at their school; only 49.3% of white administrators and 29.7% of Hispanic administrators say the same.

The survey on school climate is among the largest teacher surveys ever. Sponsored by the National School Boards Association, it queried 4,700 educators from 127 schools in 12 urban districts. It has a margin of error of plus/minus 3 percentage points.

To see the full survey, visit www.nsba.org/cube/whereweteach.