Teachers' Toughest Test? Student Apathy, They Say -- Class Size, Social Ills Also Mentioned

Copyright 1996, Seattle Times Co.

Student apathy is the biggest problem facing public and private high-school teachers, according to a Seattle Times survey of area teachers.

Social problems that intrude in the classroom - everything from substance abuse to homelessness - and large class sizes round out the top three obstacles confronting teachers, they said.

As part of an effort to gauge teacher satisfaction with their schools, The Seattle Times sent surveys to 4,219 teachers at every high school in King County, on Bainbridge Island and in most of Snohomish County last spring. About 27 percent returned the survey.

Teachers were asked to rank nine issues that might interfere with their teaching. Lack of student motivation topped the list, whether they teach in public or private schools, suburban or urban schools.

"This is definitely the age of the 30-second attention span. Students shy away from anything requiring prolonged, deliberate analysis," said Patti Williams, an English teacher at John F. Kennedy Memorial High School, a Catholic school in Burien.

Williams, who also coaches the debate team, said recruiting for the team has become discouragingly difficult. "You can point out all the advantages until you're blue in the face . . ., but 98 percent of kids say it's too much work."

Among public-school teachers in Seattle, social issues and disruptive student behavior came in second and third place,

respectively. Among suburban public-school teachers, class size was their No. 2 issue followed by social issues and student behavior.

K.K. Kittler, a Redmond High School teacher with 20 years' experience, usually has 32 students in his U.S. history and American government classes. "If you want to improve education, just make class sizes smaller. It's that simple. . . . All the research shows that. Thirty-two kids in a class is just not as good an educational setting as if you have 22 kids in a class."

But even small classes can be a problem if they have too many troubled students, teachers say. Gil Comeau, a Mountlake Terrace High School science teacher, said it seems very little can be done to get rid of "kids who are jerks," perhaps because they represent state dollars for the school district.

"Ask any teacher; there are kids which from the first day work to destroy a class. They wreck the class for the other 30 kids," he wrote. "These kids in question usually don't last in class or graduate anyway, but while they are there, they exert a serious corrosive influence on others."

In the junior and senior honors classes that Comeau teaches, student behavior is rarely an issue. But in freshman science classes, Comeau said he may spend as much as 40 percent of his time on 10 percent of his students.

Among private-school teachers, social issues and disruptive behavior ranked Nos. 2 and 3, but teachers ranked poor pay - No. 5 compared with No. 8 for public-school teachers.

For all teachers, lack of training and professional development was at the bottom of their list of concerns.

Teachers also were asked to name other issues they faced that weren't included on The Times' list. The biggest: lack of state funding and resources for the classroom, lack of planning time and poor student attendance.

Many teachers added written comments about other concerns:

-- "A national culture that doesn't value academic excellence as it should." (Eastlake High School, Redmond)

-- "Fix lack of parents, and you fix the rest." (Enumclaw High School)

-- "Having to beg (through school levies) for basic tools of education." (Thomas Jefferson High School, Federal Way)

-- "I am a good teacher, but am so overburdened by demands from every direction I'm considering leaving the profession." (Cascade High School, Everett)

-- "Quality of the facility. What does a room that was last painted in '67 say about how school matters?" (Roosevelt High School, Seattle)

-- "Where will our future teachers come from? Is it an attractive career for our best and brightest?" (Auburn High School)

In grading their own schools, 30 percent gave their schools an A; 51 percent gave their schools a B; 13.5 percent a C; and 3 percent a D or F.

Teachers also were asked to indicate whether student alcohol and drug use, behavior and school safety were issues of concern:

-- 75 percent said alcohol use was a serious or moderate problem. But only 35 percent of private-school teachers considered it a serious or moderate problem, while 81 percent of public-school teachers did so.

-- About half said illegal drug use was a moderate problem, while 16 percent called it a serious problem. Twenty-two percent of the private-school teachers called it a moderate problem, compared with 57 percent of the public-school teachers.

-- 38 percent said disruptive behavior was a moderate problem, while 44 percent called it a minor problem. For 80 percent of the private-school teachers, behavior was a minor problem or no problem. In public schools, 43 percent of teachers said it was a minor problem and 7 percent said it was not a problem.

-- About half of all teachers strongly agreed with the statement, "Students and staff are physically safe when they are at this school." Among Seattle School District teachers, the figure dropped to 36 percent. Among private-school teachers, 80 percent strongly agreed their schools are safe.

Social issues, student behavior and apathy "are not just classroom problems" and aren't solvable by schools working alone, notes Teresa Moore, assistant executive director of the Washington Education Association, the state's largest teachers union.

"Most parents want to have an active role in the schools . . . but they don't know how or they're frustrated by what they see as a lack of response" when they do approach their schools, she said.

Several years ago, the WEA began offering training for teachers and school districts on how to develop stronger relationships with parents. Hundreds of people have gone through the training, Moore said.

But teachers have little control over class size.

Washington has the third-worst student-teacher ratio in the nation, with 20.3 students per teacher. But that includes special education and other school programs that require smaller ratios than regular classes. The average class size is 26 students compared with a national average of 23.

Moore said it would take $450 million to hire enough teachers to bring class size in line with the national average.

"That's just a huge financial issue. We need to get creative about how to solve that - maybe by putting more paraprofessionals in the classroom," she said.

--------------------- What hampers learning ---------------------

Here's how area public and private high-school teachers ranked nine obstacles to effective teaching that they face in the classroom:

-- 1. Lack of student interest and motivation. -- 2. Students' nonacademic needs (substance abuse, homelessness, family dysfunction, etc.). -- 3. Class size. -- 4. Disruptive student behavior. -- 5. Bureaucracy (central-office demands, paperwork, etc.). -- 6. Lack of parent involvement. -- 7. Teacher burnout. -- 8. Teacher pay. -- 9. Lack of ongoing training and professional development.

Note: 4,219 teachers in 94 high schools in King and Snohomish counties and on Bainbridge Island were asked to rank a list of obstacles to effective teaching from one to nine, with one being the most significant obstacle and nine being the least significant. Some 1,164 teachers returned the anonymous survey. The ranking is based on adding the total number of votes that each obstacle received on the 1-9 scale.