Survey: Teachers' happiness varies widely

In Triangle, schools with very dissatisfied teachers get new principals

Your children may be eager to return to school on Monday, but their teachers might not be so excited to be back in the classroom. A recent survey shows that teachers at some schools in the Triangle and across the state are strongly dissatisfied with their working conditions. Rather than running the risk that this unhappiness could drag down student performance, district administrators removed the principals at some schools with poor ratings over the summer.

"My experience is there tends to be a correlation between positive ratings and academic achievement," said Chapel Hill-Carrboro Superintendent Neil Pedersen. Student performance usually lags, Pedersen said, at schools where significant numbers of teachers surveyed cite an atmosphere lacking in trust and mutual respect.

This spring more than 104,000 North Carolina public schoolteachers took an anonymous survey about the working conditions at their schools. The biennial survey, begun in 2002 by Gov. Mike Easley, is credited with helping shape education policy.

"This is something that I take very seriously," said Wake County Superintendent Del Burns. "It's a very important piece of data that reflects the school."

The survey shows that a majority of teachers in the Triangle and statewide like working in their schools and think they're good places for students to learn.

The survey asks teachers for their opinions on a variety of school issues, including the effectiveness of the school leadership, teachers' involvement in decisions, the learning environment of the school and whether teachers have the supplies they need.

In a district as big as Wake, the survey is a tool administrators use to keep track of teachers' morale and spot schools that may have problems, said David Holdzkom, the district's assistant superintendent for evaluation and research. With 139,000 students expected this fall, Wake is the state's largest school district.

"You no longer have to make an inference on what someone meant," he said "-- you know because they told you."

Beginning this school year, principals will be evaluated statewide on how they use the survey data to improve their school.

But several principals whose schools had low ratings on the surveys were removed. School district officials say they can't say why the changes were made, citing personnel rules, but they acknowledge that the surveys can be a factor in a principal's departure.

At West Millbrook Middle School in North Raleigh, teachers have had two principals in three years, not including A.J. Muttillo, who was hired in June. In the survey, the teachers there reported a 62 percent rate of dissatisfaction with the school's leadership.

Paula Robertson Holley, a healthful-living teacher who has taught at West Millbrook for more than 25 years, said many teachers left the school and families opted for private or charter schools.

"I think the teacher survey was on task," she said. "Things have not been peachy."

But Holley said she's "looking forward to a real good year."

Melda Smith, the former principal of West Millbrook, could not be reached for comment.

Making a new start

At York Elementary School in North Raleigh, Ed Gainor was asked in July to step in as interim principal. He took over a school where only 38 percent of the teachers said it was a good place to teach and learn.

Gainor said he has tried to improve communications with teachers, addressing a complaint cited in the survey. Diane Camardella, who went from being principal of York to being an assistant principal at West Lake Elementary, did not answer requests for comment.