Despite the omnipresence of standards, just 42 percent of teachers say they receive most of the guidance about what they should teach from state standards. Fewer than half of teachers say they have increased expectations of students as a result of standards. It's common sense to expect teachers to have a special perspective when their school systems set higher standards to improve student achievement. Public Agenda has learned that teachers consistently say public schools already do a better job than most people think. Almost seven in 10 strongly believe that public school teachers are doing as good a job as they can given lack of parental involvement, compared with just 38 percent of parents who say this.
Teachers are more skeptical than other groups about many proposals connected to standards reform.
Teachers also are less likely than parents, employers or professors to strongly agree that high-stakes testing makes teachers and students more accountable. According to other research Public Agenda has completed, teachers are far more likely to focus on other measures to reduce class size, increase resources, promote stronger parental involvement, and encourage better student motivation and behavior as the best ways to foster higher achievement. Reality Check 2000 from Public Agenda.