This week’s release of the MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Teachers, Parents, and the Economy illustrates just how fear-plagued our schools have become. The whole report is worth reading, but check out this data (interspersed with my commentary):

In the past five years the number of teachers who feel their jobs are secure dropped from 92% to 64%. I guess accountability hawks would welcome this decline— they want teachers to sweat from year to year over whether their test scores have shown enough value added. I see it as a surge of fear, pushing more and more potentially strong teachers out of the profession.

29% of teachers report being fairly likely or very likely to leave the teaching profession within the next five years to go into a different occupation. That’s up from 17%, nearly doubling the number from just two years ago. When you add the retiring baby boomers to that number, we find ourselves facing unprecedented turnover. Recruiting, training, and supporting strong teachers who stay in the profession must be a priority. But what type of profession will they be entering?

Only 44% of teachers report being very satisfied with their jobs— a fifteen-point drop since 2009 and the lowest in over 20 years. The economic downtown has injected significant stress into an already-struggling school system.

72% of parents and 65% of students worry about their family not having enough money for the things they need. Over 60% of parents worry about losing or not being able to find a job. Interestingly, there is a startling information gap between parents and teachers. 76% of teachers report decreases in their schools’ budgets in the past year. However, only 35% of parents thought their child’s school budget decreased; 32% didn’t know. The report goes further: “Lower income parents are particularly unsure— nearly half (47%) whose household income is less than $50,000 [did not know].”

66% of teachers report that their school has had layoffs in the past year. Layoffs are everywhere, ripping away much-needed teachers and poisoning the atmosphere. The toxic “last in, first out” debates breed generational bitterness in an era when teachers need to unify.

Pessimism and worry are pervasive in American schools. Contending with elimination of services, suffocating poverty, more layoffs, larger classes, and an accountability regime at odds with genuine teaching and learning, America’s teachers are freaked out.

Teaching can often feel like a lonely job, but there are nearly 4 million of us in the U.S. plugging away at it everyday.

Having trouble getting your first-graders to transition from recess to class? Want some tips on how to teach the concept of density of middle-schoolers? There are many thousands of other people dealing with the same thing. Teacher need to connect with each other and the technology exists to do it.

Teacher Wall, backed by the Gates Foundation, is it. The press release describes it:

The Teacher Wall is a virtual town hall that gives teachers an opportunity to talk about the things that are most important to them--from challenges to "A-ha! moments," from lessons learned to job satisfaction, from curriculum to parent engagement. The topics tackled on the Teacher Wall showcase a wide range of voices and provide teachers with a chance to interact and share with one another, all while adding to the conversation on America's schools.

Hooray! One of the first features on Teacher Wall is a section asking teachers to describe successes they’ve achieved. At the Center for Teaching Quality retreat, I offered my two cents for Teacher Wall.

Maybe throwing this video out into cyberspace will help me connect with other AP Lit teachers. Or other teacher-writers. Who knows? Teachers are not facing challenges or earning their successes alone. This virtual resource will enrich students’ education by connecting teachers to one another. This is exciting stuff.

Here is the recipe of high-impact levers for how to help students become first-generation college grads:

1. Academic Rigor & Curriculum (Can they hang in there in their classes?)
2. Social Skills (Do they have grit, self-discipline, tenacity, relationship-building, bureaucracy-navigating, networking, etc. skills?)
3. College Matching (Are they pursuing and picking a school that is right from them?)
4. Financial Aid (Can they pay for it all the way to graduation?)

FSG Social Impact Advisors developed this list and it makes sense. Commencement was last week and soon my former 12th-graders will scatter across the country as eager-eyed college freshmen. I can’t stop thinking nervously about whether they have these four tentpoles in place.

The data is terrifying. In 2006, a blockbuster report on Washington, D.C. students revealed:

• 9 percent of D.C. high school freshmen graduate college within 5 years of graduating high school (compared to 23 percent nationally)
• In Wards 7 and 8, only 5 percent of high school freshmen finish college within 5 years of graduating high school— and most of those are girls.

My school delivers numbers far above these horrendous averages, but we’re still nowhere near satisfied with many kids not finishing college. These stats were called to mind when I read Rick Hess’s interview with Richard Barth, CEO and President of the KIPP Foundation.

KIPP recently released a report stating: “As of March 2011, 33 percent of students who completed a KIPP middle school ten or more years ago have graduated from a four-year college… KIPP’s college completion rate is four times the rate of comparable students from low-income communities across the country.”

Hess asked Barth how to raise those numbers. Barth’s response echoes the findings I listed above:

“The number one thing is academic rigor. We've committed to going kindergarten through twelfth grade in KIPP schools across the country. The original cohorts that we just [reported upon] only got fifth through eighth grade. So [we're going to] start with our kids earlier and stay with them longer. The second thing is we've got to do a much better job of finding the right match when it comes to college. We are sending too many of our kids off to campuses that have low graduation rates. We know that even at each level of selectivity, there are schools that have a much higher graduation rate than others. So we're convinced that one of the simplest and clearest things we can do is to form partnerships with colleges that are doing a better job of not just taking kids, but seeing that they finish. We also think we can do a better job of making sure our KIPPsters are better aware of the financial costs of college and are preparing for that.”

Barth is right. FSG is right. These four areas are where K-12 must focus.

Michael Bloomberg should not have changed the rules and run for a third term as mayor of New York. But he did and in his arrogance, he appointed a corporate crony with no experience in public education (as a student, parent, educator, or leader) to lead the country's largest public school system.

Fiasco. Cathie Black stepped down today. Students and their families in New York are the real losers for this vacuum of leadership. Here's my fake interview with Black, created when Bloomberg gave her the job. The video takes on a new dimension now that it's clear that this whole episode was a foreseeable disaster, not "superstar management."