The Nation - News from Sept. 11, 1988

Except for choosing texts and shaping the curriculum, most teachers feel left out of critical decisions affecting classroom life, according to a nationwide poll. Ten percent or fewer of 21,698 public school teachers surveyed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching felt they had any say in issues like teacher evaluation or selection of new teachers and administrators. Just 20% believed they were influential in tailoring school budgets. “The report endorses what I have often said--that teachers are treated like very tall children instead of professionals,” said Mary Hatwood Futrell, president of the National Education Assn., the nation’s largest teacher union.