Last week, Public Agenda and Learning Point Associates released the results of a study they conducted of 890 public school teachers. The study was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Joyce Foundation. Among other things, Public Agenda wanted to find out why teachers enter the field, their thoughts on the pros and cons of teaching, and the teachers’ future plans.

Teaching for a living: How teachers see the profession today, identifies three groups of teachers: The idealists (23 percent of the sample), the contented (37 percent of the sample), and the disheartened (40 percent of the sample) and describe the characteristics of teachers in each group.

As we’ve heard time and again, and the survey found, those most disheartened with teaching work in low-income schools, view teaching as overly demanding, and cite lack of administrative suppport as a major drawback to teaching.

At the Center, we wanted to know what makes teachers satisfied. Our Wanted: Good teachers looks at the current research on teachers and offers some things districts can do to recruit the best teachers and keep them. –Pamela Karwasinski