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U.S. teachers lament limited flexibility in the classroom

According to a recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), teacher autonomy is positively associated with teacher retention and job satisfaction.

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Credit: Gabriel Cristóver Pérez

Frequent observations and evaluations of classroom teaching by outsiders — common in U.S. public schools — are rare in Finnish schools, as are the required use of rubrics and curriculum templates that dictate how a student is to be graded and how time should be spent in the classroom. The percentage of U.S. public-school teachers who perceive low autonomy in the classroom grew from 18 percent in the 2003-04 school year to 26 percent in the 2011-12 school year. (The Atlantic)

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