Join the conversation

Members of Generation Y made up nearly 1 out of every 5 classroom teachers in America in 2008 - a proportion that more than doubled since 2004.  As Baby Boomers retire, this proportion will only grow. And, contrary to popular concerns that Gen Yers will have multiple careers over their lifetime, surveys have shown that 56% of these teachers want to make it a lifelong career, while most of the rest want to stay in the education field.

Given their increasing importance in the education workforce, and in an era of uncertainty in education, with everything from class size to collective bargaining rights and teacher evaluation up for debate, it only makes sense we examine Gen Yers thoughts on the teaching profession. And in a recent report, that is just what the American Institutes of Research and the American Federation of Teachers did.

In an analytic review of 11 nationally representative teacher surveys, seven focus groups with Gen Y teachers, and three case studies of local AFT affiliates, they uncovered five themes of Gen Y teachers beliefs:

• They desire more frequent feedback than do their more veteran colleagues - feedback that is ongoing, not simply an end-of-the-year type summative evaluation.
• While there are not significant generational differences in how teachers experience existing collaboration opportunities, Gen Y teachers tend to be more open to shared practice than their more experienced colleagues.
• While Gen Y teachers are more likely to desire differentiation in rewards (and sanctions) among teachers based on performance and effort, they are less likely to be in favor of that differentiation being based on student learning, particularly if "student learning" is measured by students' standardized achievement scores.
• They want to be evaluated, but tend to be very concerned about the validity and equity of those evaluations.
• They are enthusiastic about technology, though they expect more than what schools can deliver.

A couple thoughts on this: First, the generational differences are less than I would have expected - and in some instances (for example, in terms of measuring student learning based on standardized assessments) actually the opposite of what the media would lead us to believe. And second, if we want to increase the quality of the Gen Yers entering our classrooms, we actually have to use what we have learned here in making policy decisions. But as it stands now, many state and federal policy proposals (such as a teacher evaluation system proposed by state senators in Florida) actually oppose what young teachers want. As a nation, we need to start asking ourselves hard questions about whether ignoring the desires of teachers - particularly the teachers of tomorrow - will get us where we want to go.