It seems that in some places it's gotten pretty bad. Where Have All The Teachers Gone? : NPR Ed : NPR
Well, since I've never talked to a teacher online or IRL who had anything positive to say about the job (except for one). I would assume that the horrible conditions, crappy parents, stupid kids, crime and violence, administrative hoops, ever changing standards, 60 hour work weeks, no time off, and extremely high out of pocket expenses forced upon them that the career field is at loss for people willing to do it.
Although there are certainly those peripheral areas as you precisely reference—yet, as with most any organization, most importantly consider the leadership quality /inferiority. This is in my experience, the paramount deficiency area that continues the trends ranging from substandard to incompetent all the way to destructive leadership which subsequently embolden the so, so many problems within K-12 public school education within the U.S. I believe that overall leadership inferiority is the principal dynamic toward teacher existing, along with, prospective teachers never entering the profession.
a typo /my bad ... Intended: I believe that overall leadership inferiority is the principal dynamic toward teacher exiting, along with, prospective teachers never entering the profession.
People rate job satisfaction the highest when they feel that they are valued and needed. In my observation, public schools are trending away from the individualism that fosters this type of setting. Teachers are facilitators, individualism is being worked out through the insistence of Common Core or other standardized curriculum initiatives. I've never taught in a K-12, but I spent 18 years teaching for a community college with complete academic freedom. I owned my class, it was mine. I felt valued and needed. From picking my books, to well, anything- however the material got to the students was up to me. I LOVED my job. My job satisfaction was consistently very high. If you'd have taken away my syllabus and handed me a package of canned curriculum, well, that's not teaching to me- that's just being a delivery person, and I can say I wouldn't have done that more than once. So, I don't know, I had students who earned all types of grades; a result that -I think- is being discouraged. So, the question is, why do we think they are trying to increase job satisfaction? I don't think they are. I think admins really believe they can improve schools if they "just get the right curriculum" which after homeschooling for 2 decades, I can tell you is crap. Curriculum is about the least relevant aspect of student success. JMO