FINDINGS

Public Agenda’s survey finds that most teachers and parents believe that media coverage has a substantial impact on how much communities value teachers, on government policies that affect teachers, on how teachers feel about their jobs, and on how many people pursue teaching careers.

Teachers were quoted in about one-quarter of a random sample of news articles about K-12 education in the United States from 2009 to 2020. Just over half of the articles in the sample mentioned teachers, and fewer discussed them in depth, with only about one in five articles mentioning teachers in two or more paragraphs. National newspapers quoted teachers most often in articles about teacher hiring, pay, and labor actions. Local newspapers quoted them most often in articles about teaching, learning, and teacher training. Newspapers rarely quoted teachers in coverage of evaluation of students, teachers, or schools and hardly ever quoted them in articles about school budgets and budgeting.

From 2009 to 2020, the topic that national and local newspapers most often covered was the impact of non-academic factors on learning. Non-academic factors include poverty and other issues in students’ families and communities, as well as enrollment, school closures, and access to education. Yet relatively few articles about non-academic factors quoted a teacher. And few of the articles that mentioned teachers portrayed them engaging with these issues. Local and national newspapers covered human resource management related to non-teaching positions—such as electing or hiring school board members, superintendents, and principals—more often than they covered teacher hiring, pay, and labor actions.

Evaluation dominated national newspapers’ coverage of K-12 education in 2010, 2011, and 2014. But by 2016, national newspapers’ coverage of teaching, learning, and teacher training outpaced coverage of evaluation. National newspapers also began to mention and quote teachers somewhat more often starting in 2015. From 2009 to 2020, local newspapers fluctuated less than national newspapers in the topics they covered and how often they quoted and mentioned teachers.

Just over half of articles about education in national and local newspapers mentioned teachers. In both national and local newspaper articles that mentioned them, teachers were most often portrayed engaging in the work of teaching. In national newspaper articles that mentioned them, the second most common portrayal was of teachers being evaluated and the third most common portrayal was of teachers needing or negotiating for more salary or benefits. In local newspaper articles that mentioned teachers, the second most common portrayal was of teachers developing their professional skills and the third most common portrayal was of teachers involved in sports or other extracurriculars.

From 2010 to 2015, national newspaper articles that mentioned teachers frequently portrayed them as being evaluated. But starting in 2016, national portrayals of teacher evaluation declined. By 2017, very few national newspaper articles mentioning teachers depicted them being evaluated, while more showed them engaged in professional development or training. Depictions of teachers participating in labor actions and needing or negotiating for higher salaries were more common in 2018, during strikes and walkouts in several states. Between 2009 and 2020, depictions of teachers fluctuated less in local newspapers than in national newspapers.

In 2020, national newspaper articles that mentioned teachers depicted them engaged in teaching, both online and in person, far more often than in previous years. Compared to previous years, national newspapers in 2020 also more often portrayed teachers dealing with student poverty and behavioral factors that affect learning and portrayed them dealing with administrative decisions that negatively impact students. Portrayals of teachers needing or negotiating for higher salaries declined in national newspapers. Compared to national newspapers, local newspapers’ portrayals of teachers saw relatively little change from non-pandemic coverage through the first year of the pandemic.

Very few national or local newspapers depicted teacher shortages, teachers lacking classroom resources, or a lack of diversity in the profession. Yet most teachers think it is very important for newspapers to cover these issues.

From 2009 to 2020, few local or national newspaper articles that mentioned teachers portrayed them as accused of or engaged in illegal activities such as sexual misconduct, violence, drug use, cheating on evaluations, or financial misconduct. But those portrayals spiked modestly in 2012 and 2016 in national newspapers and in 2013 and 2016 in local newspapers.

Two-thirds of K-12 public school teachers think it is very important for the news media to cover how student poverty and behavioral problems affect teaching and learning. While this was the most commonly covered topic in both national and local newspapers, those articles rarely included teachers’ voices. Only one-third of teachers think it is very important for the news media to cover how schools decide whether teachers are effectively helping students learn, yet this topic was the second most frequently covered topic in national newspapers.