What Teachers Want the Public to Know

Bullying is more prevalent in middle schools. Thirty-four percent of teachers at this level call bullying a major problem, compared to 21 percent of high school teachers and 13 percent of elementary school teachers.

Cellphones (and other Distractions) Are a Big Problem

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, roughly two-thirds of U.S. schools prohibit cellphones at school for non-academic use. Judging by the responses in the Pew teacher survey, however, those restrictions are not working, particularly in high schools.

According to the Pew survey, 72 percent of high school teachers report cellphones are a major distraction in the classroom (less so for middle and elementary teachers)-even when there are cellphone restrictions in place. But are they easy to enforce? Of the 7 in 10 high school teachers whose schools have some sort of cellphone restriction in place, 60 percent said the policy was difficult to enforce.

"We work extremely hard in an ever increasingly difficult situation. The number of students who come in with trauma has skyrocketed, but the resources haven't matched the need." - High School Teacher, Pew Research Center Survey

Although cellphone use poses less of a challenge for them, elementary and middle school teachers are more likely than their high school counterparts to have to cope with a different obstacle to classroom management: students' tendency to get up and walk around-a problem reported by almost one-quarter of elementary and middle school teachers, compared to 16 percent of high school teachers.

According to the Pew survey, disrespect is also more prevalent in those grade levels. Twenty-three percent of elementary school teachers and 27 percent of middle school teachers say students being disrespectful toward them is a major problem, compared to only 14 percent of high school teachers.

Overall, about two-thirds of teachers report that discipline policies at their school are "mild or somewhat mild."

The Bottom Line

When asked about what parts of their job they find most satisfying, teachers overwhelmingly chose their relationship with their fellow educators. A little more than half said they were very satisfied with their relationship with administrators.

Not surprisingly, their pay was rated least satisfying, with only 15 percent saying they are very or extremely satisfied with their salaries. (Learn more about the educator pay gap and how to build collective action for better pay)

Less than half of teachers were very satisfied with the resources provided for them to do their jobs, their relationships with parents and the available opportunities to develop their professional skills.

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