Greg Toppo

USATODAY

They may be smiling, America, but your public school teachers are a frustrated bunch.

About six in 10 are losing enthusiasm for the job, and just as many say they spend too much time prepping students for state-mandated tests. Nearly half say they’d quit teaching now if they could find a higher-paying job.

The grim findings come from a wide-ranging survey of K-12 public school teachers released Thursday by the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy, a centrist think tank. Maria Ferguson, executive director for the center, said the results show teachers are “constantly feeling yanked in a million different directions.”

In all, 3,328 teachers completed the 67-question online survey last fall. Among the findings:

62% of teachers say they spend too much time prepping students for state-mandated tests.

81% of teachers say students spend too much time taking those tests.

60% of teachers say they “don’t seem to have as much enthusiasm now” as when they started teaching.

While 64% say they like their school and are part of “a satisfied group” of teachers, 49% say the stress and disappointments “aren’t really worth it.” And 49% also say they’d leave teaching “as soon as possible” if they could find a higher-paying job.

Some even share similar feelings as their students: 42% of teachers agreed with the statement “I think about staying home from school because I am just too tired to go.”

Frustration with standardized testing apparently goes all the way to the top. In her application to become the 2016 National Teacher of the Year, Jahana Hayes, a Waterbury, Conn., high school history teacher honored Tuesday by President Obama at the White House, said keeping schools accountable through tests is important. But students “should be able to articulate what they have learned in innovative and creative ways” such as performance tasks and portfolios, she added.

“Every day I see students who are increasingly frustrated because they are excellent students who are productive and active in the school community, yet this may not translate in their standardized test scores,” she wrote.

Hayes added, “The push for accountability measures forces teachers to focus on teaching to tests and often overlooks the various contributions students and teachers are making in society.”

Recently appointed U.S. Education Secretary John King said in recent speeches that No Child Left Behind, the federal education law aimed at improving students’ math and reading skills, has robbed kids of a full, rich, well-rounded education in many instances.

“I think we have to acknowledge that at times, particularly over the last few years, the conversation about English and math, and closing the gaps in English and math, has led some to make the mistaken conclusion that what we need to do to close those gaps is to do less science, less social studies, less of the arts, socio-emotional learning, less time on world languages — and that’s exactly backwards,” he said last week.

Students with strong experiences in the arts, King said, “are going to do better as readers. They’re going to do better in math, they’re going to do better across the disciplines.”

Ferguson said teachers in the survey “were very clear about the things they were vexed by,” including poor leadership, not enough time to teach all the content that’s required — and too much testing.

At the same time, she said, most teachers understand the importance of higher standards and are “very enthusiastic about them.” In fact, she said, many teachers don’t think their schools are emphasizing those standards enough.

“They’re clearly frustrated and they’re clearly feeling overwrought and asked to do a lot,” Ferguson said. “But they’re doing what they always do: They’re putting their head down and moving forward.”

The survey results are available on the Center on Education Policy's website.

Follow Greg Toppo on Twitter: @gtoppo