Teachers may be starting to feel more optimistic and in control of their professional lives following a decade of unrelenting assault under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to the UFT’s second annual survey of the city’s public school teachers.

Though the numbers as a whole still suggest widespread disenchantment among teachers with the state of the teaching profession, more teachers reported that they were planning to stay in their current schools (49 percent versus 46 percent last year) and fewer had serious thoughts of leaving the profession (63 percent versus 70 percent last year) 10 months after the union and the Department of Education signed a new contract that gave them more voice and support.

“Teaching is difficult to begin with — something people can’t fully understand or appreciate unless they’ve experienced it,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “And it’s growing more difficult because of the disrespect and attacks that teachers are facing, both here in New York and across the country.”

But despite the challenges, he said, New York City has begun to reverse more than a decade of harmful education policies under the Bloomberg administration.

“Mayor de Blasio’s vision and our new contract are starting to take hold,” he said. “No one said it would be easy; we knew it wouldn’t happen overnight. But we are moving our system in the right direction, and that’s something to celebrate.”

The UFT’s comprehensive, random-sample survey of teachers’ work lives and professional views was conducted in April, 15 months after Mayor Bill de Blasio took the reins.

The survey results suggested incremental progress as a result of some of the changes brought about by the contract, such as new standards to reduce paperwork and new time in the workday for professional development and parent outreach.

Professional development

Twenty-one percent of teachers said that their professional development was “very good” or “excellent.” A third (35 percent), however, said the professional development they received was of limited value.

Fifty-eight percent of teachers reported having some say on the professional development offered in their school. The Common Core Learning Standards and student assessment were the topics that most schools focused on, especially as schools had to develop assessment measures for the teacher evaluation system this year. Teachers conducted professional development for colleagues almost as frequently as administrators.

Teachers reported reduced time spent on administrative paperwork across all school levels, and especially in middle schools and K–8 schools, where the burdens have been greatest.

“I spend no time on paperwork at all, but last year it was a big problem,” said Cecille Sanquiche, who teaches pre-K at PS 155 in Brooklyn, one of several teachers who consented to follow-up interviews with the New York Teacher. Last year, Sanquiche said, her administration had required teachers to turn in unit maps, unit plans and even write curriculum. But the new contract put a stop to it. “Now we’ve got a contract and all the teachers got new curriculums,” she said.

Paperwork, however, remains a tough issue for others. Erika Heintz, an ESL teacher at MS 237 in Queens, a school with more than 300 English language learners, estimated that she can spend five or more hours a week on administrative paperwork depending on the time of year.

“We do ELL compliance and that is a huge undertaking,” she said, involving interview forms, compliance forms and many photocopies. Plus, she said, there are language application policy reports and regular updates. “The whole process needs to be streamlined,” Heintz said.

In terms of the new teacher evaluation system, this year more than half of the teachers, 54 percent, said they agreed or strongly agreed that their principal offers helpful feedback in evaluations that enables them to improve instruction. Eighteen percent strongly disagreed. Last year, only 47 percent of teachers felt they got useful feedback from principals and 19 percent strongly disagreed.

“I think observations are a great way to evaluate, but you have to have time,” said Ryan Hamilton, a special education teacher at JHS 185 in Queens. “Administrators have too many observations to do, so therefore the quality decreases. Talking to your colleagues is a huge thing. To me that is more valuable than administrators with a checklist.”

Student services

Teachers remain concerned about their special education and English language learner populations. But there was good news in the numbers: Compared with last year, fewer respondents said that those students were not getting required services. This year, 42 percent of teachers said students with disabilities were not getting all their services, down from 60 percent last year. On language supports for ELLs, 45 percent said those students were not getting needed services, down from 53 percent last year.

Teachers singled out arts education and library as the two academic areas where students are especially shortchanged. Fifty-two percent of survey respondents said their students were not getting enough art and music instruction, down slightly from 58 percent last year, while 65 percent said students aren’t getting enough exposure to a library, down from 70 percent last year.

Forty-three percent of teachers said their students were not receiving sufficient time for physical education. In terms of support services, 57 percent of teachers (up from 51 percent last year) said students were being shortchanged on guidance services and 61 percent (up from 51 percent last year) said they didn’t get needed tutoring.

Teachers are still spending an average of $500 a year from their own pockets on school supplies, over and above the $77 they received this year from Teachers Choice.