More than half of the teachers surveyed said that they spent five hours or more a week of classroom time preparing students for standardized tests.

In a survey sponsored by MetLife, the majority of teachers surveyed said they used homework to "improve skills in the classroom and for improving life skills beyond high school."

The religious right is already having a big impact on education: 31 percent of teachers surveyed by the National Science Teachers Association feel pressured to present creationism-related material in the classroom.

Many teachers surveyed said they had received no instruction on the issue.

These tests may have even more of an impact on teaching and learning than standardized tests, Mr. Madaus said, because the teachers surveyed gave such tests at least once a month, and sometimes once a week.

Only 7 percent of the teachers surveyed said they planned to quit the profession as soon as they could.

Still, 41 percent of the black and Hispanic teachers surveyed said they would probably leave teaching in the next five years, as against 25 percent of the white teachers.

And nearly 40 percent of the teachers surveyed in 1993 said that physical conflicts among students were a problem in their schools, up from 26 percent of those surveyed in 1987.

Ms. Marzollo, who like Ms. McMullan has stopped writing textbooks, said Scott, Foresman's reading program was good, but she disagreed with a teaching format popular among the teachers surveyed by the publisher.