By Karen Gross and Emma Preite
Many have lamented the growing teacher shortages across our nation, and for good reason. It is estimated that there are currently more than 49,000 vacancies across the U.S. (not counting underqualified personnel). We need sufficient qualified teachers to enable student success across the educational landscape.
Declines in the numbers of educators across the K–12 pipeline stem in large part from a combination of factors, one of which is our focus here: voluntary teacher departures.
To date, the vast majority of studies on teacher resignations have focused on four main reasons why these individuals leave their schools voluntarily: (1) lack of pay; (2) lack of respect; (3) burnout (from a wide range of sources); and (4) poor student behavior. Additional studies and articles have looked at other factors such as out-of-touch administrators, “moral injury,” lack of parental support, and increased workload, including post-Covid when teacher shortages ballooned.
Our goal is to delve wider and deeper into why teachers are leaving their profession, a career choice that by most accounts was pursued in the first place to develop a meaningful, purposeful career. This is not just a workforce development issue, because data demonstrate that teacher departures negatively impact student success. Surely, at the end of the day, improving student success should be a prime goal for all of us.
The first aim of our efforts is to focus on the whys of departure. Additionally, we want to identify strategies that will foster increased educator retention. If we understand departures in a more nuanced way, we will have added insights into retention—the two are flip sides of the same coin.
The Survey and Demographics
To that end, we conducted a 22-question survey (see the Appendix for the complete list of questions). The survey had 21 closed-end questions measuring respondent agreement/disagreement with proffered questions using a 1–5 Lickert scale. The final survey question was open-ended.
We had 223 valid respondents from across the U.S. The majority of respondents were female (86.1%), and 22% of the respondents were part of a non-white demographic. Active educators constituted 68% of respondents, with 32% of respondents being retired. The average years in teaching among respondents was 16+ and the predominant grade level taught was elementary (36%).
Results
We begin our analysis by looking at the survey questions that had the greatest agreement among the respondents. To determine agreement, we combined respondents’ answers that fell into the “strongly agree/agree” category or, using reverse scoring based on how the questions were worded, fell into the “strongly disagree/disagree” category.
Using a point scoring system, here are the top five questions (from high to low) with scores ranging from 70–87.9%:
- Q13: Bureaucratic responsibilities, like excessive paperwork and administrative tasks, take time away from meaningful teaching. (87.9%)
- Q5: Decisions and policies made at the district level are often disconnected from the actual needs of children and educators. (81.6%)
- Q9: It is painful to see my students struggle because of a lack of resources or a supportive learning environment. (77.9%)
- Q7: The amount of work I need to complete outside of school hours to be a quality educator feels excessive. (76.2%)
- Q20: I worry that frequent standardized testing interferes with my teaching. (70%)
Our questions were designed to probe a range of departure causes that could be grouped thematically; thus, we were able to identify “themes” in the questions above.
All five of them fall under the category of what we term “systemic issues.” By this we mean issues that are directed from outside the school building by authority figures, but that impact the day-to-day lives of teachers.
Discussion
Our analysis of these top five questions suggests that issues outside of teachers’ control are impairing their ability to teach to their maximum capacity. Outside decisions and non-classroom obligations, as well as mandated testing, are all problematic among respondents. When looked at based on the demographic data collected, there remains remarkable consensus. Regardless of the gender, ethnicity, years teaching, and grade level taught, respondents had remarkably similar responses to Questions 13, 5, 9, 7 and 20.
If we consider that respondents feel they are not working up to their potential due to paperwork, standardized testing, and non-classroom-based work, then that tells us we would be wise to focus on how to reduce these impediments if we care about teacher retention. These are what we would call “fixable problems.”
Responses to Question 5 and 9 suggest that there is likely a disconnect between schools and those making policy decisions and allocating money. This is not an internal school problem. Teachers appear to be keenly aware of decisions (whether or not related to funding) that deter them from effective classroom work.
Taken together, we can observe that teachers across the K–12 pipeline are troubled by the impact of non-teaching decisions/obligations regarding what happens in their classrooms. While the study did not directly ask whether these systemic factors in the identified questions lead to teacher departures, the identified strong levels of dissatisfaction could be a central contributory factor to teachers leaving their profession.
The foregoing observation is reinforced by the more general literature on why individuals leave their places of employment. When the ability to do one’s job is hampered, then it is more probable that individuals will leave those jobs.
It is high time, then, for us to consider new, additive, and/or creative solutions to teacher dissatisfaction due to systemic issues. We must consider multiple ways to ease administrative burdens. Ponder the use of AI and other technology to reduce administrative tasks including reporting. Reflect on non-standardized measures of student learning assessment, something that was successfully used during the pandemic with online learning, leading to reduced standardized tests.
We need to increase the engagement between teachers and decision makers, including superintendents and school boards, so there is increased awareness as to what is actually impairing teacher satisfaction. Finally, we need to listen well and often to what teachers are saying; these professionals know what is disruptive to their ability to do their jobs optimally. They can help us find pathways forward.
Conclusions
This is a first in a series of articles sharing the results of the survey and our preliminary solutions. Systemic hurdles are, we assert, part of why teachers depart, and this conclusion gives us hope that we can pursue solutions. It is also our hope that these and other results from our survey will further the conversation about, and provide concrete approaches for, remediating the seemingly intractable problem of teacher departure.
Appendix: Survey Questions
- I have been asked or expected to implement policies or practices that conflict with my professional and/or personal ethical belief systems.
- When my students fail to meet mandated academic standards, I feel personally responsible.
- The structure and policies of the educational system where I work make it difficult for me to effectively do my job.
- Watching a student continually struggle with a concept despite my best efforts to tailor and teach the content leaves me feeling inadequate as an educator.
- Decisions and policies made at the district level are often disconnected from the actual needs of children and educators.
- I feel that my daily teaching tasks have become repetitive and lacking in variety.
- The amount of work I need to complete outside of school hours to be a quality educator feels excessive.
- When students show interest and curiosity in the material, it positively impacts my job satisfaction.
- It is painful to see my students struggle because of a lack of resources or a supportive learning environment.
- I feel personally responsible when students are disengaged or unmotivated.
- My salary and financial compensation make it difficult for me to justify staying in the teaching profession long-term.
- I feel properly trained and prepared for teaching in today’s world, including related to issues involving student wellness.
- Bureaucratic responsibilities, like excessive paperwork and administrative tasks, take time away from meaningful teaching.
- The number of students for whom I am responsible in my classes makes it difficult to provide quality instruction.
- I doubt my ability to teach at least once each week of the school year.
- I feel like I am making a real difference in the lives of my students with my work.
- I struggle to keep up with mandated curriculum standards and deadlines imposed by the administration.
- I have enough autonomy with respect to how I teach my students.
- My work as a teacher is sufficiently valued by society.
- I worry that frequent standardized testing interferes with my teaching.
- I feel the possibility of experiencing physical violence from students while I am teaching my classes or working at my school.
- If there is anything else you would like to add about why you think teachers are leaving the profession, please share below.
Karen Gross, a former college president and senior policy advisor to the U.S. Department of Education (Obama Administration), is an educator specializing in trauma’s impact on learning. She is also a visual artist and author of adult and children’s books. Karen currently serves as a continuing education instructor at Rutgers School of Social Work and on the Advisory Council for Minority Serving Institutions at Rutgers Graduate School of Education.
Emma Preite is a grant writer and research assistant at New York University with a background in cognitive science and data analysis. She has contributed to projects on speech disorder treatment, brain-computer interfaces, and teacher attrition data analysis, and also has experience working directly with children in both research and classroom settings.
