Key points:

• Most teachers would not choose a teaching career again
• Nearly half of teachers say poor mental health is impacting their work

Only 46 percent of current public K-12 educators would be “fairly” or “very likely” to advise their younger selves to choose teaching again, according to a new survey that shines a spotlight on a pressing crisis facing U.S. education.

More than one-third (35 percent) of educators are considering leaving the profession altogether. This is according to the 2023 Merrimack College Teacher Survey, which was conducted by the Winston School of Education and Social Policy at Merrimack College.

While the survey paints a dark picture overall for American public K-12 education, there are areas that have seen notable improvements since last year’s study. The percentage of teachers who are very satisfied with their jobs has nearly doubled to 20 percent, and the percentage of teachers considering leaving the profession within the next two years has dropped from 44 percent to 35 percent. Additionally, more teachers now report feeling respected by the public and being treated as professionals than in last year’s study.

Despite these positive trends, most teachers still would not advise their younger selves to pursue the profession, and measures of teacher autonomy remain stagnant. The survey highlights the ongoing impact of the pandemic on mental health, with 42 percent of teachers reporting their mental health and wellness negatively affects their work.

“While this should serve as a flashing red light to educational policymakers, the survey also provides insights into strategies that educational administrators and policymakers can employ to address this,” said Dean Deborah Margolis. “By prioritizing teacher mental health and wellbeing, and taking steps to build teacher morale, academic leaders can help create a healthier and happier school environment and retain more of their teachers.”

The survey provides clear guidance about how these learnings can be incorporated into teacher and school administrative programs. According to the study, “about 1 in 3 teachers say their principals provide some or a lot of concrete support for teacher mental health and wellness. But just 1 in 10 teachers whose mental health is having a very negative impact on their work say the same.”

The study specifically surveyed teachers on steps that schools or districts could take to support their mental well-being. The most frequently cited responses were:

• A pay raise or bonus to reduce financial stress (67%)
• Smaller class sizes (62%)
• More/better support for student discipline-related issues (62%)
• Fewer administrative burdens associated with meetings and paperwork (57%)
• More acknowledgement of good work/hard work/successes (54%)

“This study has given districts the kind of concrete insights that they can use to support their teachers and improve their retention,” said Associate Dean Russell Olwell. “With this survey, we wanted to go beyond just highlighting the challenges, and start looking at how we can leverage this work to support educators and educational leaders.” He added: “As a result of what we are seeing in K-12 schools, Merrimack College has launched several new programs to address teacher and student wellness, including coursework in mental health first aid, social emotional learning for educators, and a wellness professional development series through the Merrimack Institute for New Teacher Support.”

The survey, which was administered between January 15-25 of this year, collected responses from 1,178 K-12 public school teachers in the United States, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3% at a 95% confidence level.

This press release originally appeared online.

Related:
5 ways to help educators experience more joy
How administrators can support teachers with chronic health needs

I was recently working with middle school educators and asked them about the biggest challenges they are facing. Without skipping a beat, they said dealing with discipline issues, students who at times just don’t seem to care, and their own lack of motivation.

This made me think about the struggles of maintaining a positive school culture, how students often do not get what they need, and how exhausted these educators must be. Whether we are talking about life in general or education specifically, it’s very difficult to adjust, see different perspectives, and find joy when you are in the thick of it.

But, it’s not impossible.

Understanding joy

Joy is an interesting emotion.  In her recent book, Atlas of the Heart, Brené Brown defines joy as “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation.” This is different from happiness, which Brown defines as “feeling pleasure often related to the immediate environment or current circumstances.”

The world needs its mentors and educators. Teachers are the ones who equip the generations to come with the tools necessary to excel. It’s as simple as the relationship between cause and effect. Without them, society would dwindle, and the forward progress of everything would slow down to a snail’s pace. After all, education is one of the pillars that make up a thriving society, making teachers essential.

Teachers are also human beings. They have a life worth living and carry similar struggles as everyone else. The degree of those struggles may vary, but today, we’re going to hone our focus specifically on teachers who either have a disability or some form of chronic illness.

There are a lot of stressors that are one teacher in today’s world, and to have to deal with physical, mental, and/or emotional issues only stands to make it more difficult to maintain a sustainable well-being. Let’s explore the ways we can provide relief and support for teachers with disabilities.

Tips for Teachers with Chronic Pain or a Disability

There are a few ways that teachers can mitigate the obstacles of chronic pain and disability in the workplace. Remember that the specific issue that teachers deal with doesn’t have to define them. Their qualifications, character, and competency will outshine any ailment, whether it’s apparent or not.

• Be honest with yourself and others – You must have the freedom to express that condition in the way that suits you. It’s not something you need to hide, but it’s also not something you have to broadcast. It’s not dictating your life in a way that could make you less eligible for a teaching position than anyone else.
• Know your own limitations – It’s important that you self-identify what your own physical and mental limitations are so that you don’t accidentally get thrust into a situation that you can’t handle. You should consider expressing your known limits with the administration so they can be mindful of what they can ask of you.
• Join the DTN – The Disabled Teachers Network (DTN) is a source of community and connections intended to serve and assist disabled teachers. It contains a wealth of helpful materials and resources that can help disabled teachers around the world find harmony in their work.
• Use the superpower of empathy – Being an individual who suffers from a chronic illness or disability gives you a unique vantage point. Although it can feel burdensome to deal with discomfort or inconvenience, you may actually be able to harness that issue to help others.
• Know your rights and permissions afforded to you by the ADA – The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is there to protect all individuals who suffer from some sort of disability. It is meant to protect employees and impose accommodation. You can rely on the ADA to request reasonable workplace accommodations that will help you perform your job better and in a way that won’t be needlessly taxing on you, physically or mentally.

Ways That Employers Can Help Teachers with Disabilities and Chronic Pain

Of course, while they should play an active part, it isn’t the sole responsibility of teachers to support themselves. Administrators and employers should also put provisions in place to provide the structure and support educators need.

In this episode of Innovations in Education, hosted by Kevin Hogan:

• 3 strategies to support student well-being and SEL
• Building culture and community takes more than a committee
• Fostering student well-being

As a school administrator, you’re faced with a range of challenges every day. One of the most common at the moment is mitigating the negative impacts of teacher shortages. After all, without a consistent and functional faculty, the quality of students’ education is likely to suffer.

Therefore, it’s important to examine the elements that affect teacher retention. Some of the key influencers here tend to be those related to educators’ wellness. Teachers often report experiencing extremely stressful conditions–not to mention that various pressures of their careers often see them on the road to burnout.

It’s no wonder, then, that establishing methods to prioritize teacher well-being can help your school retain talent. Let’s take a closer look at some key areas of focus in this regard.

Providing Resources

One of the most important considerations for prioritizing teachers’ well-being is the provision of resources. With the median high school teacher salary being around $62,870, educators often don’t have a lot of leeway to pay for physical and mental wellness resources themselves. While all administrators should consider it a priority to arrange fair pay, it’s also important to look at what other resources you can offer.

This should certainly begin with a more robust employee wellness program. Your approach could include providing subsidized access to local gyms and organic food suppliers. It should certainly involve arranging appropriate mental health services, given the level of stress and pressure educators experience. Consider subsidizing telehealth counseling that more effectively fits into teachers’ schedules.

Related:
Teacher burnout remains educators’ top concern
5 ways to support educator well-being this school year

These efforts can have a tangible impact on retention because they’re geared toward actively improving teachers’ quality of life. The resources make it practical for them to maintain their wellness, which also mitigates absenteeism. Educators can also see that your school’s investment in these resources acts as a meaningful recognition of your responsibility to positively impact their health. As such, they may be more likely to stay with a school that is committed to keeping them well.

Encouraging Communication

One of the common points of concern for many teachers is the lack of meaningful communication with administrators. This isn’t just on a practical working basis. It can also leave educators feeling isolated and unsupported. In turn, the communicative distance can have a negative impact on their experiences of stress, depression, and anxiety in the workplace. Encouraging open and regular communication among your faculty can, therefore, improve teachers’ well-being.

Your approach here should certainly include building a culture of openness around mental health. Normalizing discussions about mental wellness can be instrumental in minimizing stigma on the subject and reducing the hurdles to addressing challenges. It’s important to make sure the tools are in place to facilitate open conversations, though. All staff should be educated to approach such conversations with empathy and compassion. There must also be a commitment to using language during discussions that humanizes people living with mental illness.

So, why does this focus on open and supportive communication make a difference in the retention of educators and help mitigate the impact of the Great Resignation? Well, it gives teachers who may be struggling with workplace stress a comfortable avenue to discuss and address their concerns. In schools where communication isn’t prioritized, teachers may be more likely to simply resign without an explanation or an attempt to resolve such challenges.

Support Boundaries

Teachers undoubtedly play a pivotal role in community life. As such, there is often a tendency for the boundaries between their careers and their personal lives to be blurred. Indeed, teachers are expected to go much further beyond the limits of their duties than many other professionals. This isn’t necessarily good for their physical or mental wellness. As such, it is vital that you encourage and support teachers in creating healthy boundaries.

Perhaps one of the most important boundaries to set is that of their working hours. Establish protocols within your school that minimize the amount of administrative and extracurricular work educators are expected to do beyond their teaching hours. There should also be a focus on creating boundaries around teachers’ financial burdens. Provide budgets that ensure your staff doesn’t feel obligated to pay for class materials, as has become increasingly common as of late. This can reduce stress and ensure teachers can spend their salaries on items that support their and their families’ wellness.

This can have a significant impact on the retention of teachers in the long term. After all, it demonstrates you understand that teachers need to maintain a healthy work-life balance. A recent Pew Research study found that 53 percent of people who quit their jobs found new employment that made it easier to keep this balance. As such, your encouragement of clear boundaries can be both empowering to teachers and create a stronger faculty base for your school.

As an administrator, it is vital to understand how teachers’ wellness is linked to retention. This allows you to implement measures that both support teachers and mitigate the impact of staff shortages. Your efforts should include providing robust wellness resources, encouraging open communication, and empowering teachers to achieve a healthy work-life balance. By prioritizing teacher well-being in a sustainable way, educators, students, and the entire community stand to benefit.

The majority of educators (71 percent) are worried about teacher burnout during the 2022-2023 school year, according to a national survey conducted by Lexia Learning, a Cambium Learning Group company.

That concern is warranted; in a January 2022 National Education Association (NEA) survey, 90 percent of NEA members reported that feeling burned out was a serious problem.

The high probability of teacher burnout comes at a time when educators believe students will require more individualized instruction to achieve at- or above-grade-level performance.

About 75 percent of educators think that more one-on-one student-teacher time would help their students in the 2022-2023 school year. More than half of educators (56 percent) feel their students would need increased access to classroom specialists (e.g., special education teachers, subject-matter specialists, school psychologists).

But while they anticipate that their students will need extra academic support, many educators worry whether schools will have the resources for even routine operations such as cafeteria operations, custodial services, transportation activities and the like. Survey findings revealed 52 percent of educators were concerned about teacher shortages and even more (66 percent) were concerned about non-teacher staff shortages (e.g., bus drivers, custodians, teachers’ aids, substitute teachers).

“The prevailing circumstances of staff shortages, combined with students’ need for support, makes teacher burnout a very real prospect,” said Lexia Learning President Nick Gaehde. “Educators will need an array of support as they strive to help students recover from pandemic-related learning loss.”

Related:
How to highlight productive urgency while avoiding teacher burnout
3 ways to address teacher burnout

Educators, I see you. I know it’s been a rough couple of years.

From teaching through a global pandemic to adjusting in real time to teacher shortages and policy changes, from worrying about school safety to trying to manage more disruptive behavior in your classroom, this past school year alone has presented huge challenges.

As humans, we are neurobiologically wired for connection – it’s in our DNA. And, as educators, you are wired to help support the students (and fellow educators) you serve – it’s why you entered this profession to begin with. However, due to all of the external (and internal) pressures, you and so many other educators are likely feeling burned out, exhausted, and overwhelmed.

If you are feeling that way, it’s nearly impossible to create a culture of connection and belonging in your classroom, which respected researchers – from Brené Brown to John Hattie to Zaretta Hammond – point to as a best practice in helping students grow and learn. So, in order to really show up for your students, please give yourself permission and space to show up for yourself.

Taking Time to Reflect

With back-to-school here, it’s time to reflect on the last couple of months. Here are three questions to get started:

• Did you take any time off this summer?
• Did you go on vacation?
• Did you give yourself a real break from work?

If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions then stop right now, take a deep breath, and say out loud to yourself: I matter.

You deserve a break (even if it is a few minutes) to recharge, reset, and rejuvenate. This is not indulgent but rather it is essential to your well-being.

School and district-based staff are understandably wary about the new school year. Teachers, the majority of whom are women, are struggling under the immense pressure of pandemic schooling. Many have worked long hours to try to support their own families while keeping up with the demands of online teaching and changing COVID-19 protocols.

Teacher retention rates were already declining pre-pandemic, and the shortage of educators across roles may be widening. Preparation programs are facing fewer numbers of new educators entering the workforce; thirteen percent of graduate programs surveyed by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education reported seeing “significant declines” in the numbers of new students. Of those graduating, many may be turning to remote options right out of the gate. Member programs in the national Virtual Learning Leadership Alliance reported increased hiring of online teachers since 2020.

Educators want the same flexibility that’s traditionally more available to those in corporate settings. In a 2021 survey, fifteen percent of teachers said flexibility to work from home would “make a major difference in reducing the likelihood they leave the profession.”

There’s no shortage of remote-first education companies that attract school-based talent with their social mission and flexible work. “We are seeing significant growth in applicants seeking to leave the structured onsite work environment in schools in favor of more flexibility and the ability to teach and work remotely,” shared Jamie Candee, CEO of Edmentum.

Schools and districts must approach this year with that same level of creativity and urgency as they did in the early days of the pandemic, rethinking long-held beliefs about schooling and implementing new ideas that once seemed impossible to meet the changing needs of their communities. Here are two ways that administrators can apply that same thinking to the coming school year, transforming their schools as workplaces and considering teachers as employees with attractive employment options.

Rethinking school schedules

The concepts of the four-day workweek and remote work opportunities have been gaining momentum in the world of education. Veteran educators may balk at the concept, but now is the time for districts to try more innovative ideas in an effort to retain teachers.

While research on the impact of a four-day workweek in education is still early, some studies do suggest benefits to school districts that participate. A 2021 study completed by Rand found that districts reported that this schedule shift improved retention and teacher attendance; teachers reported that the fifth day was a combination of work and personal activities.

Remote and flexible work schedules are increasingly being used by districts as hiring and retention tools. Butler Tech, a career technical center in Hamilton, OH, schedules fifteen consecutive four-day workweeks – with a twist. Each Friday is an opportunity for students to control their own time, including working off campus, pursuing personalized learning opportunities, or remaining at home to focus on their family priorities; the district calls this the Fifth Day Experience.

“Innovating on the traditional school calendar presented a win-win scenario for student and teacher engagement,” says William Sprankles, Butler Tech’s Assistant Superintendent of Innovative Teaching and Learning. “Teachers spend half of their Fridays delivering an interest-based session and half of the day planning to complete tasks they might not otherwise have time to tackle.”

When I came to Union Hill School about seven years ago, we were not performing at the level we wanted to in terms of state assessments. With some hard work and a sense of urgency, we made a lot of progress in those first few years, but then the pandemic struck.

I told my teachers at the beginning, “We’re back at square one,” and today we can still feel the lost ground due to the last couple years. With a renewed sense of urgency, however, we’ve managed to keep our students on track and growing amid the disruptions and setbacks.

Here’s how we create a sense of productive urgency without burning our teachers out.

1. Jump in with your teachers.

During the pandemic, just like other educators around the country, our teachers were struggling to deliver high-quality instruction. A lot of our educators were not great on computers, including me. I had to become very involved to show teachers and students I was learning right along with them. It was a new mode of delivery that we suddenly had to adopt with no training and without adequate technology, so those struggles were no fault of their own, but they were a challenge for the whole community.

Throughout the early period of shutdowns, my administrative team and I were helping parents make sure they had what their children needed to learn and were able to get online. In some cases, we were also making sure their children had enough to eat. I even taught a few classes, but because I was making myself available to everyone, even just students who needed to talk, it was difficult, because there were always people going in and out of the room.

When we were able to return to in-person schooling, my instructional coaches, assistant principal, and I spent time visiting classrooms. The point was not to target teachers or to be in any way punitive, but to see how students were doing with regard to social-emotional learning (SEL), math, and literacy. When I told my teachers that the hard work was just getting started, they knew I was going to be right there with them, ready to jump in and offer support in any way I could.

2. When everything is in crisis, focus on progress.

When we finally had kids in front of us again, everything felt like it needed urgent attention. We were particularly worried about SEL, because the students had been largely cut off from other people–not just in school, but in their lives.

The significant negative impact of the pandemic on educators is no secret. Teacher burnout is at an all-time high, self-care techniques are feeling futile, violence against teachers is on the rise and verbal abuse by parents is increasing. Fears about lost learning and teacher resignation continue to dominate the news.

During a recent meeting with a group of educators, I recalled the stress from the last two years accompanied by decades of pressure our systems have placed on an already weary profession. “Teachers need to give themselves some grace,” said Tamara Cervantes, a principal/director. “We are all under pressure to perform under all the administrative demands, and we underestimate our limitations. We forget we are human.”

Burnout is a buzzword that fails to carry the significance of the issue. We are great at raising the red flag, but solutions that help educators make significant changes are slow to come. Unfortunately, the pandemic compounded stress with the addition of compassion fatigue. While burnout occurs over time and is usually the result of work stressors like staff shortages or inadequate resources, compassion fatigue occurs when we exhaust our ability to empathize. The pandemic amplified these stressors and flipped the world upside down for educators. 

“The real fear of Covid-19 (to our teachers, students, and parents) cannot be dismissed. We tend to forget that our teachers went through Covid just like our students did,” said Cervantes. “We tend to forget that they lost loved ones, their families went through struggles, their children were going through learning loss. We expect them to walk back in as though they are superheroes with capes–as if the last two years didn’t happen.”

When combined, burnout and compassion fatigue place teachers in a more exacerbated position. Solutions to these feelings imply that teachers need to just “figure it out” or “take a breather.” While self-care is a critical resilience strategy for teachers, it leaves the profession exposed to increased resignation, high turnover and teacher shortages. Too often, schools place all the emphasis on the individual and fail to recognize other elements of the teaching environment that influence teacher burnout and compassion fatigue.  

Our consultants realized that the opposite of this combination of burnout and compassion fatigue is not rest, but rather re-discovering and reconnecting to purpose. If we want to address this compounding problem, school administrations should consider the following strategies at a systematic level.

1. Assess and determine the contributing factors.

We might think we have all the answers to combat burnout, but this unrelenting stressor is complex. We use the Maslach’s Burnout Inventory to measure burnout in three domains:

• Emotional exhaustion: The feeling of being emotionally overwhelmed, extended and    exhausted by your work.
• Depersonalization: Measures an impersonal response.
• Personal accomplishment: Recognize feelings of competence and successful achievement in our work.

The assessment also looks at various aspects of work and personal life that can aid district leadership teams or school principals and identifies specific strategies to address burnout. Based on the results, strategies in these two areas could look very different. If you are focused on taking the weight off your teaching staff’s workload, but your teachers lack the feeling of being rewarded for their work, you might need to rethink how you praise them for their achievements.

Teachers are balancing a lot every day, and that pressure has increased since the start of the pandemic. According to the National Education Association, 55 percent of the teachers in a recent poll said they “will leave teaching sooner than they had originally planned” and 90 percent of members who responded said “feeling burned out is a serious problem.”  

Finding ways to ease the stress experienced by teachers and prevent teacher burnout is critical to teacher morale and ultimately, student outcomes. While no one area alone can prevent teacher burnout, tools that are designed with teachers’ needs in mind can play a big role in supporting teachers and making their jobs less stressful.

This is where technology – and specifically the right technology – can make a huge difference in lessening workload, promoting more productive communication, and boosting morale. Choosing the right technology tools can help give teachers more time and support for doing what they love – teaching and impacting students.

When choosing technology for a district, it’s important to consider tools that will:

1. Lessen administrative workload: Using tools that consolidate student data and provide a user-friendly experience will lessen teachers’ administrative workload. From communicating with parents to collecting fees and consent for a field trip, new technology platforms can automate and streamline many administrative tasks that fall on teachers’ desks.

The average day in a K-12 school has little margin for error; educators have perfected the art of stretching resources. Yet the typical day rarely goes as planned. Staff absences are on the rise this year, and for each person who is out, others are asked to stretch themselves to make it work.

“We have staff who are consistently giving up prep periods to cover for absences, absorbing additional classes, and taking on higher caseloads,” shared one special education director who noted the extra strain staff are experiencing this year.

Research on school staff absences in the past has focused primarily on the impact on students, and the facts are clear that students suffer setbacks when facing chronic staff absences. These absences have been shown to be more prevalent in low income schools, a scary prospect when compounded with the other areas of disparate impact through the pandemic seen in reduced educational progress and increased mental health challenges in low income schools.

But a newer focus is emerging on the impact these absences are having on colleagues working in the school. This is an essential area to address before we reach a situation where the absence or resignation of some leads to the burnout of those who are asked to cover the gaps.

Absence rates among teachers have historically tracked high, at 5 percent relative to a 3 percent absence rate for the U.S. workforce and a 2.3 percent absence rate for other public sector workers. Throughout the pandemic, staff absences have spiked, at times leading schools to close or temporarily shift to remote learning because they cannot secure sufficient staff to cover the buildings.

During all the tumult of the last two years of schooling, from remote to hybrid to masked in-person, educators prioritized the social and emotional needs of students. A full 70 percent of schools now offer mental health programming, according to a recent survey from the American School District Panel and 20 percent of these schools say they added these services as a response to the pandemic disruptions. Shifting toward helping our students’ emotional well-being is vital and, in many cases, has shown extraordinary results. But we need to make sure we don’t forget the social and emotional health of district IT staff. 

Think about how much stress we all felt especially at the beginning of the pandemic. Not only was there personal stress but schools went remote instantly. District and school IT staff had to not only set up 1:1 programs on the fly, but also find new remote learning software and create helpdesks for thousands of students.

It’s clear now that part of a well-thought digital strategy for the future includes wellbeing support for IT technicians and school support staff, too. For example, such support can come from tools that ease cumulative stressors by saving time, lightening workloads, improving communication, and simplifying or automating procedures. Embracing a digital strategy that runs right across all areas of the school ensures that every staff member can benefit from the advantages offered by technology. 

I asked Nele Morrison, the technology director at Pittsburg Independent School District in Texas, to give additional insight about how they’ve managed through the pandemic. Even though some campuses in his 2,500-student district east of Dallas were 1:1 before the pandemic, none had a program allowing students to take computers home. In a matter of days, Morrison and his six-person IT team had to develop the logistical plan of a new 1:1 program that they quickly realized was going to be permanent. 

Morrison said that picking the right software to help oversee the new programs they started lightened his staff’s load. His district used inventory management software to keep track of the district’s laptops. When the district went remote, it upgraded the apps it used for classroom management to allow for enhanced reporting and web conferencing features. Pittsburgh also used software that allowed the IT department to remotely control, diagnose, and fix Windows laptops and PCs.

No matter how much technology or management software in place, though, Morrison said in the end Pittsburg made remote, hybrid, and in-person learning work during the pandemic because of the quality of its IT staff. 

This time of year sees email in boxes filled with information about how to prepare for the next year, reminders that grades are due, and papers await grading. We are deluged with predictions about the future, what to worry about, and sometimes even what to be excited about. Those with calendar year goals are often rushing to complete projects or solidify a final sale. Family and other holiday obligations can often add an extra level of stress as well. One thing often missing is how to make sure you are balanced and ensure you are taking time for self-care.

According to a recent NBC article about the increasing educator shortage, between retirements among an already-aging population and the stress and burnout of the pandemic, the number of potential educators in the pipeline is not nearly enough to match needs.

An October 2021 NPR report showed that 80,000 aspiring nurses were turned away from nursing schools due to a lack of adequate nursing instructors. It is clear that educator burnout can directly lead to shortages in other critical areas such as health care.

What are some simple things that can be done to help ameliorate educator burnout? AASA, the national superintendent association, has just released a new program called Live Well, Lead Well to encourage and support self-care. We all learned about Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and the need to ensure basic needs before we can expect our students and colleagues to reach the upper levels of the hierarchy. Alicia has said, “You can’t pour from an empty cup, and you need to take care of yourself in order to be of any use to others.”

A defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic is the haze of uncertainty in which we now live. Are cases rising or falling? Which activities are deemed “safe” for the vaccinated? And now that most U.S. schools have re-opened in person, will they stay open, and can they keep COVID-19 at bay?

This uncertainty has landed heavily on teachers and contributed to teacher stress. For several reasons, the jobs to which they returned in fall 2021 are more challenging than what they faced in the pre-COVID world.

First, at a time in which vaccines remain unapproved for children under 12, and in which many older children remain unvaccinated, teachers worry about students’ health and their own. They recognize that social distancing is at odds with many student-centered teaching techniques, and they don’t want to spend their days as mask enforcers, but they also want to stay safe. In a nationally representative survey of teachers conducted by RAND earlier this year, 16 percent of teachers ranked concern for their own health as their top source of job-related stress, and 17 percent said their top concern was for the health of loved ones at home with high COVID risk.

Second, teachers worry that a rapidly changing COVID situation means they will have to transition students back to hybrid or wholly virtual teaching models if students or staff start getting sick. In the 2021 RAND survey, teachers reported that hybrid teaching models, in which they had to simultaneously teach in-person and online, were the most stressful teaching approach.