When Suzan Harris became Henderson Middle School’s principal during the pandemic, turnover was in the double digits. Staff were struggling to connect with their peers and forge positive relationships with their students.
Harris was skilled in instructional leadership, but that’s not what her school needed. She had to dig into, “How do we bring back the human side of us, after being isolated for so long?” she said.
She recognized immediately that it was important that the school have a positive, balanced culture, if she stood a chance of lessening teacher stress and keeping educators in place. Now, she said, attrition has slowed. Teachers are recruiting others to come to the school in Jackson, Ga.
“We are putting stuff in place to make sure teachers feel good,” she said. “We take care of the teachers, literally feed the teachers, and they don’t eat the kids.”
After an uptick in morale last year, teachers nationally are saying that they are less satisfied with their careers, according to new teacher survey data released this week.
Between January and March this year, the EdWeek Research Center surveyed 1,487 public school teachers and 131 private school teachers, on behalf of Merrimack College.
Though teacher job satisfaction last year was still higher than the all-time low level in 2022, it slipped slightly this year from last year, and is still much lower than it was decades ago.
“Unfortunately, it’s not getting better,” said Tim Pressley, a professor of psychology at Christopher Newport University who studies teacher morale. “Teachers were burned out, had no job satisfaction, low morale during the pandemic, and that has just continued as we’ve come out of this pandemic.”
The results come as classrooms face increased scrutiny and politicization, teachers deal with student behavior that has grown worse, students grapple with mental health concerns, and teachers’ pay remains low.
Even as educators report more difficult working conditions, they report having minimal or nonexistent programming to support their mental well-being, according to the report.
But often, teachers aren’t looking for specifically designed programming to target their mental health. They want better working conditions and pay, according to the report.
At the building level, a supportive principal can make a world of difference in a teacher’s well-being and job satisfaction, the findings show.
Teachers were more likely to say that their principals provided a lot of concrete support for teacher well-being this year compared to last year, but still, more than a quarter of the respondents said that the administration did not provide any support at all.
Survey results also suggested that positive support from building leadership was not the norm. Eleven percent of public school teachers said their principals provided a lot of support for their mental health, whereas 1 in 3 teachers said their principals offered no support at all. Many reported in open responses that their principals had negative impacts on their well-being.
While teachers’ burnout and stress have continued since the pandemic, the reasons have changed, Pressley said. Today, they’re frustrated by student behavior, the level of support they feel from their administrators, and their workloads.
“A lot of teachers who are talking about leaving, or are leaving, have talked to us and shared that their administrator just isn’t supportive at all. They’re not providing resources. They’re telling teachers to figure it out on their own. They’re not giving or getting teachers opportunities to go to professional development,” he said. “Teachers have talked about not seeing their administrators at all, that they don’t even know where to find them.”
Pay is becoming a more pressing issue for teachers, Pressley said. Where respect was the biggest factor for teacher dissatisfaction two years ago, and pay ranked somewhere lower down, it is more frequently being mentioned now, he said. But there are cultural changes in the building that help too.
“Changes can actually be really small and simple,” he said. “Even protecting teacher planning time and not pulling them to cover a class or go to a meeting, or not requiring weekly meetings if they’re not needed.”
Before Katie Law became principal of Arapaho Charter High School in Arapaho, Wyo., she witnessed a high level of turnover after she started teaching there more than a decade ago: 13 different principals or superintendents who left in the middle of the year.
“I saw firsthand how that impacted not only the staff, but the students and the entire community, and how it hurts students not having that consistency from year to year,” she said.
In an at-risk environment, burnout is huge, she said, with the school churning through teachers and administrators. There were years when turnover was 30-40 percent, she said.
“That impact on students then turns back into the classroom and it’s just this endless cycle that I watched for years,” she said. She realized: “This is not healthy for anybody. We have to do something.”
This year, she had no staff turnover. She emphasizes team bonding with get-to-know-you activities, gift card rewards for turning run-of-the-mill meetings into something more engaging, and centers dining together, making sure that staff feel known and appreciated. She has a “principal pass” system through which staff, every semester, can ask for her to cover a class to give them a break. They don’t differentiate paid time off, so if teachers need to take a day for their mental health as opposed to a physical illness, they don’t have to explain. A counselor is available for students and staff, and Law is looking to add another.
“I look at it as, if we can improve the working conditions more and allow staff to feel comfortable, then they’re going to bring those things up,” she said.
Harris in Georgia has emphasized building a supportive culture in the school—from baby showers to potlucks— where every teacher has someone to turn to if they need something. But she’s also emphasized work-life balance.
She doesn’t text teachers if they’re at home after hours or on weekends, unless it’s “a dire emergency.” She remembers teachers remarking about how she’d leave on time, whereas her predecessor would stay late into the evenings. She told teachers they should do the same. One of her teachers recently said that she’s been happier since she’s started going home on time.
“That’s the biggest thing for me—just take care of them. If they’re good, there’s nothing they wouldn’t do for you,” she said. “I have teachers show up on the weekends to events, just because they have my back, because they know I have theirs.”
