Study: During and after the pandemic, almost 80% of teachers considered leaving

More than three-fourths of K-12 teachers say they have considered leaving the field since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent survey of mostly Missouri teachers.

The study found high stress and burnout were key factors in considering whether to resign. Of the teachers who left, the top four reasons for leaving were lack of administrative support, overwork, underpay and challenging student behaviors.

“Teacher Stress, Coping, Burnout, and Plans to Leave the Field: A Post-Pandemic Survey” was published in the scholarly journal School Mental Health in January. Although it was a national survey, 85% of the teachers who responded were based in Missouri.

Lead researcher Wendy Reinke calls the post-COVID classroom “a new normal.” The inconsistencies in schooling caused by the pandemic hurt students’ academic and social learning, resulting in large disparities among students and an increase in challenging behaviors, she said.

The large range in student ability leaves teachers spread thin, said Reinke, a professor in the University of Missouri College of Education and Human Development.

“There’s this whole range — some kids who can’t read at all. There are kids who are reading fluently,” Reinke said. “As a teacher, you have to kind of figure that out, but getting that additional instruction for those kids who are academically behind is going to be really important.”

Teacher well-being is directly related to student well-being and success, Reinke said. She said teachers with higher levels of burnout use more, and often harsh, reprimands.

“If teachers’ well-being is not well, they’re not interacting with their students very well,” she said. “So those student-teacher relationships are going to not be good, which then leads to kids not wanting to come to school, not engaging in instruction. Therefore, they’re losing out.”

Ann Alofs, a third grade teacher at West Boulevard Elementary School for 15 years, said she has to be mindful of how her own stress can affect her teaching.

“Last week, I had a very, very busy week with a lot of extra responsibilities after school, and that makes it harder for me to be present and have as much patience,” Alofs said earlier this spring. “I have to really check myself when I walk in the door, to not be thinking about all these other things I have to do, but to just focus on this lesson, this group of children, even this child.”

She said she has to shut out the noise of all the other things that are supposed to get done.

“That’s the way that I teach reading,” Alofs said. “I just shut up the chatter in my head about all the things I’m hearing I’m supposed to do. I just focus on one child at a time, making sure they’re learning to read, and just try to really simplify the task for myself.”

Various factors in teachers can affect students, Reinke said.

“If you’re a teacher with high stress, low coping, your kids have lower reading scores, more disruptive behavior,” she said.

Reinke also found that high teacher turnover harms students and teachers.

“When teachers leave the field and there’s no one to replace them, then we get bigger classes,” she said. “And bigger classes need less differentiated instruction — not meeting the needs of all the kids in the classroom.”

Social-emotional learning — such as teaching kids problem-solving skills and how to regulate emotions — has become a part of the curriculum, adding another responsibility to teachers’ workloads, Alofs said.

“We’re seeing kids walk in for kindergarten who — it’s not really the academic skills that are concerning, it’s the ability to self-regulate,” Alofs said. “It’s the ability to take care of themselves. Prior to COVID-19, we rarely saw children walking into kindergarten who weren’t potty-trained, but we see that now.”

She said she believes this is due in large part to the isolation many felt during the pandemic, not only by children but by parents as well.

“Parents have had limited access to those community supports that clearly impact their ability to help prepare children for going to school,” Alofs said.

Alofs said her administrators understand this and do their best to ease teacher workload, but there’s a push and a pull because they also are feeling pressure to improve public education.

“So sometimes they take things off our plate, but they add two more things because they’re seeing deficits in our outcomes,” she said.

Alofs, who has taught in Columbia Public Schools for 31 years, said the district is “rich with supports.” However, there are limitations.

“We have a wellness coordinator. We get a monthly wellness newsletter with ideas for how to reduce stress. We have access to counseling,” Alofs said. “It’s just hard to access all of that when the workload is so great.”

To lessen teacher distress, Reinke’s study suggested a multi-faceted approach that starts before teachers step into the classroom. The study recommended that teacher preparation programs focus on teaching effective classroom management instruction, particularly during their field experiences, to increase classroom success.

Support should continue throughout a teacher’s career, she said. The study found that higher classroom success results in lower burnout. However, it also found that experienced teachers — who are more likely to report high classroom efficacy — are experiencing more burnout and are more likely to report an intention to leave.

Reinke and Alofs separately suggested this could be due to the increased administrative and mentoring responsibilities experienced teachers tend to take on, as well as a lack of continued support that is often focused on new teachers.

The study proposes expanding the Classroom Check-Up model, which Reinke developed, as one possible solution.

Under the model, coaches observe teachers to help promote classroom management. The model has since been expanded to include coaching on culturally responsive practices, parent engagement and bullying prevention.

The study suggests expanding the model further to include resources and feedback about teacher individual coping, communication, social support and advocacy skills.

Despite strategies such as wellness information, counseling, teacher prep programs and others, the study showed nothing combats the high stress felt by all teachers.

Fewer than 6% of teachers reported they experience low stress. Additionally, 82% of teachers rated their level of stress as six or higher, and of them, 19% rated their level of stress a 10.

“That is a stressful job, but some teachers are able to cope better,” Reinke said. “Some teachers have higher efficacy (or higher) burnout, but stress is just there.”

Without changing the context of teaching — which includes administrator training, investment in teacher compensation, increasing the teacher workforce and more reasonable expectations on teacher work time — teacher well-being, recruitment and retention will not improve, the study said.

Alofs also sees the need for contextual change.

“We definitely need some degree of an overhaul in public education, but there are so many things that we do right,” Alofs said. “There are so many powerful, incredible teachers in public education who are, you know, just doing a bang-up job every day.”