Helping Our Teachers Succeed

Teacher Burnout is Real

Teachers are experiencing high levels of stress and burnout due to greater demands with fewer resources. COVID-19 has only exacerbated the problem, adding additional stress. The statistics are worrisome and shine a spotlight on the criticality of providing programs to aid the mental wellbeing of this important resource, our children’s educators.

  • 66% of teachers want to leave their job.
  • 41.3% of new teachers leave the profession within the first 5 years.
  • Teachers suffer from higher-than-average rates of drug and alcohol use.
  • At any given point in time, 36.4% are likely to quit.1

Why Does Burnout Occur and What are the Consequences?

Most teachers begin their career with a goal of improving their communities while helping children grow and succeed. Burnout occurs when they begin to feel under-appreciated, exhausted and overwhelmed, and that no matter how hard they work, they aren’t seeing the results that they expect. The consequences include:

  • Early retirement
  • Ineffective teaching
  • Drug and alcohol abuse1

What is the Cost of Teacher Turnover?

The hidden costs of teacher turnover include quality of the teaching staff as well as changes to the structure and makeup, which imposes burdens on the schools and districts from which teachers depart. More obvious concerns include recruiting, hiring, and training costs. A study was conducted in North Carolina which focused on math and English middle school teachers. Concentrating on hidden costs, how did schools respond to periods of high turnover and what was the impact to organizational and human capital? They found that turnover has marked, and lasting, negative consequences on the quality of the instructional staff as well as student achievement, reinforcing the need for programs which support teacher retention.2

How Can School Leadership Help?

A research study was conducted by Berkely that shows two possible safeguards for teachers’ emotional well-being.

Teachers with more developed emotion skills tend to report less job burnout and more job satisfaction, including the ability to:

  1. More accurately recognize their emotions
  2. Better understand their causes and consequences
  3. Precisely label their emotions
  4. Comfortably express their emotions
  5. Effectively regulate their emotions

Teachers who work in a school district that provide programs to develop and support their mental well-being tend to experience fewer negative and more positive emotions. This leads to:

  1. Better-quality relationships and connections with their students
  2. Students that are more engaged and committed to their education
  3. Students that are more willing to take risks and persist in the face of difficulty

The challenge remains that most teachers have not received a formal education in emotion skills. Schools need to place a greater focus on mental health and well-being so educators can thrive and be ready to return to school after the pandemic. By providing anonymous mental health screening as well as ongoing enrichment programs, school leadership can support their educators, which ultimately flows into the classroom.3

https://newmiddleclassdad.com/teacher-burnout-statistics/

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1248542.pdf

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_to_support_teachers_emotional_needs_right_now

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