Teachers’ confidence in their profession has hit an all-time low, according to a major ed-tech company that has tracked educator morale over the last decade. On a 100-point school, that confidence has dropped from 49 to 40 since 2020, according to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s eighth annual “Educator Confidence Report.”
More than three in four teachers also said they have negative feelings about the state of their profession, according to a survey of 1,000 teachers and 125 administrators. About the same number of educators listed the mental health of their peers as their top concern. Higher salaries and benefits and more support for educator well-being would make teaching more appealing, the respondents said.
“To nurture their needs, we must invest in tools to help our educators make the connections with their networks in ways that best serve them,” said Francie Alexander, chief research officer at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “Parents, administrators, policymakers and community members are all needed to support teachers and foster a new generation of educators.”
Teacher shortage solutions
The pressures noted above are all contributing to the teacher shortages that some districts are experiencing, particularly in the areas of special education, bilingual instruction and STEM. Other educators are being lured away by private sector employers, said Sharon Contreras, the former superintendent of Guildford County Schools in North Carolina who is now the CEO of The Innovation Project.
“They know they can go to other fields,” Contreras said during a webinar on teacher shortages hosted by the Johns Hopkins School of Education last week. “They’ve learned their skillsets are in high demand, and they can make more money and experience a more flexible calendar that meets their family’s needs and their personal needs.”
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Here’s where leaders are focusing their retention and recruitment efforts:
1. Flexibility: Public schools and policymakers will have to replicate that flexibility to retain experienced teachers and recruit new educators. “We’re being very draconian in our directive to our school systems about how to address learning needs,” Contreras added. “We’re doing the same things we’ve always done—five days a week, six to seven hours a day—and we don’t see learning increasing.”
2. Year-round school: More states and districts should be considering year-round school and rethinking the one-teacher-per-classroom model, said David Steiner, executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. Experienced teachers and teachers-in-training could team up with subject matter experts and other specialists to provide more differentiated instruction and tutoring in a single classroom.
3. A role in decision-making: Teachers want to feel they are part of a team—a team that is appreciated by their principal and the community,” Steiner said. “We have a lot to do to make the profession fundamentally more attractive.”
4. Sharing the burden: Baltimore City Schools is leveraging community expertise to supplement classroom instruction, particularly during summer school tutoring programs. District leaders are also providing new training to parents so they can better support their children, particularly in early reading and when children are falling behind, Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, said in the Johns Hopkins webinar.
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These efforts are designed to take some of the burden off of teachers. “We’ve found a number of resources and organizations in our communities that have said we want to be part of the solution,” Santelises said. “It’s not disrespectful to full-time classroom teachers to say other folks can come alongside and help.”
Connections create ed-tech confidence
The Houghton Mifflin Harcourt confidence report also gauged the impact of technology on teacher morale. A majority of educators said schools should prioritize technology that keeps them connected with students and families. A large majority of teachers also said they need easy-to-use ed-tech that enhances personalized learning.
About 80% of teachers told Houghton Mifflin Harcourt that the experiences of the pandemic have prodded K-12 schools much closer to fully realizing the potential of technology. “Educators are telling us that today’s status quo isn’t cutting it, but they also see a path to the future,” said Jack Lynch, CEO of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. “Importantly, that path relies on addressing basic needs like wellbeing and mental health concerns, both for teachers and students, supported by connected technology that allows educators and focus on what matters most: human relationships.”
