Four ways to fight soaring teacher burnout (puke alert)

The Hill ^ | June 17, 2022 | Adam Baenes

[robowombat]

Four ways to fight soaring teacher burnout “Even though teachers are very stressed, about two thirds of the teachers who reported experiencing frequent job-related stress said that they were coping pretty well with that job-related stress,” said Elizabeth D. Steiner, lead author of the RAND Corporation’s new State of the American Teacher survey. By Adam Barnes

an empty school classroom and chalkboard Istock Story at a glance Teachers are facing stressors that range from disrupted student learning, to managing student behavior to dealing with staff shortages to addressing students’ mental health. A myriad of solutions, including shortened work weeks, increased pay, access to mental health resources and administrative support have been proposed to combat growing teacher burnout. What will it take to keep teachers in their roles amid historic levels of stress? A myriad of solutions, including shortened work weeks, increased pay, access to mental health resources and administrative support have been proposed to combat growing teacher burnout. But there are limitations to how effective each of these solutions are on their own, as polling shows burnout among educators outpaces that among the remainder of the American workforce.

Teachers are facing stressors that range from disrupted student learning, to managing student behavior to dealing with staff shortages to addressing students’ mental health. What will it take to keep teachers in their roles amid historic levels of stress?

Salary increases are an often-cited solution to the heightened level of teacher burnout. A February survey from the National Education Association (NEA) showed more than half of America’s teachers plan to leave their profession earlier than planned. Nearly all of the educators polled supported raising their pay to address burnout.

This idea was furthered earlier this week when Georgia Gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams proposed raising state public school teachers’ salaries to a starting rate of $50,000 per year, part of a larger plan to increase teacher salaries by an average of $11,000.

The average starting salary for teachers nationwide in the 2020-21 school year was $41,770. That same year in Georgia, salaries began on average at $38,692.

“When our pipeline is thinning and our exodus is increasing, we are losing the fight for our children’s future,” Abrams said.

Michael Hansen, chair of governance studies at Brookings Institution, told Changing America in an email that pay raises could in fact work to mitigate some factors causing people to leave the industry.

“More money is a consistent predictor of lower attrition, so it’s likely to help avoid some of the most negative consequences of burnout—that is, compelling people to feel like they have to leave the teaching profession,” Hansen said.

Yet the pay hike would likely benefit early career teachers as they both typically sit the lowest on the pay scale and “experience the highest quit rates,” Hansen added.

“It’s less clear how these proposed increases might change other dynamics of the profession, as I don’t see many details beyond the stated goal to increase average salaries to $75K,” Hansen continued, referring to Abrams’s proposal. “So, it’s hard to say whether it, for example, helps keep older teachers in the classroom for a few more years before retiring.”

Fighting burnout might also include shortening a teacher’s work week, and several districts across the U.S. are planning to shift to four days of in-person instruction. One school superintendent in Texas recently told Changing America offering the transition to four days alongside retention bonuses led “to a dramatic increase in applications.”

Yet there are drawbacks to a shortened week, Hansen previously told Changing America, although modified scheduling offers a fair amount of flexibility for teachers

“That does attract the teacher so it’s not unreasonable to think that the four-day school week is something that could attract some teachers.”

But some educators might also experience negative impacts, especially in their home life, Hansen added. It could potentially prolong their workday as more time would be needed for adequate instruction, which could end up costing them family time.

Additional adult support in American classrooms could also alleviate stressors leading to widespread teacher burnout, Elizabeth D. Steiner, lead author of the RAND Corporation’s new State of the American Teacher survey, told Changing America.

Steiner said RAND’s nationally representative survey, which found America’s teachers experience stress at twice the rate of workers in other industries, revealed that teachers said they could benefit from more adults in the classroom.

Surveyed teachers said they could use help from behavioral interventionists, nurses, and counselors, among others, who might help kids struggling with emotional issues. They also asked for realistic expectations.

“Teachers basically were telling us if there was a way that they could have some more support, so that there could be more adults supporting students, particularly supporting students’ social emotional needs, and teachers could focus on supporting students and academic needs and focus on their instruction, that even though those aren’t strictly mental health supports, those would go a long way to alleviating some of the stress that they were experiencing,” Steiner said.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

Educators’ mental health has also been a focal point when discussing burnout, and RAND’s survey emphasized that not all teachers, or principals, knew of or how to access resources at their schools. Even when there were readily available options, barriers persisted. Some teachers and principals surveyed said they struggled to access enough counseling sessions while others said time slots cut into their family time.

Instead, some teachers sought out more informal support networks.

“Support from colleagues was particularly helpful and teachers who were in schools where there was a strong positive environment and there were strong adult relationships, spoke about how those relationships sustained them and help them cope with the stress that they were experiencing,” Steiner said.

Despite high burnout rates and worries over a potential exodus, Steiner said there’s reason to be hopeful that educators will figure out how to manage their stressful environments and stay in the profession they love.

“Even though teachers are very stressed, about two thirds of the teachers who reported experiencing frequent job-related stress said that they were coping pretty well with that job-related stress,” Steiner continued. “And so, I think it’s also important to remember that teachers, many teachers, want to be there, and many teachers that are willing to deal with the stress of their jobs to have the joy of teaching students.

“And to me, I think that is both a sign of hope and another compelling reason that educator mental health is an important topic to attend to and for districts to address in their communities,” Steiner said.

[robowombat]

Oh the horror. when school teachers become the enemies of normality?

[rrrod]

I worry more about over worked bartenders.

[ridesthemiles]

They can cry me a river.

[dangus]

” More money is a consistent predictor of lower attrition, “

I can’t identify who it is I know, but I know someone whose school is one of the top-paid districts in the nation, and has an attrition rate of 20% per year for the last three years. Mostly because the administration piles on absurd burdens that help no-one, tolerates horrendously obscene behavior, and dehumanizes and ridicules the teachers who are most qualified (e.g., having PhDs in their field)

[DeplorablePaul]

I made a proposal 25 years ago. Privatize all schools with a voucher system. Make public schools 100% special ed. Education would be in a lot better shape if we did. Mainstreaming was poison to educational achievement.

[butlerweave]

Why do you need a teacher if the classroom is empty

[Billthedrill]

Turning your children into neurotic communist perverts is dang hard work.

[Olog-hai]

Didn’t know we had a problem with soaring teachers.

[algore]

I considered teaching when I was younger.

But today? Oh Hell No.

(Unless it was extreme maths I suppose.)

[BlueLancer]

Man, I hope that those teachers are soaring at a low altitude when they flame out because it’s a long way to the ground ...

[ProtectOurFreedom]

My sister has been teaching math for about 45 years. The biggest problems are not even mentioned:
1. Administrative overhead is up probably 20X in those 45 years. Every extra dollar of educational funding goes to hire people to fill out government forms, produce data, and create reports.
2. Teachers are incredibly micro-managed. They no longer have autonomy in their classrooms to do what they think is best and right. People who have never taught a day in their lives are hired as “coaches” to show teachers how to do it right.
3. Teachers and everybody else in the school cannot discipline the kids.
4. The culture says bad results are the result of the teacher, not the raw materials delivered to the teacher. Our culture is so rotten that the work ethic is gone.
5. Much of the above flows from the Department of Education that wastes $10 billion every year doing absolutely nothing but making the local school district’s job a lot harder. The DOE is the entity drives the insatiable demand for data and reports.

[elpadre]

After college I taught math and science for eight years and then left for a bettering paying job in private industry. I did love teaching high school kids and as I also coached three sports, I did work long hours. I usually was not assigned a class the last period so that I could prepare for my coaching gig.

So I do remember about classroom teachers. They were required to teach something like 185 days a year. In the beginning they attended summer school to earn their masters degree. After that the summers were off. They also had fall break, spring break, Christmas break, Easter break and every state and national holiday. Plus the teacher’s workday is over at 3PM unless there is a meeting.

I cannot understand how teachers can get so stressed.

[Leaning Right]

I was an urban public high school teacher for decades. And I must tell you something. The stress mentioned in the article is real.

I’ll be presenting a lesson to a class, and some kid will yell out, “You’re stupid!” Meanwhile two or three kids are on their cell phones, chatting away.

In the old days (pre-2000 or so) this would not have been tolerated. I’d call security, and the disrupters would be hauled away. But now I’m the one at fault. Why wasn’t my lesson more interesting? And did I call home first to confer with the parents? (By the way, calling home was usually a waste of time. 95% of the time you’d get an answering machine, with no return call.)

Don’t get me wrong. Even in my worst classes the huge majority of the kids were okay. They just wanted to graduate while learning something along the way.

And that’s where the stress came in. I was honor-bound to serve those good kids. So I couldn’t just be a babysitter when the thugs tried to disrupt things.

In a way, it was like trying to paint a picture while some guy is constantly trying to knock the brush out of your hand. It ain’t easy.

[SuperLuminal]

They are all stinking communists...
Let them burn!

[packagingguy]

$41,770 is for 9 months of work, equivalent to $55,693.33 per year. Median HOUSEHOLD income in the US is about $68,000, and most people get only two weeks of vacation.

So if two teachers are married they earn about $111,400 or so which is 1.6x the median household income, accounting for hours worked.

[Labyrinthos]

Imagine the stress if teachers worked full-time jobs. There are 260 work days in most years. $50,000 for a part-time job equates to $71,823 for a full-time job.

[cherry]

.more money....

more time off

more time off

more money so they can enjoy the more time off....

[Bernard]

The whole article treats schools as if they exist in a vacuum, when they are a reflection of society. My daughter is stepping out of the public school system after several years of 4rd grade and kindergarten in the local school that includes most of the section 8 housing in the small town she works in.

40% turnover in students during the year, maybe 1/3 of the parents showing up for conferences or ever meeting the teacher during the year, young kids with a knife or a gun in the backpack, and all of the horror stories everybody is used to. About 20% of the faculty in that school is leaving this year.

And, of course, most of the teachers I have met who work with my daughter in those conditions vote for democrats, and often express wonder about "how could this happen?"

Mistakes have been made, but nobody made them.

[hanamizu]

As a retired teacher who still subs at the school I used to teach at, perhaps I can shed some light. Over the course of my career my salary climbed as my class sizes halved. Total staff at my school easily tripled while the number of students shrank.

But in talking to the current staff, here are some teacher gripes.

Discipline has pretty much gone out the window. When I started, each teacher had a paddle and was expected to use it if warranted. Fights nearly always resulted in swats. Same with extreme disrespect. Then the board decided that the paddles had to go and only the principal could paddle. OK, fine. But as time went on, the principals paddled fewer and fewer. The current principal is extremely reluctant, saying he doesn’t want a lawsuit.

Smaller punishments such as sentences a la Bart Simpson were also eliminated. After-school detention and in-school detention are used, but cost the district money to have a sub babysit a kid in a room all day. Now the discipline is often a ‘reflection room’, not a hall of mirrors, but where the kid sits and writes a letter saying he’s sorry.

Punishments for kids with I.E.P.s are difficult and time-consuming to implement. Legal guidelines have to be followed.

Then there is what we are expected to teach and how we are expected to teach it. Most teachers I work with despise common-core but are required to follow its guidelines since end-of-year tests are based on it or some variation of it.

It’s important to understand, most teachers, except for the newest, received better educations than what they are allowed to provide their students and they know it. The first-grade teacher is expected to introduce fractions to her class for a month when many or most haven’t figured out addition. The same is true of other subjects, exposure to many things, but mastery of none.

I could, but won’t, go on with the stupid ‘politics’ that goes on in some schools. The endless, really stupid after-school meetings, angry parents who are sure their kid is the brightest child alive so he can’t be getting a D. Extra duties like working the concession stand at ball games.

Many disparage the teaching profession, and I really do understand why. But to do the job right means a man or woman has to somehow convince twenty or thirty kids to allow him or her to lead them to learning things most have no interest in learning. It really isn’t an easy job.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
FReepers, it's far beyond time to wrap up this FReep-a-thon.  Lets do it today.  Please chip in.

President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.
President Donald J. Trump's accomplishments during his term in office.

Ramirez political cartoon:  Couldn't Find Pence,... LARGE VERSION 06/17/2022: LINK
Garrison political cartoon:  Obama's Propane Tanks LARGE VERSION 06/2022: LINK

FReepers, 78.979% of the Second Quarter FReep-a-thon goal has been met.  Click above and pencil in your donation now.  Please folks, lets end this FReepathon.  Thank you!
...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $17.00 dollars to 79%.