Studies reveal why teachers are leaving the classroom in the post-pandemic era

University of Missouri researchers recently surveyed 468 teachers and found that 78% have thought about quitting the profession since the 2020 pandemic.

And seasoned educators — those with more than 5 years of experience — were more likely to consider leaving than their newer colleagues, according to the study from Mizzou’s College of Education and Human Development.

Teachers cited a range of reasons for wanting to quit, including a lack of administrative support, excessive workloads, inadequate compensation and challenging student behaviors.

“Understanding factors associated with teachers considering leaving the field, such as teacher stress and burnout, is essential for addressing the problems and creating a more supportive environment for educators, which ultimately impacts students and the quality of education they receive,” said Wendy Reinke, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor in Educational, School and Counseling Psychology and associate vice chancellor for research.

When teachers leave, it can hurt students’ learning, emotional well-being and overall success. The findings highlight the need for schools and policymakers to better support teachers, helping them stay in the profession and creating better learning environments for students.

“It’s a ripple effect,” said Reinke, who is also a co-director of the Missouri Prevention Science Institute at Mizzou. “If teachers struggle, instruction suffers, and students don’t learn as they should. When there aren’t enough teachers, schools may hire uncertified staff or increase class sizes, making effective instruction and learning less likely. Disruptive behavior also spreads — kids in disorderly classrooms carry those habits into the next grade.”

This study sets the foundation for future research on developing lasting solutions, including a new project focused on creating and implementing a comprehensive plan to tackle these issues.

“It’s important that we develop ideas for supporting teachers alongside our school partners,” Reinke said. “We want their input to help us figure out what this model would look like to best support teachers, administrators, and ultimately, the students they serve.”

“Teacher stress, coping, burnout and plans to leave the field: A post-pandemic survey” was published in the journal School Mental Health. Co-authors are Keith C. Herman, Melissa Stormont and Farshad Ghasemi from the Missouri Prevention Science Institute.

Findings from the 2024 State of the American Teacher Survey

This report from the Rand Corporation presents selected findings from the 2024 State of the American Teacher survey, an annual survey of kindergarten through grade 12 public school teachers across the United States. The findings focus on teacher well-being and a small set of high-interest factors related to teacher retention: sources of job-related stress, pay, hours worked, and teachers’ intentions to leave their current jobs. The authors track teachers’ reported well-being over time and compare teachers’ responses with those of comparable working adults.

The findings in this report are descriptive and intended to inform federal, state, and local education leaders and policymakers about the state of the teacher workforce, although the authors note that teachers’ perceptions and experiences likely vary by state and locality.

Key Findings

• Teachers’ reported well-being in January 2024 was consistent with that in 2023, but compared with comparable working adults, about twice as many teachers reported experiencing frequent job-related stress or burnout and roughly three times as many teachers reported difficulty coping with job-related stress.
• Teachers were as likely to say that they intend to leave their jobs by the end of the 2023–2024 school year as comparable working adults.
• Teachers reported working nine hours per week more than comparable working adults (53 hours per week compared with 44 hours), but they reported earning about $18,000 less in base pay, on average (roughly $70,000 compared with roughly $88,000).
• Thirty-six percent of teachers considered their base pay adequate, compared with 51 percent of comparable working adults. Teachers desired a roughly $16,000 increase in base pay, on average, to consider their pay adequate.
• Female teachers reported significantly higher rates of frequent job-related stress and burnout than male teachers, a consistent pattern since 2021. Female teachers also reported significantly lower base pay than male teachers, but there were no differences in the number of hours worked per week.
• Black teachers were less likely to report experiencing job-related stress than White teachers, but they were significantly more likely to say that they intend to leave their job at their school. Black teachers were also significantly less likely than their peers to say that their base pay was adequate, and they were more likely to report lower base pay than their peers.