A recent Gallup polls shows an astounding 70% of teachers are not enthusiastic about their profession, and nearly 13% polled were extremely unhappy with their workplace. The “State America’s Schools” Gallup survey took a look at student and teacher attitudes, finding that teacher engagement drops within the first five years of employment.
Teachers with three to five years experience showed the lowest levels of commitment, with only 28% saying they were still excited about their profession.
The researches wrote in the report:
The problem is that when teachers are not fully engaged in their work, their students pay the price every day. Disengaged teachers are less likely to bring the energy, insights, and resilience that effective teaching requires to the classroom. They are less likely to build the kind of positive, caring relationships with their students that form the emotional core of the learning process.
So what solutions can be offered to help teachers reengage?
- Create horizontal ladders within the teaching profession, so that teachers can advance and get a sense of forward momentum without needing to leave the teaching profession to become an administrator or central office drone.
- Build authentic opportunities for collaboration in schools by having teachers plan together in cooperative workspaces (not isolated classrooms), simultaneously helping them organically collaborate and problem-solve while also giving them a sense of connectedness and community within their schools.
- Raise teacher pay, creating more applicants for teaching positions, allowing principals to be more selective in hiring, and lending the profession a greater sense of prestige.
