Face the Facts: Survey Shows Teacher Burnout Is a Dire Situation

Teachers are in danger of burning out - that is not a new problem in our state. In fact, it's been an ongoing issue since even before the pandemic.

A new survey shows just how dire the situation is becoming.

NBC Connecticut's Mike Hydeck spoke with Kate Dias, the president of the state's largest teachers' union, about it.

Mike Hydeck: So the Connecticut Education Association surveyed 6,000 members and found staggeringly, 74% of teachers are looking to leave the profession early or even retire early. Is that a big difference from last year? And what do you think is pushing educators out now?

Kate Dias: Yes, it's actually more than doubled in the survey we did last fall. Last fall in September, we reported that about 38% of our educators were looking at leaving or retiring early, and that number has upticked to 74%. And so we really feel like this has now hit the maximum crisis point. Because if we wait any longer, we're going to be looking at 100% of our educators saying they're likely to leave or retire early.

Mike Hydeck: So now, teachers were citing things like stress and burnout and staffing shortages. Did the pandemic compound these problems? And now that kids are back in the classroom, that's what everybody wanted during the pandemic, has it gotten better or worse?

Kate Dias: Well, I think what we've discovered is that certainly, the pandemic plays its part, right? We know that there were a lot more issues with respect to mental health, and some of the stressors that go along with addressing mental health needs. But what we're also finding is educators are speaking specifically to state mandates, excessive paperwork requirements, and the fact that staff shortages sort of compound issues, making teachers cover for the vacant positions, and that adds its own layer of stress. So I think we're really looking at putting a fine point on the fact that we can't continue to ask more of the educators in the building. What we really need to do is give them the space and grace to do the good work of teaching, which is what they should be focusing on 100% of the time, as opposed to having to deal with the stressors of paperwork or redrafting curriculum. I mean, we're talking about the reading programs across the state needing to be redesigned in the next year, as a result of some of the SDE decision-making. This really isn't a time for that to happen.

Mike Hydeck: So is there an alternative to that - either delaying that process or having an outside firm come in and let the teachers teach? Have you had some discussions on a possible solution?

Kate Dias: Well, we're obviously advocates of keeping educators central to the decision-making process. I think one of the things that's gotten us to where we are today is the lack of an educator's voice in decision-making. So I think one of the things that we need to do is invite teachers to the center of, okay, how do we do or make changes that need to be made? Because it's not that education can't change. It's, how can we do this in a way that doesn't continuously burden the people on the front lines? So bring those educators in. I actually think their reading program redesign that's being talked about should be delayed at least a year to allow for implementation opportunities. Teachers don't want to be left out of things, they want to be in the center of it. But they want there to be some acknowledgment for the fact that all of this is additional work on top of teaching the kids in front of them, on top of making up for vacant positions, you know, on top of dealing with mental health issues. So I think there's really an understanding that we have to audit what we're asking educators to do, and really edit down to the things that are most important.

Mike Hydeck: So what do you think the legislature is going to take away from this survey? You saw that 75% say they're going to retire early. 95% plus would say that funding and staffing can help. How do you start the conversation with legislators to take step one?

Kate Dias: So we think today, we started that. We saw a really wonderful cadre of Republican and Democratic legislators standing with us to say that we cannot push this issue off and that we need to look at compensation for educators. We need to focus on how we're attracting, and retaining a diverse workforce, and particularly focus on the districts in our financially distressed communities, recognizing that oftentimes, these districts are really not getting the support that they need and that they suffer from higher staff turnover. I think we're looking to our legislators to help us limit those non-teaching things, the excessive paperwork, the excessive mandates, we're looking for protection of planning time. And we're going to be looking to our legislators to help us preserve probably one of the most fundamentally important aspects of education, and that's play. The idea that schools should be an enjoyable learning process, not sort of this arduous, overwhelming kind of beast that we have to get through, but rather an enjoyable, playful learning environment and kind of getting to preserve that.

Mike Hydeck: And that butts up against sometimes parents' concern or even legislators' concern, the need for accountability. Has the accountability pendulum swung too far do you think? And it needs to be swung back a little bit?

Kate Dias: I think that is true. I think that in our thirst for accountability, we've become micromanagers of a process that can't be micromanaged. At the end of the day, we deal with students, and they're very diverse. Their needs really differ greatly from child to child. And when we tie the hands of the educator, we make it impossible for them to meet the needs of their students. So we do have to look at teacher evaluation, look at how we're holding teachers accountable, and recognize there still needs to be autonomy and flexibility in the learning process. Or not only are we harming the children and our ability to actually meet them where they're at, but we're also really reducing the fun in teaching when we do that. So I think we can we can honestly serve two really important goals by creating flexibility. We really engage our educators in a more joyful way, and we really allow them to meet the needs of our students in a more meaningful manner.