Teachers Under Pressure: Understanding the Exodus From Education Due to Student Behavior and Burnout

An increasing number of teachers are expressing intentions to transfer schools or resign from the profession altogether, driven by a surge in verbal and physical aggression from students. Threats and violence against teachers and other school staff have rebounded to pre-COVID-19 lockdown levels in the United States. This article delves into the multifaceted reasons behind this concerning trend, exploring the statistics, the underlying causes, and potential solutions to support educators and improve the school environment.

The Alarming Rise in Student Aggression

Research published by the American Psychological Association (APA) indicates a troubling resurgence of aggression in schools. While pandemic restrictions led to a temporary lull in incidents, likely due to remote learning, these incidents have now returned to levels “equal to or exceeding” those prior to shutdowns. This is the latest development in over a decade of ongoing research by the APA Task Force on Violence Against Educators and School Personnel, according to lead author Susan Dvorak McMahon.

APA’s research reports significant rates of violence and aggression, which McMahon said is “not a new problem.” McMahon has been researching this topic with the task force since 2008, and she attributes increased awareness of the issue to social media’s capability to widely share incidents. Surveys conducted by the APA revealed that 65 percent of teachers reported at least one incident of verbal harassment or threatening behavior from a student prior to the pandemic. This decreased to 33 percent during the pandemic but surged to 80 percent after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

Similarly, 42 percent of teachers reported instances of physical violence from students before the pandemic, which decreased to 14 percent during the pandemic but increased to 56 percent after the height of the pandemic. Physical violence rates tend to be lower than verbal threat rates in general, according to McMahon.

The Impact on Teachers: Intentions to Resign and Increased Stress

The experiences of violence and aggression, coupled with concerns about school climate, are taking a toll on educators. Based on these factors, 57 percent of teachers expressed their desires or plans to resign on a post-pandemic survey, compared with 49 percent during the pandemic. Survey participants also reported increases in anxiety and stress during the pandemic, and according to APA’s research, these levels still have not fallen to pre-pandemic levels.

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The published study compares data from two recent surveys that capture the experiences of three eras for teachers-2019-20, prior to the pandemic; the height of the pandemic in 2020-21; and 2021-22 after many schools had lifted COVID-19 restrictions. Starting with the 2019 survey, McMahon said the researchers sought responses from those she identifies as “underrepresented groups” in this field of study. The study was expanded from just teachers to other adult stakeholders, like administrators, school staff, school psychologists, social workers, and counselors.

According to the research, these other groups of stakeholders are also reporting incidents of aggression and violence, though they are not experiencing rates of physical violence as high as those teachers are facing. When surveying participants, APA explicitly defined what various behaviors constituted an act of physical or verbal violence and aggression.

A Teacher's Perspective: Witnessing and Experiencing Violence

Parsons, a teacher in the Kent school district and the 2023-2024 educator of the year at her elementary school, has witnessed and experienced acts of violence and aggression. She shared an experience where she did what she could to prevent ongoing threats from a particular student from escalating by reporting concerning interactions to administrators and contacting a school counselor. Parsons said she walked away from the scene with bruises on the right side of her body and a concussion and described the physical and emotional toll of the incident as immense. Parsons said she could have reported the alleged incident to law enforcement, but chose not to because of the student’s age and because she believed it would not have helped the situation or the student and their family.

Following the incident, Parsons no longer attends after-school events in an effort to avoid the student, stating, “I’m not going to be teaching somebody who feels like it’s OK to do that to me.” She views handling violence as part of her job description now.

The Lack of Cohesive Reporting Protocols

Researchers emphasize that there’s no cohesive reporting protocol for threats and violence against teachers and other school personnel-be it requirements for reporting to the school, the district, or law enforcement-which means comprehensive national data may not truly exist. McMahon said some kind of annual assessment gathering reports from educators would allow researchers to look at trends across time.

Linda Reddy, a professor and the associate dean of research at Rutgers University, agrees that implementing a national registry for educators to report instances of violence and aggression is important to get a more comprehensive understanding of the issue’s scope. Her ideal national registry would maintain some anonymity for educators when needed.

“I think a national registry is really important, but we need to do more than just register,” she said. “It has to activate a system of support.”

The Need for Support and Training

The APA surveys also advised researchers that educators would like more support and training, both before going into the profession and during their tenures, to address some of these issues. McMahon said that “[Educators are] sometimes in situations that are quite unreasonable, and they feel unprepared to handle them.” Researchers identified behavior and classroom management, de-escalation strategies, socioemotional learning approaches, trauma-informed practices, and working with diverse groups as training topics.

Potential Solutions: Policy, Parent Engagement, and Comprehensive Approaches

Among other strategies to address violence and aggression in schools, McMahon points to policy and parent engagement as two that may help alleviate some of these trends. In terms of policy, McMahon spoke on the need for mental health support and resource improvements, raising educator salaries, and required annual data gathering as steps to improving school climates.

Reddy believes a comprehensive and integrative approach to school safety is key-meaning strategies that aren’t just “spot work.” They include changing the training for educators. Reddy said the traditional method of training school personnel through workshops and lectures is not as effective as continually learning workplace-applicable skills and gaining access to mentorships and direct support in the specific environments they are working in.

School leaders should steer clear of training their teachers in zero-tolerance, or punitive, strategies, she said, because research shows that these exclusionary strategies are ineffective in promoting school safety and can be harmful to students of color. Reddy also said that policy at the local, state, and federal levels could also help improve school climate across the country. This includes phasing out zero-tolerance policies.

She believes that shifting the mindsets and work experience of educators starts at the school level. School leaders are crucial to creating cultures of open communication, she said, and should foster empathy and be approachable. Being in the classroom alone can be isolating for teachers, she said, and teachers need to feel heard and supported in their concerns by their supervisors.

She also suggested schools set up advisory boards representative of school personnel, students, and parents to facilitate ongoing feedback from all school stakeholders. Feedback and data could be collected through surveys and focus groups, but the information should also be reciprocal, and participants should be assured that their concerns are being addressed. Advisory boards model a preventive approach to violence in schools and avoid “[waiting] until the shoe drops,” Reddy said. She emphasized the need for critical feedback from students and school personnel who are not teachers, such as bus drivers, custodians, and paraprofessionals, who often have a pulse on school climate and wellbeing.

Furthermore, she said, there’s a lot to learn from schools that are excelling-not just those that are having difficulty with classroom climate. Researching and collecting data to determine why certain schools have fewer violence concerns can be helpful.

The Reality of Teacher Burnout

Consistent with McMahon and Reddy’s research, Parsons said she has given more thought to leaving teaching. Before the pandemic, she thought she would likely be an educator until she retired. Now, she has determined that if she experiences one more bad school year, she will leave the profession.

Teacher burnout is not a new phenomenon, yet it has been receiving more attention because it is a global problem that negatively impacts teacher retention. There are many reasons why teachers are more likely to experience frequent burnout compared to other professionals. They are less likely to have the materials and equipment they need to do their jobs, and are less likely to feel respected at work. Job-related stress is a part of every profession, and prolonged experiences of job stress over time is what leads to “burnout”. In the United States, K-12 workers have the highest burnout level of all industries nationally. These statistics show that, unfortunately, the burnout gap between K-12 workers and all other workers has increased. A recent report found that, when compared with similar working adults, about twice as many teachers report experiencing frequent job-related stress or burnout.

When district and school leaders know what teacher burnout looks like, they can make efforts to support educators who are struggling and provide support as early as possible. Constant Fatigue, Self-Doubt, Withdrawal, and A Loss of Inspiration are all signs of teacher burnout. Despite these challenges, many teachers remain committed to the profession. The quality of the work environment significantly impacts teacher retention, satisfaction, and effectiveness. Therefore, principals, superintendents, and other district leaders must ensure that teachers feel genuinely supported. Recent research confirms that burnout can be temporary and that district administrators and school leaders can alleviate it, even when external environments beyond the school present challenges. District administrators can empower central office leadership teams and school administrators to help them identify exactly what it is that teachers need and are asking for to support their well-being.

Addressing Teacher Burnout: Strategies for Support

Addressing teacher burnout requires a holistic and sustained approach that prioritizes both the emotional and professional well-being of educators. By creating supportive environments, reducing administrative burdens, and fostering opportunities for professional growth, district and school leaders can play a pivotal role in alleviating the pressures that lead to burnout. Additionally, implementing adult SEL programs can strengthen teachers’ social and emotional competencies towards managing the demands of their complex work.

Most people think teachers quit because they don't get paid enough or because they are too overwhelmed by the amount of work they have to do. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) the teacher resignation rate hit an all time record high 8.3% in 2018, two years before the Pandemic shut down schools. Which means, more than 1 million teachers have quit the profession since 2018. And the answer happens to be student behavioral problems. In June 2023 Education Week published an article titled "What's Happening to Teacher Stress Levels?” which reported the findings of a RAND Corporation survey, which found nearly half of teachers identified managing student behavior as their top source of job-related stress.

While most discussion about student behavior understandably focuses on its impact on students-the telos of a school is educating children, after all-too often the effects on teachers are simply overlooked. My experience is typical. I’m into my seventh year teaching. I’ve taught in rich schools and poor schools, private and public, middle school and high school. My class schedule has been both unforgivingly busy and also free to the point of leaving me bored at midday. I’ve had great administrators and terrible ones. I’ve used more curricula than I care to count. I’ve spent entire Saturdays and Sundays grading and prepping. It was worst in my first year of teaching, when both my classroom management skills were at their weakest and the school in which I taught was distinctly weak-kneed. Every day was chaos, and the unpredictability of it scared me the most. What insult would fly across the room? Would I have to break up a fight today? For what educational failure or emotional damage was I responsible because of the chaos in this room? But it wasn’t just me. An experienced educator across the hall quit that year and checked into a mental hospital because of the verbal abuse she suffered from students.

The Role of Discipline and Supportive Systems

One dismayingly popular policy that fosters such disorder is the eradication of punitive discipline like suspensions. We have countless case studies-from cities like Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh to entire states like Illinois and California-that demonstrate the necessity of discipline. Certain teachers will succeed no matter their environment, but the only way a school is going to be calm and orderly is if there’s a schoolwide approach to discipline that’s enforced consistently and uniformly.

Unsurprisingly, most teachers support tougher behavior policies. A Fordham survey from 2019 found that teachers report “putting up with more misbehavior than they used to.” While they see value in restorative justice and PBIS as add-ons, they believe that suspensions remain a necessary part of any behavioral structure.

Teacher burnout is a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion that occurs when an educator has used up their personal and professional resources, leading to a feeling of detachment, fatigue, apathy, and cynicism. In addition to these factors, many students are still struggling to catch up due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Teacher burnout symptoms can vary from one educator to the next. Teachers may notice their burnout symptoms worsen at certain times, like after returning from a holiday break, and improve at others, such as before summer break.

Teachers are more likely to feel burnt out when they feel overwhelmed, unappreciated, and unfairly compensated. Feeling short-tempered at work can easily translate to becoming short-tempered at home, increasing stress levels in multiple areas of a teacher’s life.

Addressing Teacher Burnout: Practical Steps

Thankfully, there are steps that school districts can take to address and prevent teacher burnout.

Competitive Compensation and Benefits: Ensuring competitive compensation and benefits shows staff that they’re appreciated and valued. Many school districts are offering updated compensation models, including pay increases for teachers in hard-to-staff subject areas, such as special education, math, and science.
Encouraging Work-Life Balance: Some schools have a “more is better” work culture, and teachers are expected to come in early, stay late, and show up on the weekends. Encouraging and modeling work-life balance can help teachers feel comfortable doing the same.
Filling Vacant Positions: 93% of teachers believe that filling vacant positions would reduce teacher burnout.
Providing Stress Management Resources: Providing stress management for teachers , including access to counseling, can help them through the ups and downs of their careers.

The Broader Context: Statistics on Teacher Burnout

Teacher burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that results from prolonged exposure to high levels of job-related stress. Female teachers reported a burnout rate of 63% in 2021. Increased workload and additional responsibilities are significant contributors to teacher burnout. The high rates of burnout are leading to significant attrition in the teaching profession.

Several factors have been identified as major contributors to teacher stress and burnout, with 68% citing workload as the primary cause of work-related stress.

Key Teacher Burnout Statistics

K-12 teachers are the #1 most burnt-out profession in The United States
44% of teachers in K-12 school report often or always feeling burnout
90% of teachers claim that feeling burnt out is a serious problem
Over half of teachers say they will leave teaching sooner than originally planned
There are 500,000+ fewer educators in the American public school systems post-pandemic
44% of public schools posted teaching vacancies in early 2022
43% of educator job postings are going unfilled
30% of teachers were found to be chronically absent
Compensation is the #1 reason educators plan to quit their jobs

Almost half of K-12 teachers feel burned out at work “very often”. A survey of members of the National Education Association (NEA) revealed that 67% of these leading educators consider burnout to be a “very serious” issue. Meanwhile, 90% of the respondents think it to be a “somewhat serious issue” faced by educators. This survey attributed unfilled vacancies as one of the major reasons for increased stress on the teachers and other staff.

Demographic Factors in Teacher Burnout

Female teachers experience higher burnout, emotional exhaustion, and neuroticism levels than their male counterparts. More than half of all female teachers, 55%, report being more prone to burnout compared to male teachers, at 44%.

Data shows Black and Hispanic educators are more likely to quit education occupation earlier than they planned. According to a poll by the National Education Association, Black (62%) and Hispanic/Latino (59%) teachers plan to leave the teaching profession earlier than they planned to resign. They are already underrepresented in the teaching profession and their increased exodus will only widen that race gap.

The Situation in Virginia: A Case Study

In the years following the pandemic, Virginia teachers who left their positions identified inadequate support and ineffective leadership as two of the largest contributing factors to their decision. Divisions across Virginia and the nation continue to struggle with persistent teacher turnover and are taking note of such important contributing factors. Many teachers feel that they do not possess the appropriate skill sets to address their students’ new behavioral needs. These added demands contribute to higher rates of burnout and teacher turnover.

To illustrate this point using Virginia, the Commonwealth had 1,063 unfilled staffing positions in the 2019-2020 SY, which jumped to 3,649 vacancies for the 2023-2024 SY. Increased turnover occurs throughout the distribution of experience of teachers, with just as many late-career teachers leaving as early-career teachers. High turnover throughout the teacher workforce is a cause for concern. Veteran teachers possess human capital; their experience and knowledge can be used to develop early-career teachers. At the same time, those early-career teachers are the future of the workforce.

Evidence-Based Practices to Address Student Behavior

There are evidence-based practices that teachers and school leaders can implement to address student maladaptive behaviors to improve classroom management and decrease teacher burnout. However, research about students’ behavior in schools post-COVID is only beginning to emerge. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a trauma-informed approach to identifying and supporting students’ mental health after the pandemic.

This means providing all students with a routine, structured environment with caring adults and freeing up time to identify and screen for students who may be struggling with mental health issues. The structure of trauma-informed classrooms resembles the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) classroom structure, with which many schools in Virginia are already familiar.

One randomized controlled trial examined the effects of integrating mental health professionals into a PBIS framework using the PBIS Interconnected Systems Framework (PBIS-ISF). In this study, the six PBIS-ISF schools experienced about a 0.50 standard deviation decrease in office discipline referrals.

In addition to school-wide support systems, it is also crucial for students to build relationships within school that provide emotional support. Schools might consider implementing lessons explicitly teaching social skills to reduce maladaptive behaviors resulting from lower emotional regulation.

The Importance of Supportive Environments

Teachers also report that students have lower socioemotional regulation since returning from the pandemic. Survey responses from a nationally representative sample of teachers found that teachers who felt their administrators supported their discipline decisions and felt a sense of belonging in their schools were about ten percentage points less likely to experience negative well-being or report constant job-related stress. Novice teachers typically find classroom management one of the most challenging tasks of the job. To mitigate this issue, Prince William County recently implemented a new mentor program for all novice teachers. As a result of this new program, the county has seen a 91% retention rate among novice teachers. Other counties might consider similar systems of support to develop their novice educators.

Another study found that schools where teachers received more in-person observations had fewer referrals for student misbehavior and fewer suspensions. This study highlights that increased observations, feedback, or effective PD that addresses teacher concerns and offers explicit solutions to classroom management can be an effective intervention for teachers struggling with classroom management.

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