A PANDEMIC CHECK-UP

Two researchers ask teachers, nationally and in Virginia, how they’re doing and what they need.

By Tim Pressley and David T. Marshall

There have always been a lot of demands placed on teachers and, as a pandemic swept through our state and schools in the last three years, those demands have only grown. Classroom teachers found themselves working under conditions for which many were unprepared, and their students faced having to learn in unfamiliar ways.

As this school year began, teachers took on more responsibility and tasks, including minimizing learning loss and providing social-emotional support for students while simultaneously covering grade-level standards, prepping lessons, completing child-study paperwork, and keeping in contact with parents, to list just a few of the challenges that COVID gave them.

Last May, we surveyed teachers nationwide and found that almost three-fourths of them considered leaving during the 2021-2022 school year. Some were looking for teaching jobs in other schools and districts; however, more than half of the teachers we surveyed shared that they had looked at non-teaching job postings, and almost one in five applied for a job outside of education. Last spring, the Virginia Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators reported more than 1,000 unfilled teacher positions across the Commonwealth.

Unfortunately, our research suggests that these trends may only get worse, for several reasons. First, teacher morale is very low and has only declined over the past few years. We conducted a similar survey in May 2021 and 29.5 percent of teachers reported experiencing low morale. When asked the same question in May 2022, that figure jumped to 53.6 percent.

Second, teacher mental health is also a growing factor in burnout levels. The good news is that Virginia teachers reported higher levels of mental health than teachers from other states did in our study. However, there is also this: Almost one-third of Virginia teachers sought counseling to support their mental health issues during the pandemic, compared to 19.2 percent of all adults, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control.

What Teachers are Up Against

When asked about what was most challenging during the 2021-2022 school year, Virginia teachers talked about trying to support students academically, socially, and behaviorally. For instance, in our survey 30 percent of our state’s teachers shared frustrations with student behaviors as they returned to school. As one said, “Students need a lot more guidance and help this year with their classroom behaviors…[they] do not have a lot of independent work skills and behavior has been a challenge.” Other teachers described student behavior as “more immature” because young people had been forced by the pandemic to be online and out of school for close to two years. General descriptions of student behavior and student disruptions referred to such issues as “major challenges within the classroom.” Some of the most concerning responses teachers shared included increased extreme, violent student behavior and weapons at school when compared to previous years.

We held follow-up focus groups with survey respondents last fall and found these concerns to be the case regardless of grade level. Teachers described students as “having almost forgotten how to do school.” Especially in the early months of the pandemic, a lot of grace was given in grading: student work was often accepted when submitted late, and graded for completion rather than accuracy, if it was graded at all. The teachers we spoke with shared that many of their students had difficulty pivoting back to pre-pandemic norms around grading and submitting assignments, which was part of what led to dips in academic achievement.

Another significant concern Virginia teachers brought up was the lack of support from administrators and parents, with 25 percent noting that issue in their short survey responses. For example, one teacher said, “I’ve had students with behavior problems and unresponsive parents. Parents also have unrealistic expectations for their students returning from the pandemic.” Another teacher shared that, “parents are blaming me for their child’s bad choices.”

With administrators, most of these teachers felt unsupported with student behavior problems and with having unrealistic workload and student success expectations put on them. One said, “I’ve had severe student behaviors that went beyond the classroom. Administrators put a lot of pressure to improve test scores but did not provide behavior support when (teachers) asked.”

Our analyses in the national survey found, again unsurprisingly, that teachers who felt supported by parents and their school leadership had higher job satisfaction and were less likely to pursue employment outside of education. These findings stayed the same regardless of a teacher’s race or gender, or whether they taught in a rural, urban, suburban, or Title school. Our findings suggest that teachers with supportive administrators and the space and flexibility to do their professional work were less likely to consider leaving the classroom. This support might come in multiple forms, such as mental health days for teachers or for school leaders to limit the extra work they ask from teachers.

We saw similar results from Virginia teachers. Forty-two percent say they feel supported in their school environments; however, of those teachers, 54 percent said that their support came from grade level teams rather than school administrators. The teachers who mentioned support from others beyond their teaching colleagues said their school administrators and parents understood what the teachers were going through. For example, one teacher said, “I have been told by administrators that I’m doing a great job and received an extra day of leave when I was struggling with the workload.” Another noted, “Administration and parents were very supportive during the year. They all understand what we (teachers) were going through during COVID-19 and their understanding provided relief during the stressful times.”

In the end, administrators must be realistic about their expectations for teachers and the demands being made on them. At both the school and district level, they need to find appropriate resources to support teachers. Parents should focus on working with teachers and need to remember that teachers are often just the messengers passing along requirements created by school leaders. As such, parent complaints about policies or testing should be taken up with school leaders instead of teachers.

Moving Ahead

When we asked teachers what they needed, one of the overwhelming responses was more time. This often stemmed from teachers having to cover the classrooms of colleagues who were out sick or had to complete extra paperwork because of larger class sizes tied to the teaching shortage. As one teacher described it, “Teacher turnover and the inability to hire high-quality teachers to replace those leaving the profession is a real challenge. My special education caseload is above the state limit because we do not have enough hands to support the needs of our students.” Though school districts have tried to patch these holes with long-term substitutes and by moving instructional coaches back to classrooms, it has still led to teachers taking on the brunt of the work. Teachers in the survey said they didn’t have enough time to plan, prep, grade, and contact parents because they were often asked to cover other classes and thus they had “too much work and not enough time to get it done.” Our survey findings suggest that teachers’ workloads should be reduced and return to pre-pandemic levels; however, no one wants to see that lead to lower standards for students, especially given pandemic-related learning loss.

School leaders and policymakers must recognize what an increased teacher shortage may mean for Virginia. It could lead to larger class sizes and/or less qualified classroom teachers across the state. Virginia has begun to take small steps in supporting teachers and we are encouraged by the pay raises for educators passed by the state in the last two years and grants for mental health services in

An International Teacher Top (?) Ten…

The top 10 most frequently mentioned sources of stress for teachers, compiled in the Teaching and Learning International Survey, which reached out to teachers in 48 countries and was conducted by OECD (the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development):

1. Having Too Much Administrative Work (49%)