Teachers' job stress has improved to pre-pandemic levels; they are still quite stressed

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Teachers work longer hours and experience more stress at work than other adults working under similar conditions.

For their trouble, they earn less money on average than other workers whose jobs also require a college degree, and they are more likely to say they find their pay inadequate.

A new report from the RAND Research Corporation draws on a nationally representative survey of more than 1,400 elementary and secondary teachers to assess educator well-being. The report comes at a time when school districts across the country continue to grapple with high staff turnover and staff shortages in key areas.

Although teachers lag behind other workers on many measures of well-being, the State of the American Teacher Survey finds that the situation for teachers is not necessarily worse than in recent years. Even work-related stress may be improving. In 2024, only 59% of teachers reported experiencing frequent work-related stress, down from 78% in 2021.

This is similar to rates of work-related stress in American Federation of Teachers surveys from before the pandemic.

When RAND researcher Sy Doan shared preliminary results of a survey on work-related stress at an Education Writers Association conference last month, Minnesota elementary school teacher Audra DeRidder said the reported reductions in stress should be taken with a grain of salt.

“It’s not that it’s getting better, it’s just that we’re getting used to it,” said DeRidder, who appeared on a panel with Doan. “I think administrators like to call that resilience.”

Sixty percent of teachers said they felt burned out, similar to what RAND found two years ago. Burnout was defined as the percentage of teachers who felt that the stress and disappointment they experienced at work “wasn’t really worth it” or that they weren’t as enthusiastic about their work as they once were.

Nearly half of respondents (and two-thirds of early career teachers) said managing student behaviour was the most common source of work-related stress. Other major sources of stress were low pay, administrative work and long working hours.

Only 14 percent cited political intrusions into teaching as a frequent source of stress, but that number rose to 18 percent for teachers working in schools that serve mostly white students. Struggles over how to teach about history, race and gender have become increasingly intense in majority-white suburban and rural communities.

A separate RAND survey conducted last year found that two-thirds of teachers reported they had decided “on their own” to change the way they speak about controversial or politically charged topics in response to political and community pressure.

More than 20% of teachers said they intended to leave their jobs this year, and 17% said they intended to leave the profession. This is similar to what is true for other working adults with a college degree. Other research has found that only about one-third of teachers who say they intend to leave their jobs do so this year, but two-thirds of those who say they intend to leave do so within three years.

“It’s important to think about the connection between well-being and working conditions and how the two interrelate,” said Elizabeth D. Steiner, a RAND policy researcher and co-author of the report. “Other research suggests that multiple things need to happen for teachers to be satisfied with their jobs. Raising pay is important, but it’s important to pay attention to other aspects of the job, such as hours worked or relationships with administrators.”

Black teachers say they have less stress and less pay

But salary does matter.

Compared to white teachers, black educators reported less job stress but were more likely to say they intended to leave their jobs. One of the main reasons was salary. Black educators earn less on average than their white peers and work longer hours.

A 2023 survey by Education Week that used a different methodology and questions found that Black teachers reported higher morale and a sense of purpose in their jobs than their white counterparts, but also experienced higher turnover.

Teachers worked an average of 53 hours a week, according to RAND, compared with 44 hours a week for other adults with at least a college degree. And they earned about $70,000 a year, compared with nearly $88,000 for other working college-educated adults.

While Hispanic teachers earned on average only slightly less than white teachers, black teachers earned on average only $65,000 a year, but were more likely to report working more than 60 hours a week.

Respondents who were dissatisfied with their pay said on average that a $16,000 raise would make them feel their pay was adequate—an amount nearly equal to the pay penalty teachers experience compared to other college-educated professionals.

Meanwhile, black respondents indicated their desired salary would be just $6,700 more than their current salary.

Chalk rhythm It is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Related:
An alarming number of educators are abandoning ship
Key Strategies for Educational Leaders to Boost Morale
For more news on teacher stress, visit eSN's SEL & Well-Being hub