Teacher well-being: An underlying problem in turnover

As pandemic-era federal funding dries up and districts face budget shortfalls, they are also grappling with impacts of teacher turnover, which rose to a ten-year high of 18.7% in 2022. A new University of Washington report is shedding light on the relationship between teacher turnover in Washington state and the working conditions that support well-being.

David Knight, an associate professor at the University of Washington College of Education who led the analysis, said, “Job stressors and increases in teacher turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic are well-documented, but fewer studies link working conditions, stress, and burnout to educator retention.”

The UW analysis linked results from a national teacher survey by RAND Corporation with state administrative records to see how survey responses on job-related stress correlated with teacher retention.

Top Five Working Conditions

The Learn Together Surveys asked over 3,500 teachers (including 448 from Washington state) about working conditions that support teacher well-being. The survey distinguished between “relational” factors, such as a sense of belonging, and “organizational” factors, such as feeling safe at school.

According to a RAND report summarizing the survey findings, Washington teachers reported that the main conditions supporting their well-being were relational: feeling supported by school administrators when managing student behavior and feeling a sense of belonging in school. They also cited three organizational factors that contributed to well-being: feeling that one’s school has a clear vision for social and emotional learning (SEL), feelings of safety at school, and having dedicated time to collaborate with other teachers.

The UW researchers linked the teachers’ survey responses with their employment records from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), which effectively showed how job-related stress and burnout impacted teacher retention a year later.

Knight said, “One thing that makes our analysis unique is that we link teacher career changes from administrative records with teacher perceptions of their working conditions and their own mental and emotional health from survey data.”

Novices most affected by stress, veterans by burnout

Overall, the UW analysis showed that the highest turnover rates among Washington teachers were for those having difficulty coping with job-related stress (21.4%) and those experiencing burnout (20%).

Drilling down, Knight and his team found that a teacher’s years of experience impacted these outcomes. Early career teachers (those with up to five years of experience) had the highest rates of turnover, about 28% on average. But when those novice teachers reported difficulty coping with job-related stress, that percentage rose to a whopping 43%.

Knight said that from the 2021-22 school year going into 2022-23, “early career teachers (those who have been in the classroom less than five years) experienced the largest increase in school exit rates.” He said difficulty coping with job-related stress was an especially strong predictor of turnover.

In contrast, the analysis showed that for veteran teachers (those with six or more years experience) the real predictor of turnover was burnout. While reported feelings of job-related stress correlated with them being only slightly more likely to leave their position, burn-out was the strongest predictor of turnover.

Knight said, “When they reported feeling burned out, they were almost three times more likely to leave their position.”

Relational working conditions have a BIG impact

The UW data analysis provides one major takeaway: Relationships matter.

The graph below shows that when Washington teachers reported a lack of certain relational factors (“no”=orange bar), turnover increased. For instance, when teachers reported not having a sense of belonging and not feeling supported by administrators around student behavior, turnover rates increased by 11 and 10% respectively.

“Relational factors, such as a sense of belonging, are positively and significantly associated with teacher retention, meaning reduced teacher turnover,” said Knight.

Overall, Knight’s team found these relational working conditions often played just as strong a role as organizational conditions such as professional development, collaborative planning time, or pay incentives.

In fact, when organizational supports aren’t in place, strong relationships with administrators and fellow teachers are sometimes the only supports teachers have. A Washington elementary teacher responded to the RAND survey about the lack of formal teacher support programs: “I don’t know of any programs, but the staff is extremely helpful and caring where I work. They make every day easier.”

Well-being of teachers of color

The UW analysis also looked at teacher demographics and well-being and found that when schools failed to cultivate a sense of belonging for teachers of color, overall teacher turnover rates increased four percentage points.

“In Washington, only 12 percent of our teaching workforce identify as people of color, while the majority of our students are students of color,” said Tana Peterman, Washington STEM’s Senior Program Officer for K-12 STEM. “Understanding and addressing working conditions and turnover rates for teachers of color is essential for closing opportunity gaps and building on the assets that students of color bring to their school experience.”

She added: “We know from previous research that having a same-race teacher, even for just one year, contributes to student learning outcomes and helps identify any special needs.”

Organizational supports need to be robust to be effective

Consistent with prior research, organizational conditions also contributed to teachers’ positive well-being. These include such as schools having a clear vision for social and emotional learning and having adequate time for collaboration with other educators. However, data from the RAND survey showed that 39% of Washington teachers (see figure 4 in the UW Analysis) said they lacked adequate collaboration time with other teachers—an organizational support that teachers said would be helpful.

One elementary teacher in Washington said their principal acknowledged the need for teachers to connect with one another on a regular basis. The principal ended up reducing the number of staff meetings to provide time for grade-level teams to review data together: “This gift of time and trust for us classroom teachers has been, in my eyes, a support for teacher well-being.”

Similarly, when a school had a clear vision for social and emotional learning (SEL), this was one of the top working conditions that supported teacher well-being. The RAND report said when teachers perceived social-emotional learning to be “superficial” or “not sustained over time,” they found it less useful. One teacher participating in the survey criticized their school’s SEL implementation as “fluffy,” because there was no follow-up training for teachers.

The challenge: providing support in an era of tightening budgets

As districts consider tightening budgets next year, finding ways to support teachers is key to keeping them in their jobs: from training principals in the importance of cultivating good relationships to giving teachers time to collaborate.

Knight said: “When budget shortfalls impact funding that would pay for organizational supports, principals should protect their relational supports, such as promoting an inclusive work environment, and building professional relationships. Doing so may help them avoid unwanted turnover.”

Knight and his colleagues have also published research on strengthening compensation to reduce turnover: “Our prior research identified the importance of adequate salaries for reducing teacher turnover, but the data show that improving working conditions for teachers, especially relational aspects of the job, is also important for promoting teacher well-being and retention.”

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The STEM Teaching Workforce blog series is written in partnership with researchers from the University of Washington’s College of Education, based primarily on their research into the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts on the education workforce. The blog series’ topics will include principal turnover, teacher well-being, and the barriers that paraprofessionals (classroom instructional aides) face to maintain credentials or become teachers. The blogs will be published in 2024.