Ed Trends Minisode: 2024 Educator Confidence Report Insights on Teacher Concerns and Trends in Education

Educators are giving the teaching profession a low grade. Why is that?

On today's bite-sized episode, we will be zeroing in on educator's top concerns, their views of the profession, and what we can do to make it better. We'll dive into HMH's Educator Confidence Report, which surveys educators about the issues that impact them daily and asks them how we can improve the profession going forward.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hi, I'm Kaylee Rhodes , and this season on Teachers in
America, we're introducingEdTrends Minisodes.
These bite-sized episodes willkeep you informed of the latest
issues impacting education.
Today, I'm going to break downHMH's latest survey of educators
, zeroing in on educators' topconcerns, their views of the
profession and what we can do tomake it better.

(00:29):
Let's get into it.
This year marks the 10thanniversary of HMH's Educator
Confidence Report, conducted inpartnership with the research
firm MarketCast.
Every year for the past 10years, we've been checking in
with educators about the issuesthat impact them daily and
asking them how we can improvethe profession going forward.
So let's hit some highlights.

(00:50):
Let's start with the EducatorConfidence Index, which measures
educators' views at theprofession on a scale of 0 to
100.
Sound familiar, teachers.
In the 10 years that HMH hasbeen conducting this survey,
sentiment toward the professionhas remained fairly low, with

(01:11):
small increases and dips alongthe way.
This year, educators' outlookis on a slight upswing from a
historic low of 40 in 2022 on ascale of 0 to 100, to 42 in 2023
and 43.6 this year in 2024.
These numbers, while slowlyincreasing, do show that there's
room to grow.
So why do educators give thisprofession such a low grade.
Our survey spotlights their topconcerns.

(01:32):
Number one low teacher salaries.
Teachers, we understand thisone Followed closely by number
two educators' mental health soimportant, just as important as
number three, students' mentalhealth.
Number four lack of educationfunding.
And finally, number fivestudents' social and emotional
needs.
Low salaries have long been aconcern in the teaching

(01:54):
profession, even before weintroduced it as a topic in the
survey in 2018.
And we, as educators,understand that one.
If you're outside the field,you've likely seen news articles
about how teachers in somestates have to work a second job
or have a side hustle to makeends meet.
Educators have also said thatburnout is a critical issue, so
it's no surprise that concernover their own mental health

(02:16):
also tops the list.
If our educators aren't happyand aren't healthy, they're not
going to get the results in theclassroom that they need and
they may not stay.
Educators have told us thatthey're always on during the day
and often spend nights andweekends preparing lessons
instead of resting up andrecuperating, and a balanced
workload would really help here.
According to 82% of respondents, that's a significant

(02:40):
percentage.
Two of these issues are mostlyout of a principal's control.
Low teacher salaries and lackof funding are, unfortunately
not something our administratorscan directly address, but
student and teacher mentalhealth and social and emotional
learning, or SEL, are thingsthat a principal can impact.
Teachers need to be served by agreat principal to help them do
the job effectively.

(03:01):
As a teacher myself, I've seenthis firsthand.
Guys, we know that principalthat leans into our health and
well-being can make or break itfor us.
There's support for principalsat the Center for Model Schools
established by HMH to addressthe challenges in education
today.
The center focuses on five keyingredients.
These are essential elements tomaking sure that every child is

(03:23):
in the model school theydeserve.
Decades of research from theUniversity of Chicago Consortium
on School Research or UChicagoConsortium identified these five
essential factors of schoolsthat improve student outcomes.
So, number one you've got tohave an effective leader.
You have to have collaborationamong your staff.
It needs to feel like a team.

(03:43):
Your families need to be reallyinvolved in the school, because
the school is a biggercommunity than just inside the
walls.
You need ambitious instruction,high standards for all kids and
, finally, you need a supportiveenvironment.
When leaders focus on theseelements, they get better
results and teachers tend tostay at these schools and do
great work the ingredients for asuccessful school culture

(04:05):
elements.
They get better results andteachers tend to stay at these
schools and do great work.
The ingredients for asuccessful school culture are
really ingredients for anysuccessful culture in any
community.
But, as with most things thatare utopian, this is a tall
order.
So how do we accomplish this?
Well, the great news is is thatwe've got resources to get you
started.
Look for the links to a greatread on our blog for educators,
with practical steps for leaderson building supportive

(04:27):
environments and a webinar onmaximizing your team's
collective wisdom to create aframework for rapid change.
So let's get back into thereport.
This year's findings show thateducators are less likely to
leave the profession than theywere 10 years ago, which is
great, but many still say theyhaven't ruled it out.
In fact, only 33%, or a thirdof respondents, say that they

(04:49):
have no interest in leaving.
Teacher retention has long beenan issue for the profession,
and principals of schools withhigh teacher turnover often have
no other choice than to hireinexperienced teachers to fill
vacancies.
And hiring and training newteachers is expensive and too
much turnover is never good forschool culture.
How can that culture take rootif everything around.

(05:11):
It is in constant flux.
Educators responding to oursurvey have ideas about what
might attract teachers to theprofession and make them want to
stay.
And teachers.
These answers won't surprise us.
First, 82% said improved salaryand benefits.
We need to be having thosestandards of living and those
security measures met for us tobe enjoying our profession.

(05:31):
58% said adequate funding forclassroom supplies and resources
.
That's a big one.
We want to make sure that we doour jobs and we do it well.
And 53% said support forwell-being and physical health,
which anyone who's not in theteaching profession can also
agree that their own workplacewould be improved by those
things.
So we just touched on this, butit bears repeating.
Leaders can increase retentionby creating better school

(05:55):
culture.
Culture keeps educators out ofschool or it drives them away.
So keep building towards thosefive components of a model
school that we talked aboutearlier Effective leaders,
collaboration among staff,involved families, ambitious
instruction and a supportiveenvironment.
Teachers we can agree that inthe best schools that we've had

(06:17):
the pleasure of teaching in, theingredients that make up that
experience are leadership thatmakes sure all staff, not just
teachers, are involved indecision making and owning the
vision.
They feel like a true team.
It feels like everyone has anequal voice.
It's all about dismantling thathierarchy and making sure that
we all feel like we own the plan.
They didn't just tell teachersto meet a standard without

(06:38):
providing needed support.
We would never tell students tomeet a standard without
providing needed support.
We would never tell students tomeet a standard without
providing them support, and sowe should never do that to our
teachers.
And finally, these schoolsworked on building trust and had
trust built in to their day.
Leaders did what they said theywere going to do in a
transparent way, and ifsomething went wrong, they
addressed it.
This is the kind of culture weall want to work in.

(06:59):
Looking ahead to futureepisodes we'll talk about.
While educators' concerns aboutthe profession point to
system-wide challenges, theirresponses to survey questions
about AI in the classroom may because for cautious optimism.
Teachers agree that emergingtechnologies like generative AI
can be a potential tool forbattling burnout by giving them

(07:20):
time, time back, time back to dowhat they do best connect with
students in a meaningful way.
We'll dig into educators' viewsof AI in our future Ed Trends
mini-sode.
Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 2 (07:33):
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(07:55):
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You can find the transcript ofthis episode on our Shaped blog
by visiting hmhcocom.
Forward slash shaped.
That's hmhcocom forward slashs-h-a-p-e-d.
The link is in the show notes.
The Teachers in America podcastis a production of HMH.
Thank you to the productionteam of Christine Condon, tim

(08:25):
Lee, jennifer Corujo, mio Fry,thomas Velasquez and Matt Howell
.
Thanks again for listening.