Exceptional Educators

Research shows that teachers are the most important factor in a student’s education, and teacher quality and variability across and within schools impacts both short and long-term outcomes, including income level as an adult. However, the last few years have put greater pressure on teachers, making the profession increasingly challenging and increasing teacher dissatisfaction with working conditions. In a RAND survey, 59 percent of teachers reported frequent job-related stress in SY 2023-24, compared to 33 percent of comparable working adults.

There is a continued mismatch between the demand for teachers and the supply of prospective teachers. Teacher salaries have not kept pace with other sectors, making it difficult to attract and retain talent relative to other industries, and one-fifth of vacant teacher positions remained unfilled at the start of SY 2024-25. Without sufficient staff and leadership schools don’t have the capacity to meet the growing and wide-ranging needs of students, which leads to burnout and lack of coherence for students. School leaders can have a direct impact on teacher satisfaction by focusing on the right staffing and supports, but nearly half of all principals reported that they are also experiencing burnout.

Instructional resources are a critical in-school factor impacting student achievement. Yet, we know that, often, teachers don’t have the right supports, training, or tools to be most effective in their roles because of a lack of alignment across curricula, professional learning, and assessments. Despite research demonstrating the critical impact of high-quality materials on student success, only 36 percent of teachers report they have the curricular materials needed for effective instruction, with even fewer reporting that they have received training on effective implementation of those materials.

In a 2024 survey, 63 percent of full-time public school teachers reported wanting to spend more time collaborating with other teachers, and 43 percent said they wanted to spend more time coaching or supporting their colleagues. Flexible, team-based staffing models address this by disrupting the traditional “one-teacher, one-classroom” approach, providing teachers with increased growth opportunities while extending the impact of effective teachers and in some instances, leveraging technology to rethink expectations for teachers’ time. Public Impact’s Opportunity Culture found that teachers previously performing on average at the 50th percentile produced student learning gains equivalent to teachers in the top quartile in math and nearly that in reading when placed on teams led by multi-classroom leaders with a record of high student learning growth. Next Education Workforce at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College found that when teachers in the initiative were asked about their career plans five years from now, 62 percent indicated teaching as their plan, compared to 48 percent of teachers not on Next Education Workforce teams.

AI usage among teachers and students is slowly increasing, and some positive indicators suggest teachers are excited about the potential of AI, but very few report receiving any training or support related to the technology. In one EdWeek survey, more than seven in 10 teachers said they have not received any professional development on using AI in the classroom. This mismatch may lead to greater incoherence as teachers navigate the large market of available tools without support in understanding which solutions will drive impact for which students, and at what dosage.