Jacqueline Pogue Lyons and Scott Goldstein: Our teachers are in distress — here’s how we can meet the moment

By Commentary On Dec 15, 2021 Last updated Dec 15, 2021

“If I can’t get everything done in a 12- to 14-hour workday, there is something seriously wrong with the system, not me.” This sentiment, shared by DC teachers across our city, reflects the crucial turning point facing DC schools.

We knew this year would present immense challenges for our schools. With most students having been out of the building for over a year, educators were ready to rise to the occasion and provide our students the personalized attention and learning they need. Despite COVID-19 fears, most educators were excited to return to their school buildings and share an in-person connection with students, one of the things that brings so much joy and satisfaction to our work as teachers.

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons is president of the Washington Teachers’ Union.

We knew students would need not only additional academic support but also — and just as important — space for social and emotional connection. Yet despite extensive conversation about the need to make up for “learning loss” and a healing-centered response to student (and adult) trauma, this simply hasn’t proved to be the focus. We heard big promises to reimagine education, but instead we’ve simply doubled down on failed strategies. DC has put more and more on the plate of our educators, increasing exponentially the amount of required standardized tests and taking time away from personalized student support. The demands are through the roof, and there’s been no break from our punitive teacher evaluation system that a study released this year found to be racially biased. The hours have become nearly impossible to bear, and many educators are reaching a breaking point. They are forced to choose between their profession and their personal well-being and commitment to family.

Over the past few weeks, our organizations — the Washington Teachers’ Union and DC teacher advocacy organization EmpowerEd — have surveyed over 600 teachers in both DC public schools and public charter schools on the state of morale and retention. The staggering results, though not surprising to those of us listening to teachers every day, should be a red alert for DC education leaders. (Given the initial low response from DC public charter school teachers, we are reopening the survey for those educators to see if we note any distinct challenges and opportunities unique to this population.)

DC already has the highest teacher turnover rate in the country, significantly above the average for similar urban districts. And now, 81% of the educators who responded to our survey say that staff morale is worse than in previous years. A worrisome 14% say they are considering leaving before the end of the school year, with another 18% strongly considering leaving at the end of the year and another 14% somewhat seriously considering leaving. In fact, only 24% of respondents said they will definitely stay in their role. We’ve been working in education for a long time, and never have we seen educators as overwhelmed as they are now.

While there has been a disturbing narrative for some time that teachers at schools with higher “at-risk” student populations are leaving because of challenges working with the students, our results confirm what we’ve always known to be true: Teachers are leaving or considering leaving because of citywide or school policies to a much greater degree than challenges working with students. These policies are depriving teachers of the professional authority to do their jobs.

A lack of resources and unreasonable demands for quick-fix results to complex challenges also contribute to teachers leaving DC Public Schools. Educators noted both greater professional autonomy and more classroom support as among the top five solutions that would keep them in the classroom.

Teacher turnover hits our students hard — and it’s not just because of the lost relationships with adults they look up to and count on. Without the staff consistency to implement proven practices over time, schools simply cannot sustain success — particularly when they have to spend valuable professional development time bringing 25% to 30% of teachers up to speed each year.

The most striking thing about our results may be how wide the chasm is between what little our city leaders are doing to address retention and what educators say is needed. While city leaders have discussed ideas like housing incentives and tax credits, our educators are saying emphatically that what they need is a fundamental shift in the demands of the job itself and to be trusted as professionals to do their work. When we asked educators what solutions would keep them in the classroom, flexible scheduling ranked No. 1. The largest share of our educators are between 26 and 35 years old, and many who are starting families are now realizing that they cannot sustain all the outside-of-work hours they pour into their job and still be there for their families. So they make the sensible decision to move to a more flexible profession. “The workload is beyond ridiculous,” said one Ward 8 teacher. “I get to work early, work non-stop, then when I get home, I work for another 3 hours. … I am taking care of other people’s children and neglecting my own.”

As a result of the pandemic, many industries that teachers would be qualified to move into now allow a great deal of flexibility and telework. Rather than counting on teachers staying in this career because they are mission-driven, we must do more to make an educator’s job sustainable — for instance, by creating flexible scheduling options, as some schools have done. “The pandemic has shown me that I am not valued or appreciated in my role as a teacher,” another Ward 8 teacher said. “While I did not enjoy distance learning, I did appreciate that I could take a walk during my lunch break when the day was particularly hard. It made me realize that I should pursue a profession where I am able to have flexibility to take care of myself mentally when the day is particularly challenging.”

It’s those little things — being allowed to take a quick walk, to go to the bathroom when you need to, to take care of your own mental health — that keep your head above water. If we can’t allow our educators that, we’ll continue to lose them in droves. But that’s not the only reason to overhaul school schedules and educator schedules: The idea of reform holds great promise for students and staff alike. Changes would allow us to address issues like providing safe passage to school and offering more extracurricular activities and experiential learning — while also assuring that educators have more time to plan and a far more reasonable work-life balance.

We also must focus on solutions for the particular challenges faced by educators of color. Since the implementation of mayoral control of schools and teacher reforms like the IMPACT evaluation, DC has lost more Black teachers than has any other major city in the country. Many of them had been in our schools for decades and were among our most experienced educators. Although we still have a more diverse workforce than many other districts, we are struggling to recruit and retain educators of color to reflect our student population, so we also need to work specifically to support our educators of color who are often burdened with additional work in family communication, translation and more. While we seek to strengthen the pipeline through grow-your-own programs and other initiatives, we must also do far better in supporting and retaining teachers of color. DCPS doesn’t offer nearly enough opportunities for them to take on leadership roles — even though its own exit surveys show that doing so would help retain our educators of color. “I’m a great teacher, but I am ready to share my skills with fellow staff to have a greater impact on students and families,” said a Black educator at a DCPS school. “But when leadership opportunities are available, I’m not considered.”

Amid all the challenges, we heard from so many educators that their greatest desire is to stay in the classroom — but that without real change, this work is simply not sustainable. The good news is that our educators are telling us what they need, and the solutions are within our reach. The workforce is changing across the county. We can either seize this moment of change to embrace transformations that will retain our educators, or fall back on the same tired responses. The success of our students and our schools is at stake.

Jacqueline Pogue Lyons is president of the Washington Teachers’ Union, and Scott Goldstein is founder and facilitator of the teacher advocacy group EmpowerEd.

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