Chapter 3: Educators’ Job Burnout and Intentions to Leave During the Covid-19 Pandemic

The 2020–2021 academic year was trying for educators. We use nationally representative samples of teachers and school leaders from the RAND American Educator Panels to document K–12 teachers’ and leaders’ levels of concern about job-related burnout and stated consideration of leaving the profession. We also study factors associated with teachers’ and administrators’ high concerns about job burnout and teachers’ considerations to leave their jobs. Approaching retirement age (being 55 or older), having to change instruction modes, hybrid teaching, COVID-19 related health concerns, and high levels of job burnout all appear to be important predictors of teachers’ probability of considering leaving or retiring from teaching. Health concerns and switching instruction modes were also associated with higher levels of concern about teacher burnout. Interestingly, our results indicate a potential disconnect between factors that affect administrators and those that affect teachers. Leaders, especially those in larger education systems, may not be acutely aware of the impacts that shifting modes of instruction have on teachers and thus underestimate the stress doing so puts on teachers. Overall, our analysis from the first full academic year in the pandemic raises concerns about potential increases in teacher turnover as a result of high levels of job burnout during the pandemic, which aligns with recent reports of increased teacher turnover entering the third academic year of the pandemic. Surveys like ours could be used to monitor teachers’ considerations to leave and levels of job burnout during times of crisis and help inform timely strategies for better-retaining teachers.