How to Improve (Teacher) Morale

I use a lot of EducationWeek material in my postings. The information they provide and the reporting they offer is excellent – usually. But this week they shared information for district leaders titled “The District Leaders’ Guide to Shoring Up Teacher Morale.” I’ve been part of and around the K-12 educational world since 1984, and this particular guide is one of the worst pieces of advice I’ve ever seen.

The guide presents three key findings.

The first finding is that teachers aren’t a monolith. The guide goes on to state that:

“Although teacher morale improved in late 2024 compared to a year before, notable differences emerge when the data are broken out by teachers’ ages.”

In a scale from -100 (low morale) to +100 (high morale) Baby Boomers scored 27, Gen Xers scored 19, Millenials scored 15, while Gen Zers scored 6. All those 2024 scores are higher in each category than 2023, but these scores remain pathetically low.

The second finding states that classroom management matters. According to the guide,

“Asked about policies largely set at the district level that could improve their morale, teachers highlighted class size, cellphone policies, and discipline – a sign that they may want more support for smoothly operating classrooms.”

89% of teachers polled said that capping the number of students per class to reduce class size would improve their morale, while 64% said that stricter rules around student cellphone use would do the trick. 49% said that increasing the use of suspension and expulsion would improve their morale.

And finally, the third finding is that cellphones are a pain point for most teachers. According to the report,

“Almost two thirds of teachers advocated stricter cellphone policies – especially at the high school level where they’ve been ubiquitous.”

So if district leaders take into account teacher morale changes given their age, if classroom management is improved, and cellphones go away, then morale will increase.

If you believe that, then I have some ocean front property in Arizona I’d like to sell you.

If you really want to improve teacher morale, then make a commitment to do the following:

1. Stop calling them teachers. Instead, call them “adult learning leaders” (ALL for short).
2. Pay each adult learning leader in the range of $80,000 to $120,000, depending on how well they can get kids to read, write, problem solve, and exhibit good character.
3. Focus on academic growth – not whether the young learner can pass a test or not.
4. Find ALLs that can build strong relationships with their kids (between 20-25 of them).
5. Empower ALLs to make decisions, along with their young learners, about how to define, plan, execute, and evaluate learning goals and outcomes.
6. Empower ALLs to make decisions about how money and other resources are allocated so that all young learners meet their learning goals and outcomes.
7. Embrace learning anytime and anywhere, but train ALLs to negotiate protocols with each young learner regarding when learning time is “on” and when it’s not.
8. Finally, embrace technology (including cellphones) as a partner for both the ALL and the young learner as they work together to meet learning goals and outcomes.

If districts can do these eight things listed above, then chances are adult learning leader morale will improve. But who thinks today’s districts can do any of this? Not me.

That’s why we need a new learning system, built on these eight pillars, so that young learners can become smarter and stronger, and, more importantly, everyone involved in the learning process can benefit from improved morale.

Friday News Roundup tomorrow. Til then. SVB