More than half of California teachers reportedly plan to quit or retire sometime in the next 10 years, according to a new report.
Findings from Education Week's annual State of Teaching report suggest that while California teachers have somewhat better morale than teachers nationwide, many are still planning to leave the profession.
According to the report, which surveyed 5,802 U.S. teachers, overall teacher morale dropped slightly this year after some small improvements last year.
“There’s a lot of evidence that indicates that teacher morale has been declining nationwide and is at, by some measures, the lowest point in recent memory,” Holly Kurtz, director of the EdWeek Research Center, told the LA Times.
With regard to morale, teachers in California scored a 16 on a scale with a ranking range of -100 to +100. The national morale score for teachers was only a 13.
But California teachers deviated from the norm when asked about their futures. While only 35 percent of teachers nationwide said they planned to leave the profession in the next 10 years, almost half of California teachers said they planned to stop teaching.
According to another survey conducted in January by the California Teachers Association, nearly half of the 40 percent who said they were planning to leave their jobs said they had to do so for financial reasons.
The Education Week survey also asked teachers what would most improve their morale. The top answer was more time for lesson planning.
After that, the second highest response on the wish list was improved student behavior. Approximately three-quarters of elementary school teachers, 61 percent of middle school teachers, and 54 percent of high school teachers reported that student behavior was getting worse.
More than half the teachers surveyed said that improved student behavior would boost their morale in the classroom. Some practical steps they recommended included restricting students' access to their cell phones and other personal devices, and imposing tougher consequences for students who regularly misbehave. They also said limiting parents' ability to circumvent consequences for their children and training for parents on how to better teach their children to behave in school would be helpful.
California teachers in particular also asked for smaller class sizes. Schools in California have some of the largest class sizes in the nation, averaging approximately 29 students to a class. The national average is about 25 students, according to the survey.
Teachers responding to the survey agreed that approximately 19 students is the ideal classroom size, while California teachers asked for classrooms between 20 and 24 students.
The findings come amid an effort by teachers’ unions across the state to push for better wages for educators. Teachers in San Francisco began striking in February and teachers in San Diego said they were planning a one-day work stoppage later in the month, according to Politico.
More than two dozen unions representing approximately 77,000 teachers in the state are currently battling for better wages and conditions in contract negotiations.
On Tuesday, the San Francisco school board said it would agree to a deal with teachers, but add five days to the school year lost due to work stoppages during the strike, NBC Bay Area reports.
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