The Teaching Profession

Strategies for strengthening teachers and their working conditions

Report

Teaching Innovation: New School Staffing Strategies Inspired by the Pandemic

Authored byLynn Olson

School staffing strategies that developed during the pandemic, the conditions that enabled them, and how educators overcame barriers to the innovations

Report

A Policymaker’s Playbook for Transforming Teaching

Authored byThomas Toch

The District of Columbia Public Schools’ transformation of teaching into a performance-based profession

From the Field

Q&A: Goldhaber on the Teaching Gap’s Troubling Consequences

Why low-income students are often stuck with the least experienced teachers

Report

Educators and ESSER: How Pandemic Spending Is Reshaping the Teaching Profession

Authored byPhyllis W. Jordan, Bella DiMarco

A comprehensive picture of state and local ESSER spending on the educator workforce

Report

Master’s of None: The Fallacy of Advanced Ed Degrees

Authored byGrace Gedye

The questionable practice of rewarding teachers for earning advanced degrees

From the Field

Q&A: Kraft on Why Reforming Teacher Evaluation Has—and Hasn’t—Succeeded

Authored byThomas Toch

The push to improve teacher evaluation and resistance it has encountered

Report

Scaling Reform: Tennessee’s Statewide Teacher Transformation

Authored byLynn Olson

Tennessee’s redesign of its teaching profession

School Spending

+31%

Change in per-pupil spending by school districts (2002–2022)
-2.5%

Change in average salaries of district employees (2002–2022)

Source: The 74

AI Training

67%

Low-poverty districts that trained teachers on AI in fall 2024
39%

High-poverty districts that trained teachers on AI in fall 2024

Source: RAND

Teachers & AI

39%

ELA teachers who reported using AI tools for instructional planning or teaching in 2023-24
21%

Math teachers who reported using AI tools for instructional planning or teaching

Source: RAND

Teacher Stress

59%

Teachers who reported frequent job-related stress during the 2023-2024 school year
33%

Comparable working adults who reported frequent job-related stress

Source: RAND

Classroom Challenges

58%

Teachers who report having to address students’ behavioral problems every day
28%

Teachers who report having to handle student mental health challenges every day

Source: Pew Research Center

Teachers of Color

6%

All U.S. elementary and secondary school teachers that are men of color
26%

All K-12 students that are boys of color

Source: American Institute for Boys and Men

Arming Teachers

54%

Teachers who believe teachers carrying firearms would make schools less safe
20%

Teachers who believe teacher-carry would make schools safer

Source: RAND

Teacher Salaries & Rent Prices

15

Cities where a one-bedroom rental is unaffordable for a new teacher with a bachelor's degree
9

Cities where a one-bedroom rental is unaffordable for a new teacher with a master's degree

Source: NCTQ

Teacher Pension Costs

$21.8 billion

Teacher pension costs in 2001
$63.7 billion

Teacher pension costs in 2021, adjusted for inflation

Source: Equable Institute

Teacher Starting Salaries 20-21

$32,495

Average starting salary for teachers in Montana
$56,313

Average starting salary for teachers in DC

Source: National Education Association

Principal Stress During the Pandemic

83%

Principals who reported frequent job-related stress last school year (2020-21)
59%

Principals who cited supporting teachers’ mental health as a main source of stress

Source: Learn Together Surveys