Teacher dissatisfaction is real.
After the 2021鈥�22 school year, left the profession at their highest rate in at least five years. Many more considered quitting. According to the Merrimack College Teacher Survey, a nationally representative poll of more than 1,300 teachers conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in January and February of 2022, 20 percent of respondents said they were 鈥渧ery likely鈥� to leave the teaching profession within the next two years, and 24 percent reported being 鈥渇airly likely鈥� to do so.
Not all recent news about the teaching profession is negative, though. Researchers meeting at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting earlier this month reported that 53 percent of the undergraduate education majors they followed in surveys and focus groups in 2021 said they received encouraging messages about the teaching profession from people they respect, like family members, friends, or former teachers.
What neither set of statistics offer is detailed information on why teachers depart, what they miss about teaching, and what, if anything, could have made them stay.
Those details can only come from the teachers themselves who chose to leave.
Three former educators with more than 40 years of combined teaching experience gave the lowdown on why they left the profession and where they are now. While their experiences are more anecdotal, here鈥檚 some of what they had to say.
Why they leave: a growing list of frustrations
Former Florida elementary teacher Zachary Long didn鈥檛 simply leave the teaching profession after seven years on the job. He now helps others do the same. Long and his wife Brittany in 2019 co-founded Life After Teaching, an online community of over 80,000 teachers considering leaving the classroom for other careers. What started as a passion project evolved into an income-generating initiative that offers paid products. It got a big boost in the summer of 2022 when it was chosen by Meta to participate in the Facebook Community Accelerator Program, which helps online community leaders grow their impact and sustainability through training, coaching, and financial support. Long routinely communicates with teachers and former teachers who share anecdotes about why they leave the classroom. He, in turn, revealed some of the most common complaints teachers tell him are pushing them out of classrooms.
Multiple reasons rise to the top of the list. Student behavior is a leading complaint Long hears from teachers who contemplate or leave teaching, and one he believes is among the hardest to address. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone has the answer,鈥� said Long, referring to accounts of extreme student behavior targeting teachers that has resulted in physical or emotional harm that he鈥檚 heard.
Out-of-touch administration also ranks among the top reasons teachers tell Long they quit, or plan to.鈥淭here鈥檚 some amazing stories about administrators not being qualified or not knowing how to work with teachers in a way that鈥檚 beneficial. Stories upon stories about that,鈥� said Long, who taught most recently in Lake Weirsdale, Fla.
Pay, which some might expect to top teachers鈥� reasons for wanting to quit, is also cited often, according to Long. And it seems to be the tipping point鈥攏ot the primary complaint.
Such was the case for , a 63-year-old educator-turned-professional actor, writer, and aspiring film director whose salary topped out at $58,000 in his 30th year as an educator in Texas, most recently in Waxahachie, Texas, where his various titles included the following, often simultaneously: athletic director, head football coach, Advanced Placement social studies teacher, and department head.
Thompson listed several gripes about Texas鈥檚 educational system and its leaders. He referred to the educational system as out of date, noting its development during the Industrial Revolution. He said he feels that his state鈥檚 educational leaders are more concerned with obtaining a 100 percent graduation rate than whether students are actually learning.
He also pointed to a lack of autonomy for teachers, mentioning that administrators interfered with how he taught history, even before Texas enacted HB 3979 in 2021, which limited discussions of race and history from classrooms. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 want me to spend a lot of time on Martin Luther King [Jr.] or the Civil War,鈥� said Thompson.
The 鈥榣ast straw鈥�
While former teachers expressed varied stressors and frustrations about their jobs, not being able to effectively balance work and family life often served as the proverbial 鈥渓ast straw鈥漚 lot of the time.
Long describes his own reckoning with these circumstances: 鈥淔or me, it came down to this: My wife had a health crisis. At the time, I was working 60-plus hours a week. During summer, I worked a part-time job. I realized that I had to make a choice: Do I want to spend more time with my family, or all my time teaching and working?鈥�
taught elementary music and STEAM in Lake Bluff, Ill. for six years before becoming a best-selling children鈥檚 author. It wasn鈥檛 until she became pregnant and went on maternity leave from her teaching job in April 2021 that she decided to leave the profession.
鈥淚 realized I could not be the mom my daughter needed me to be if I stayed in teaching. The hours were going to be too long,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 asked myself: How would I have the patience? How would I have the energy?鈥�
The pandemic didn鈥檛 help, either. Weber made clear that she worked at a supportive, well-funded district.
鈥淏ut even with all those factors, with remote learning I was essentially doing three full-time jobs,鈥� she said. Weber was, in her words, 鈥渟hoved into a 4th grade co-teaching position鈥� while teaching music remotely and serving as on-call tech support for the whole school鈥攚ith no extra pay.
Next steps
While there鈥檚 no data that tracks the career trajectory of teachers once they leave the profession, some of the industries Long has seen teachers pivot toward most frequently include instructional design, corporate training, communications, and educational technology. But teachers鈥� expansive skill set could lead them in many directions, Long observed.
鈥淭eachers create content constantly,鈥� Long said. 鈥淣ot only that, they create content that not only is attractive, but can effectively get across the message they need to 鈥� As a business owner in the online space, this was the strong foundation for many of the skills I use now on a daily basis.鈥�
Long added that teachers are expert communicators, planners, problem solvers, and collaborators.
鈥淵ou can go on and on down the list,鈥� he said, referring to the transferable skills teachers possess. As Weber鈥檚 and Thompson鈥檚 career shifts demonstrate, a teacher鈥檚 skill set also can transfer to less-common careers.
Weber, who had been writing children鈥檚 books on the side while she taught, published her first one in January 2020, Lazlo Learns Recorder. What became, as she put it, 鈥渁 little bit of a side income,鈥� eventually became much more.
鈥淭hings took off during the pandemic,鈥� Weber said. 鈥淚 became a best-selling author, and had Disney reach out to me.鈥� Subsequently, Weber penned a book version of the Disney movie, 鈥淓ncanto.鈥� To date, Weber said she鈥檚 had 19 children鈥檚 books published, all of which have been big sellers.
Thompson, the teacher turned full-time actor, explained some of the ways he draws on his former profession in his current one. Perhaps the most obvious way is knowing how to entertain an audience, something that Thompson said he did routinely as a teacher attempting to make history interesting to students.
He also leans on his former experiences to get into character. 鈥淎ll the different kids I鈥檝e gotten to know and parents; as an actor, that鈥檚 your library resource,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you have to play a certain role, you can find that reference.鈥�
Thompson also brings to his new career what he referred to as the teacher and coach work ethic. 鈥淚鈥檓 used to getting up, having a checklist. People are shocked by how much I鈥檓 doing,鈥� said Thompson, who rattles off a number of upcoming acting and script-writing projects he鈥檚 working on. 鈥淚 work every single day.鈥�
What they miss
The other common factor that the former educators say stays with them since leaving the profession: the students.
鈥�I still miss working with the kids,鈥� Long said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 help kids now, but I help a much bigger audience.鈥�
Thompson echoes that sentiment. Asked what he missed about teaching, he responded: 鈥淭he kids, absolutely without a doubt. They鈥檙e what kept me in it.鈥�
鈥淏ut,鈥� he added, 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 go back for any amount of money.鈥�
Using an acting metaphor, Thompson reflected on the state of the teaching profession as he sees it. 鈥淲e [teachers] are put in a villain role,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut teachers need support. There鈥檚 a lot of bitter teachers out there.鈥�
