Opinion: What is causing teacher burnout in Utah?

“I was asked to do so much every day as part of my job and it was exhausting. I left everyday feeling like I had been hit by a bus. …”

“I think the major piece of my burnout was not feeling valued and not feeling like I belonged anywhere.”

“I have had many parents tell me exactly how they feel I should be running my classroom and/or handling situations with their students.”

“I felt that I was not supported regarding inappropriate student behavior. I had a student become somewhat physical with me on three separate occasions, and nothing was done to correct that behavior or support me in the matter.”

“The first thing they do is blame the teachers for problems.”

These were some of the anonymous comments recorded in exit surveys the State Board of Education gave to the 456 educators in Utah who decided in 2022 to leave their profession entirely. A few years ago the state board reported that 42% of new teachers in Utah quit within the first five years, while more than one-third leave at the end of their first year.

That was before the pandemic forced them to rewrite curricula to fit an online format, followed by a time when many were teaching some students in person and some online. Those circumstances not only added to the pressure, they were disruptive, leaving many students behind in the learning of basic knowledge and skills.

Utah isn’t the only state experiencing this problem. A recent piece in Education Week identified the causes of teacher burnout as, among other things, “inadequate workplace support and resources; unmanageable workload; high-stakes testing; time pressure; unsupported, disruptive students; and a wide variety of student needs without the resources to meet them.”

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For these reasons and more, last week’s second annual Show Up for Teachers Conference at the Mountain America Expo Center, hosted by Utah’s first lady Abby Cox, was so important.

For more than eight hours, teachers networked with one another, listened to speakers and learned how to teach better and to take better care of their own mental health. Well-known author and Harvard professor Arthur C. Brooks, and Michael Bonner, a teacher at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, were keynote speakers.

The Deseret News and Utah Business hosted a gala at the Grand America Hotel to honor four Teacher of the Year recipients and to recognize businesses and administrators who have excelled.

Cox, who used to be a special education teacher, said she got the idea for the conference after listening to teachers statewide who were struggling. “Almost universally what we heard from our educators was, ‘We need this,’” she said. “We have to help the helpers.”

Indeed, that is important, not only for the teachers, but for the future generations they are teaching.

State lawmakers and others spend a lot of time debating and voting on bills designed to enhance the state’s education system. Some of these add unnecessarily to the burdens teachers face, while others are important. A recently released National Assessment of  Educational Progress report showed dwindling scores among the nation’s fourth and eighth grade students. That is alarming.

But teachers, who overwhelmingly chose their profession out of a passion for educating and helping children, cannot adequately become a part of the solution to this problem if they feel burned out or under-appreciated. Too often, they are unwittingly swept up in the cross-currents of culture wars and conspiracy theories, in which some outsiders accuse them of indoctrinating students or teaching history incorrectly.

Lifting student performance will require support from administrators, politicians and, to a large extent, parents. It will require involvement and communication, which foster trust.

But it will also require a sense of appreciation for teachers. The annual Show Up for Teachers conference is a good step in the right direction.