Even if teachers have remained on the job for a long time, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re satisfied in their role. And the more positively teachers perceive their colleagues’ mental health, the more satisfied they feel about their own jobs.
Those are two findings from a new survey that examined the job satisfaction of high school teachers, the factors driving it, and teachers’ likelihood of leaving the profession.
The survey of 17,000 high school teachers across the country conducted in September 2023 by the College Board, the nonprofit that oversees the Advanced Placement program and the SAT, aligns with other national surveys in recent years that have focused on the job satisfaction of teachers across grade levels.
The College Board found that only 39 percent of public and private high school teachers were “very satisfied” with their job. Teachers who reported being likely to leave the profession were, unsurprisingly, more likely to report being dissatisfied with the profession.
Researchers at the College Board, however, also observed opportunities for schools to turn things around.
Surveys find common detractors from teacher job satisfaction
In College Board survey findings published this summer, high school teachers cited low student motivation and a lack of public respect for the profession as the top two factors that take away from satisfaction with their jobs.
However, teachers who cited a lack of administrative support and a lack of autonomy over what they teach as detractors were more likely to report higher levels of dissatisfaction with their jobs.
The top two detractors from teacher job satisfaction in the College Board survey align with findings from other surveys.
A Pew Research Center survey conducted last fall found that nearly half of all teachers—and 58 percent of high school teachers—said that their students showing little to no interest in learning is a major problem in their classroom. Many teachers also cited cellphone use as a major distraction.
Other surveys, including an EdWeek Research Center survey from October 2023, further highlighted a disconnect between teachers and school leaders: Nearly half of teachers—49 percent—said their morale had worsened over the past year, but only 32 percent of school leaders perceived this decline, marking a significant perception gap that could affect the relationship between teachers and administrators.
School leaders play a major role in how satisfied teachers are with their jobs and how likely they are to stay in the classroom, past research has shown.
Given the increased attention on students’ mental health needs, the College Board survey also looked into teachers’ perceptions of their colleagues’ mental health.
“We wanted to take a little bit of a different position here and ask about the mental health of the teachers at their school overall, just in case it felt too intrusive to ask about their own personal mental health,” said Amanda Jacklin, a College Board researcher.
More than half of high school teachers participating in the nonprofit’s survey, 65 percent, rated the mental health of fellow teachers in the school building as “poor” or “fair.” The researchers’ analysis suggested that when teachers perceived better mental health among their colleagues, they were more likely to report higher job satisfaction.
In an EdWeek Research Center survey earlier this year of both public and private school teachers, educators said their own mental health has worsened and that they are less satisfied with their careers than they were a year ago.
Boosting teacher morale can happen piece by piece
When it comes to improving high school teachers’ job satisfaction, the College Board’s study found some promising possibilities.
Researchers with the nonprofit observed that increases in teacher tenure did very little to shift job satisfaction. In other words, teachers who had been on the job longer weren’t automatically more satisfied with their work.
This means schools addressing teacher retention actually need to work deliberately to keep teachers and not assume that their desire to stay will increase over time. Some of this work could include offering teachers opportunities to teach advanced courses, increasing salaries, or improving teacher-administrator relationships, the College Board reported. These changes don’t have to happen all at once, however.
When the College Board researchers looked at teachers who reported the most detractors working against their job satisfaction, their probability of feeling very satisfied with their job doubled, from 9 percent to 18 percent, if the perception of mental health of their colleagues at school improved from “fair” to “good”, said Katie Fletcher, a researcher with the College Board.
“This illustrates the positive impact that mental health perceptions can have on teachers who are really struggling with disengagement at work,” Fletcher said.
“Incremental solutions that reduce the things teachers say detract from their job satisfaction might be really helpful. We’re thinking that you don’t have to solve everything in order to have an impact,” she added.
