Opinion
Teaching Profession Opinion

I Quit Teaching for Ed Tech. Here’s How It Turned Out

It ended some problems, but introduced others
By Amma Ababio — March 24, 2023 4 min read
Illustration of a professional woman at the door opening to a bright exterior with computer code in the air.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

At the end of the school year in 2019, after a heartbreaking conversation with a student’s parent, I wiped my tears and submitted my resignation from my job as a part-time science teacher in the Boston public schools after many years of deliberating over whether I should stay or go. I loved my students, but I finally had to put myself first. I had had enough of the late-night lesson planning, constant stress, and lack of sleep.

I was not alone. Even before the pandemic, we teachers knew our profession was in crisis. Currently, teachers are facing low pay; lack of resources; parental hostility or indifference; contentious laws about what we can, cannot, or must teach or say in the classroom; and so much more, causing high turnover and steady attrition among our most senior educators.

Like so many other former teachers, I found hope in the shiny offices of budding education technology companies. In ed tech, those of us who left the classroom aspire to escape the expectations from students, parents, and administrators that we could solve every problem plaguing education—along with the expectation that we should also be caregivers.

What I imagined my life would be like outside the classroom was partly right. Today, no student or parent asks me to help them heal from generations of trauma while I am simultaneously trying to figure out how to heal from my own. As a child immigrant myself, I am no longer continuously triggered as I research how to integrate trauma-informed teaching into my classroom, focusing on the healing of my students who were primarily immigrants or other children of immigrants. I can now focus on my own well-being.

But the problems that drove me out of the classroom have not gone away. I’m happy to sing the praises of what I do, but let’s have an honest conversation here: Leaving the classroom isn’t a total solution. I’m still in education and I still have to respond to its problems, albeit in a different form. So why am I writing this? My goal here is not to deter my fellow educators from coming over to ed tech but to clarify what my life is like on the other side.

At the end of the day, I turn off my laptop and live life. I have time for myself. I see my friends regularly. I cook dinner every night. I have hobbies.

As a teacher, I dealt with administrators’ demands, late nights completing inane paperwork and regular reports for people (like parents) who weren’t pleased with what I had to say. Now, instead of administrators, I have managers and senior leaders. Depending on what my team and department are working on and the time of year, I still navigate long hours, resource shortages, impossible deadlines, and understaffing. Sometimes, I must block my calendar to ensure I have time for a restroom break. Sometimes, I endure meetings over topics that could have been resolved in quick emails. Sound familiar?

I’ve also lost the consolations and joys of the classroom. Even after a difficult teaching day, I could often calm down by thinking about one of my students chuckling in my science class over the absurdity of photosynthesis or the importance of triangles in architecture. But today, “my students” form rows in a never-ending spreadsheet. Occasionally, I imagine what it would be like to have student #16,953 in my class. Would #16,953 and #16,954 laugh when learning about the water cycle? Idle thoughts like these get me through hours of data analytics.

Every winter when I was a teacher, I dreaded cramming as much content as I could into the brains of my 30 students as we approached the annual high-stakes exams. Now, I have 30 million students, and the stakes are higher than ever for them to be able to pass. I feel the weight of every word as I write an email to a sick content producer to ask when they will finish the next step in the production process.

See Also

Monochromatic image of items on a teacher's desk, with vivid color on an apple and a plant.
Laura Baker/Education Week and Irina Strelnikova/iStock/Getty
Recruitment & Retention What Teachers Who Might Quit Are Really Thinking
Elizabeth Heubeck, October 28, 2021
6 min read

And I was wrong when I thought my days of sobbing about my job were over. I’m brought to tears every time we have to rewrite and whitewash the history of science because some states’ stringent laws against critical race theory require me to erase the contribution of non-Western cultures to science or include the development of pseudoscientific racism. I am deeply saddened that a generation of students may need to wait until college, if even then, before they learn that a group of Roman and Greek philosophers did not magically create the natural sciences.

Despite these challenges, I will never go back to teaching science in a K-12 classroom. I didn’t sell out by going corporate. Ed tech is filled with former educators. I love my peers and co-workers; they understand when I roll my eyes during a meeting. We share our classroom war stories and our joyful moments.

And here’s the amazing thing: At the end of the day, I turn off my laptop and live life. I have time for myself. I see my friends regularly. I cook dinner every night. I have hobbies. My salary reflects my many years of experience and advanced degree. I can afford mental health therapy, psychiatry, dentistry, and vision appointments, all while making a positive difference in the lives of teachers and students—though in a different way. I would not give up any of these things.

If you’re a teacher considering a career shift, I encourage you to explore all your options, rather than feeling the only one is to join us in ed tech. Know what you are giving up and what you are gaining in any new career. Make decisions with open eyes, an open mind, and an open heart.

Related Tags:

A version of this article appeared in the April 26, 2023 edition of Education Week as I Quit Teaching for Ed Tech

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Teaching Profession The State of Teaching 'You Don't Know Teacher Tired': Educators Sound Off on Misconceptions
Hear what teachers featured in EdWeek's The State of Teaching Project say makes their jobs more difficult.
Frank Rivera teaches 7th grade ELA at Chaparral Star Academy in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 15, 2023.
Frank Rivera teaches 7th grade ELA at Chaparral Star Academy in Austin, Texas, on Nov. 15, 2023.
Montinique Monroe for Education Week
Teaching Profession Opinion Why I’m Happy Being ‘Just a Teacher’
Not every teacher is an aspiring administrator. That’s a good thing.
Amanda Myers
3 min read
Abstract vector illustration depicting the process of teaching and learning.
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
Teaching Profession What the Research Says Do Teachers Really Earn More After Leaving the Classroom? Not Necessarily
Nearly a decade after leaving a big urban district, many teachers have yet to recoup income, a study finds.
4 min read
Illustration of woman and steps made of cash.
Getty
Teaching Profession The State of Teaching Here's What Keeps Teachers on the Job
Hear why these teachers stay in the job, despite its challenges and lower pay.
Fourth graders do a warm up dance at the beginning of Helen Chan's math class at South Loop Elementary School on November 15, 2023, in Chicago.
Fourth graders do a warm-up dance at the beginning of Helen Chan's math class at South Loop Elementary School on Nov. 15, 2023, in Chicago.
Jamie Kelter Davis for Education Week