Feb-Mar 2022 Advisor

HEALING

4 CEA ADVISOR FEBRUARY–MARCH 2022

The headlines bear out what every educator, from a first-year teacher to a 40-year veteran, knows. Teaching is not only among the most rewarding professions but also— even in the best circumstances—one of the most stressful. ARE NOT ALRIGHT THE KIDS AND TEACHERS

TEACHERS ARE NOT OK, EVEN THOUGH WE NEED THEM TO BE Education Week

MANY TEACHERS SAY THEY’RE REACHING A BREAKING POINT NPR

TEACHER SHORTAGES BECOME DIRE, PANDEMIC STRESS PUSHING TEACHERS ABC News

In a recent CEA podcast episode, 2019 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Sheena Graham explains how pandemic stress pushed her to retire early. Listen at cea.org/podcast .

2019 Connecticut Teacher of the Year Sheena Graham can attest to that. Last year marked the first time the Bridgeport music teacher decided not to teach over the summer, something she’d done her whole career. Still broken and exhausted from pandemic

teaching, she left the profession earlier this year, months before the school year came to a close—and years before she’d planned to retire. “Pandemic stress was the final straw,” she says. “It magnified all the ‘mini pandemics’ that were brewing beneath the surface, and it made them impossible to ignore. It was more than a little demoralizing to have people see the fight by educators to keep schools safe as something separate from keeping students safe. Educators touch every other profession out there, but somehow we continue to be undervalued.” (Hear her interview on Two T’s in a Pod wherever you get your podcasts.) Surveys by CEA and the National Education Association reveal that Graham is not alone. At the start of the school year, 38 % of Connecticut teachers surveyed said the pandemic has made it more likely that they will

leave the profession or retire early. By the middle of the school year, an NEA survey found an alarming 55 % of educators nationwide indicating they’re ready to leave the profession earlier than planned. This is true regardless of age or years teaching, and the number is even higher among Black (62 %) and Hispanic/Latino (59 %) educators, who are already underrepresented in the teaching profession. More than three in four educators report frequent job-related stress, and 27 % report symptoms of depression, compared to 10 % of adults in other professions. Burnout “Throughout this pandemic, America’s educators have shown us how committed they are to helping their students thrive,” says NEA President BeckyPringle. “But as our survey showed, after persevering through the hardest school years in memory, America’s educators are

Danbury student Will Sweeney and school counselor Curtis Darragh are helping CEA get the message out that schools need more counselors, social workers, and psychologists.

BY THE NUMBERS NEA’s survey in January revealed, among other things:

74 % of educators have had to fill in for colleagues or take on other duties due to staff shortages

80 % of members report that unfilled job openings have led to more work obligations for the educators who remain

90 % of members say feeling burned out is a serious problem (67% characterize it as very serious)

Indoor air quality remains a key priority , with 95% of members supporting improved ventilation in schools and only 28% indicating that their school’s ventilation system is adequate

Not all schools are maintained equally

91 % say that pandemic-related stress is a serious problem for educators

View the full survey.

In our nation’s schools serving majority Black, brown, and economically disadvantaged students, only 21% of educators believed their schools had adequate ventilation