Survey reveals almost 50% of California teachers may quit teaching soon

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California teachers have slightly better morale on average than their peers in other states, but more are planning to leave the profession in the next decade, according to Education Week’s annual The State of Teaching report.Teacher morale dipped slightly across the country this year, after some improvement last year, according to the survey of 5,802 U.S.teachers.“There’s a lot of evidence that indicates that teacher morale has been declining nationwide and is at, by some measures, the lowest point in recent memory,” said Holly Kurtz, director of the EdWeek Research Center.California teachers scored 16 on the Teacher Morale Index, which is based on three questions from the Education Week survey.

The morale score for U.S.teachers overall was 13.

The scale measures teacher morale from -100 to +100.Nearly half of California teachers who were surveyed plan to retire or quit in the next 10 years.Nationwide, an estimated 35% of teachers plan to leave the profession in the next decade, Kurtz said.A survey released in January by the California Teachers Assn.

found that while a majority of teachers are satisfied with their job, 40% are considering leaving education within the next few years — nearly half for financial reasons.Teacher morale is increasingly important as states continue to struggle with teacher shortages, especially in hard-to-fill jobs like special education, science, technology, math, engineering and bilingual education.Low teacher morale directly affects students, said Alex Robins, a social science teacher at Terra Linda High School in San Rafael.Teachers with high morale create a positive environment that helps students to enjoy learning, he said.Educator morale began to decline during the pandemic when teachers struggled with distance teaching, Kurtz said.

The additional difficulties they faced when they returned to the classroom also contributed to the lo...