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My experience as an urban school educator, both in traditional public schools and public charter schools, has shown me that the story remains the same. School teams start the year at 100% with big promises and a deep understanding of the impact that stability of staff and leadership have on a school. Then it happens. Month by month and year over year the door begins to turn, and one by one, teachers begin to slowly drift away from the passion they once held for their profession.

One of the most prevalent reasons given for the constant revolving door of educators—both new and veteran—leaving the profession is teacher burnout, or the time in a teacher’s life when the demands and expectations of the job exceed the teacher’s perceived ability or desire to accomplish them. Teacher burnout is real. It impacts schools every day, but it is imperative to remember: this is a solvable challenge.

Teaching will always be one of the most challenging, complicated, and exhausting but, at the same time, rewarding professions in our society. Teaching requires a great deal of skill, passion, grit, and optimism in order to be successful; however, these traits alone cannot ensure a teacher’s success. As a School Leader, I have seen the impact of teacher burnout firsthand. Over the past two years, I’ve seen roughly 25% of my staff leave the classroom or move on to “less stressful” roles in education. Coming in last school year, I recognized that in order to keep our teachers, our leadership needed to take a comprehensive look at increasing sustainability in the building. So I started asking questions.

We began the school year with a staff survey—what barriers did they see, potential problems that they felt were unsolvable, and more. Second, I began to examine our staff culture and practices that might be contributing to burnout. I talked with current and former teachers about the reasons behind their personal “burnout” feelings and what could have been done to better address them or cease them altogether. Once I had all of the data, the real work began. It was time to make a plan.

It started with addressing teachers’ number one concern—the feeling of not being successful or that their practice was not improving. I re-prioritized the work of our coaches and developed a more comprehensive support and coaching program.

Another common challenge was the feeling of isolation. Our teachers felt like islands. In response to this, we expanded the scope of our team meetings to ensure additional opportunities for collaboration were embedded into our master schedule. This gave teachers the opportunity to work together to problem solve on the emotionally draining but inevitable work of dealing with difficult student behavior.

Lastly, I revised our staff development programming based on results gathered through observe4success, our teacher observation platform, to focus on areas each teacher felt would be the most impactful for them, personalizing their professional learning based on their needs and scope of our school’s vision.

So what happened? Overall, our staff retention went from a 72% average to 88% in one year, and all of our attrition this year has been planned. Is fighting the war against the revolving door easy? No. It takes commitment and dedication from leadership to look in the mirror and examine the practices and behaviors that may be contributing to the problems. Leaders need to take staff feedback to heart and develop a plan based on that feedback to combat the issue with the same vigor that we approach student learning.

There are other considerations as well. In a recent article published by Edutopia, Maurice Elias of Rutgers University outlines some of the most likely factors that could lead to teacher burnout:

1. Lack of adequate preparation
2. Lack of autonomy
3. Difficult student behavior
4. Lack of support and interpersonal conflict
5. Boredom

These factors were developed from a major case study research conducted by Cary Cherniss. Alone, any one of these factors could lead to teacher job dissatisfaction, but combined, they produce the perfect cocktail for despair and, in the majority of instances, will result in teachers leaving the profession with a feeling of failure in their heart. The good news is that for every problem, there is a solution.

Schools and leaders can combat the “burnout cocktail” with a few key interpersonal elements:

1. Create a positive and supportive staff culture
2. Treat teachers as professionals and provide autonomy where possible
3. Create opportunities for meaningful collaboration and collective problem-solving
4. Provide the resources and supports necessary for teachers to be successful in their roles