TEACHER BURNOUT 1
Research Paper
Teacher Burnout
Raul Saez Jr.
Liberty University
Author Note
Raul Saez Jr.
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose. Correspondence concerning this article should
be addressed to Raul Saez Jr.
Email: rsaez@liberty.edu
TEACHER BURNOUT 2
Abstract
The topic of my research paper is teacher burnout. I work for the largest charter school
company in the state of Ohio, Accel School. Charter schools in Ohio do not benefit from city tax
money and only receive payments from both State and Federal offices. That payment works out
to be about half of what a local district school receives per student. With that in mind, charter
schoolteachers have to do more with less and they have to do it better than the local city school
counterparts. Teachers are a schools most important asset. Teacher burnout is very common in
the charter school world. Teacher burnout is normally caused by pressure to increase proficiency
scores on state tests, large classroom sizes and the additional time teachers spend outside of the
classroom lesson planning and grading papers. In the paper we will discuss the root causes of
teacher burnout to include the work atmosphere that contributes to burnout. We will also focus
on Karen Rumschlag researched how Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be used to help lower
teacher burnout and help increase teacher retention. Additionally, I will provide some
recommendations on how to increase job satisfaction among educators and help lower stressors.
TEACHER BURNOUT
Step I
Organization Summary
Pansophic Learning is one of the largest educational management companies in
the world, with schools in 6 different countries. ACCEL Schools is the United States
division of a Pansophic Learning. ACCEL School is the largest charter school network in
the state of Ohio. ACCEL School offers all subjects and grades Pre-School though 12th
grade. ACCEL School is made up of 45 School, the majority service K-8th grade. As part
of their portfolio, they have several specialty schools to include, 10 Early Learning
Academies, 2 Bilingual School, 3 Humanities and Arts School and an Online Academy.
In the 2020-2021 School year ACCEL School has enrollment of more than 13,250
Student and employees more than 1200 educators (ACCEL School, 2020).
Organizational Challenges
The primary challenge for charter schools is normally financial. Community
schools, which are often called charter schools, are public schools created in Ohio law;
are independent of any school district; and are part of the state’s education program.
Community schools are public schools of choice and are state and federally funded
(ODE, 2020). Additionally, charter school do not receive funding from local
municipalities in the form of city tax revenue. On average charter schools receive half the
funding that their local public-school counterparts receive. Due to funding issue, charter
schoolteacher has to do the same job a city employee for about a third less the paycheck.
Charter schools in general struggle to retain teachers for this reason.
Teachers spend countless hours outside of the classroom working on several task
that just cannot be completed during the workday but have to be completed before the
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next day. Form grading papers to preparing lesson plans, a teacher can find themselves
working many late nights during the school year. All of this overtime goes unpaid and
regularly takes away from their own families. All of these extra activities can certainly
create a great deal of additional stress on teachers. When stress accumulates, teachers are
at risk for professional burnout. The concept of burnout has been of scholarly interest for
decades, but in recent years the focus of job burnout has been on teachers (McLean & et
al., 2019).
State and national testing plays a very large role in the existence of charters
school. In Ohio, community school can only open in Challenged School Districts.
According to Ohio Revised Code, House Bill 3314.02 (2003) Challenged School
Districts are defined a school district that received a grade of "D" or "F" for the
performance index score and a grade of "F" for the value-added progress on their
previous year state report card. If a charter school cannot outperform the local district
school the state revokes their charter and closes them down. The only evaluation process
is the state proficiency test. In these urban neighborhoods charter school have the same
kids who have been failing in the local school. Charter schools now have these same
students and have to do better with the same student that were failing before. Charter
school have to accomplish this goal with sometime half the funding and the local city
schools.
The state requires all students grade 3rd through 10th to take state proficiency
testing in both English Language Arts and Math twice a year. The value of the 3rd grade
test is so high that the pressure to score well is immense on not only the 3rd grade teacher,
but also on the K-2nd grade teachers as well. The value-added score that a school receives
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is based on both tests that 3rd graders take. These teachers find themselves offering
afterschool tutoring and spending additional time working with students who are falling
behind. All of this additional help for students is on top of the other additional tasks
teachers go home with every night. Teachers felt that there were too many responsibilities
at work, which left them little time to relax. Too often, administrators put too many
demands on teachers that leave little time for planning, reflection and organization
(Gonzalez & et al., 2017). The amount of pressure teachers feels to increase the test score
of the students who are below level to reach on level standard is so strong, some teacher
will find them teaching to the test or even eliminating other subjects throughout the day
to accommodate for the amount time needed.
Individuals and The Part They Play.
The administrators in the public school of these challenged districts have failed
their students. In turn, the charter school that open in their districts are seen as better
opportunity for parents educate their children. Most of the students come from broken or
mixed families, some students in these districts only know one parent or do not know
either of their real parents and live with grandma or in foster care. The number of the kids
in our school who are living in foster care or with a guardian that is not one of their
biological parents is close to 25%. These families have enough on their plates to have to
worry if their schools are taking care of their children. The public school district that my
school is in has been on the challenged school list since 2006, that means students who
graduated last year have never been in a public school that scored better than a “D” or
“F” on their school report card. The quality of education has been lost with these students
and families. There will always be families who need school choice because their
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assigned school district is poor performing. But poor performance isn’t the only reason
families exercise school choice. Choice is about giving families the opportunity to send
their child to whatever school will best meet their student’s needs (Pointer, 2019).
School Administrators play a large role in the cause of teacher burnout. School
leadership can make or break a school. School performance is directly related to the
performance of school leadership. There is growing perception that common set of
leadership standards which are required to in order to meet specific standards for schools
(Hallinger, 2018). In an attempt to sustain or foster a teaching and learning culture,
teachers are exposed to certain unwanted internal or external environmental challenges,
which hamper their abilities and result in the development of feelings of exhaustion and
strain or even frustration (Buka, & et al, 2017).
Teacher play the largest roll in teacher burnout. Teachers by nature are caring
people who want the best for their students. They become invested in their students and
have their best interest in mind. That caring and devotion can become a detriment to
themselves in the long run. Part of this issue can stem from poor leadership, the
expectations on teachers to ensure student perform on level can be very stressful. It is his
administration that decides the quality of the school, the atmosphere of learning, the
dimension of refined methodology, the educator's assurance and the level of anxiety for
students’ results (Koskei & et al, 2020).
Step II
Karen Rumschlag (2017) conducted investigative research and collected data
from 162 rural Ohio teachers regarding burn out. Rumschlag (2017) quoted (Liz Riggs
2013) in her research, “Teaching is an emotionally draining and physically exhausting
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profession that causes many teachers to look for other occupations.” The stressor placed
on teachers are causing them to leave the profession prior to retirement eligibility and
perusing a different career. According to Rumschlag’s (2017) research, novice teachers
tend to be the ones who leave and usually before their fifth year. Additionally, the author
discovered that teachers who have established themselves within the profession were
more willing to work through until retirement. This disparity does have a lot to do with
the leadership they received early on their career. With the increased pressure for students
to increase test scores and oversized classes contribute the reason novice teachers decided
to leave. During Rumschlag’s (2017) research teacher who had left the profession found
more of a balance between professional and personal life.
In 1943, Abraham Maslow published his hierarchy need theory of motivation. The
need hierarchy theory states that motivation is a function of five basic needs:
physiological safety, love esteem and self-actualization (Kinicki, 2021 p164). Maslow
proposed that the five needs are met sequentially and relate to each other in a “prepotent”
hierarchy (Kinicki, 2021 p 165). Maslow theory places the five basic needs in a pyramid
with the prepotent needs on the bottom. The bottom of the pyramid holds the
physiological as our most basic needs for survival like food and water. Then safety next
followed by love, esteem, and then self-actualization.
When applying the Maslow hierarchy of needs to teachers in rural Ohio,
emotional exhaustion (burnout), personal accomplishment, and depersonalization can be
a concern for teachers (Rumschlag, 2017). While the physiological needs are regularly
meet for teachers, the first need that contributes to teacher burnout is safety. Stressor that
teachers regularly work within can affect the need to be safe from physical and
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psychological harm. Teachers who do not feel safe and secure in their working
environment cannot have confidence or be creative in their teaching (Rumschlag, 2017).
It is difficult for teachers to reach creativity, achievement, and self-actualization when the
lower levels of Maslow's hierarchy are not achieved.
According to research conducted by Rasskazova, Ivanova, and Sheldon (2016)
Maslow’s hierarchical theory of needs, people do not become sensitized to “higher” level
needs until they have satisfied their “lower” level needs (a moderator hypothesis); until
then, they are unprepared to benefit from higher-level satisfactions. During that research
the authors determined that if an individual is not completely satisfied in the lower levels
the chances of reaching self-actualization in diminished but in the same study stated in
order to reach self-actualization did not require the complete satisfaction of the lower
levels. Teachers want to have a high level of job satisfaction in order to inspire them to
remain in the teaching field.
With all the challenges that that they face, charter school are finding a way to be
successful and exceed the expectations place on them. This success is happening because
of the teachers in the building but that success is coming at a cost. The opinions regarding
the success of the school are mixed. Teachers have shown concern over their jobs being
directly related to test scores, while administrator know that poor test core could reflex
poorly on them as well. Even when administrators do not agree with the testing concept,
they are obligated to continue to emphases test scores. Principals described the associated
accountability as ‘discouraging’ because it does not represent an accurate picture of ‘what
we really look like’ and the ‘growth we’re making.’ (Kownacki et al, 2020).
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Teacher struggle to keep up with the expectations from administrator, the long
hours grading papers and doing lesson plans, and minimal support from school leadership
drives the burnout factors.
Research suggests that at a time when teachers must carefully examine
and master the roles and responsibilities of their profession to meet the
needs of students as well as the demands of administrators and policy
makers, strains experienced by teachers are resulting in teacher turnover
(Valli & Buese, 2007) (Thibodeaux, Labat, Lee, & Labat, 2015, p. 228).
All of the additional tasks, most teachers will easily take on without complaint on most
occasion, in return all the really want is to fell a little appreciation for their efforts. Job
satisfaction is the most important tool that teachers can use to fight teacher burnout.
Teacher cooperation, student participation, and administrator support are vital pieces in
the efforts to produce academic growth. Ohio charter schools are located in the states
most impoverished neighborhoods with some of the most challenges, a lack of
administrative support contributes to teacher burnout and low teacher retention rates.
Step III
Teacher burnout is directly related to the school’s leadership and the philosophy
of the school’s administrator is key to improving the school’s culture. The first step in
fighting teacher burnout and raise the retention rate of teachers requires school leadership
to continuously grow and master the concepts of leadership. Transformative learning
theory offers explanations with regard to how school principals’ experiences can be
linked to meaningful leadership development that yields actual changes in practices and
perceptions (Kim, 2020). The use of mentor programs and collaborative teaching teams is
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an idea that can help support teachers. Teachers being able to work together with both
veteran teacher and their peers in an effort to develop technics to improve learning. As
the Chief Administrator of the school, I am responsible for the day-to-day operation of
the school and teachers fall under my responsibility. The culture and educational
philosophy are the primary focus of my position. The effectiveness of leadership and the
positive management style are regularly the two essential qualities to measure the
effectiveness of both the teachers and students.
Taking the time to listen to the teachers and understand their concerns was the
first step in improving the culture of the school. Therefore, a new leader must be willing
to educate herself about the organization, its traditions, its history, its processes, policies,
and procedures (both formal and informal) (Generett & Welch, 2018). In my school, I
instituted a policy that allowed teacher in same grade to work together on planning and
requiring only a single set of lesson plans to be develop as long as those teachers are all
using them on the same day. The tedious work of lesson plans was one of the first things
that teachers talked about when I took over the position. Another burnout factor was
classroom size. Under previous administrations class sized would swell to 30 to 35 kids
with one teacher. This type of teaching is very stressful for teacher especially when more
than half of those student are not reading on grade level. With class reduction size
teachers could focus on basic skills and focus working with students who need extra help.
The recommendation for helping solve the problem of teacher burnout has to do
with leadership. School leadership has to change. The focus cannot be on directly to
proficiency testing. Teaching to the test is more stressful than just teaching. Learning for
students should be fun. School leaders should look to a shared responsibility concept of
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education. In this model teachers and administrators are accountable for the school and its
achievements. While at the same time teachers share the weight of some of the decision
making for the student. Empowering teachers to make decisions that are best for students
is a powerful tool. The accountability of the school is vital to the success and can be
beneficial to the mental health of everyone. This type of concept helps to hold teachers
accountable for their actions and gives them a sense of ownership. Self- accountability
can be defined as the need to justify one’s actions and decisions to oneself in order to
confirm or enhance a self-identity or image shaped by strongly held beliefs and values
(Dhiman & et al., 2018).
According to the bible, God tells us “Look not every man on his own things, but
every man also on the things of others” (Philippians, 2:4, 1796, 2020, KJV). As school
leaders we have to look to the interest of the people in our building who matter, the
students and teachers. We have to focus on what is best for the students and most of the
time that comes full circle back to what our teachers need. When our teachers begin to
burnout we lose them either physically or mentally and this creates problem for everyone
in the school. In Acts 20:35 (1796, 2020, KJV) the bible teaches us “I have shewed you
all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the
words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Educators on all levels need to remember those who need us most and support them in
the words of God.
Conclusion
Marlow Hierarchy of Need has a direct influence on teacher burnout. Teachers
who cannot establish satisfaction in every level of the pyramid will never truly reach self-
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actualization. The immense pressure that is placed on teacher to constantly show
academic improvement as well as all the other extra-curricular tasks teachers take on are
the prime factors in teacher burnout. Without safety and emotional support from the
school administrators, teacher will never be able to teach to their potential. School
leadership will have to find better ways to support teachers and students to fulfill those
lower levels and encourage them to be better. Once these elements are fulfilled, teachers
can have mastery, achievement, and gratification (Rumschlag, 2017). Using
empowerment and self-accountability is a way to motivate teacher to take ownership in
both their classrooms, but their school as a whole. Leadership is key in preventing teacher
burnout and improve retention among teachers. When schools lose teachers, this affects
the academic achievement of student.
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