In their own words: why teachers are leaving the field

The purpose of this study was to hear from teachers in the United States about the circumstances and experiences that have led them to leave or are leading them to consider leaving the profession. This was a concurrent, partially mixed, qualitative dominant mixed methods study with online surveys collected from 1429 current teachers considering leaving and former teachers who have already left the profession. Respondents reported most commonly that the biggest problems they faced are problematic student attitudes and behaviours (22.3%), heavy workload (21.0%), challenges with school administration (15.3%), and inadequate compensation (14.5%). Respondents reported that other teachers they knew had left the field because of very similar reasons. About half (50.8%) of respondents would advise someone considering beginning a teaching career to not do it. There were statistically significant differences between those still teaching and former teachers in some areas.