Why I Have Conflicting Feelings About Teacher Appreciation Week

Every year, I have to come to terms with my mixed feelings about teacher appreciation week.

On the one hand, teachers have an incredibly important and challenging role—every word they speak and action they take influences the next generation of our society, which is no small matter—and they very much deserve our attention and gratitude. On the other hand, creating a specific day (and now week) of the year for this gratitude, means that there can be a feeling that we have “checked the box” on showing appreciation for our educators once we’ve dropped off that Target gift card or ordered them lunch.

Certainly teachers are grateful for these small tokens of appreciation, but they are only that—tokens. Truly appreciating teachers means stepping back and doing what we can to ensure that they have what they need to be satisfied and successful in their roles throughout the year. And there is certainly much more the US needs to be doing here for current teachers, as the most recent Educators for Excellence (E4E) nationally representative survey of public school teachers finds. Specifically, to make the profession attractive for current and future teachers, the E4E survey indicates that:

1. Current teacher workloads are unsustainable, but leveraging other school staff could free up more time for teachers to prepare for core instruction;
2. Raising salaries across the board is necessary to attract and retain a talented and diverse teacher workforce, but differentiating compensation is also necessary to recognize exceptional performers and keep them in teaching roles; and
3. Districts must prioritize the retention of talented, racially- and linguistically-diverse teachers with the capacity to help students meet desired goals.

These findings stack up with much of the research on teacher satisfaction and retention. But the survey only asked current teachers what they need now, not what would have been helpful as they began their journey to become a teacher (it would be even more interesting to hear this from people who entered teaching but only remained for a few years). Although we don’t have that information from this survey, or from others, it’s likely that teachers would want to know how the preparation and credentialing pathway they chose would influence their ability to find a teaching role in their chosen grade and subject, and be successful in that role.

Unfortunately, there is very little concrete evidence for predicting what aspects of preparation or credentialing are more likely to result in someone being a “good” teacher. One of the few attributes that research has identified as leading to stronger novice teaching is engaging in a sustained, high-quality pre-service experience in a PreK-12 school environment prior to becoming a teacher. The research has identified the following attributes of a “student teaching” experience as being most important for prospective teachers’ classroom readiness: 1) having a strong, experienced teacher mentor; 2) being placed in a similar school setting to the one they will ultimately be employed in; and 3) having the hands-on experience align with and reinforce pre-service coursework and training on teaching methods. There is also some evidence that teachers who have engaged in rigorous pedagogical coursework, and have content knowledge, are more likely to positively contribute to student outcomes.

But not all pathways into teaching require all, or even any, of these elements, as our newly released national scan of every available state pathway to enter teaching shows.

So, as we celebrate teachers this week, I urge states to consider E4E’s recommendations, and also to take action in the four areas below to ensure teachers have the preparation and support they need to succeed in their roles from the moment they first take responsibility for a classroom.

Because our would-be teachers would really appreciate it.

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