Education Week - April 27, 2022 - 17

Here's How Many Hours
A Week Teachers Work
Just under half that time is devoted to directly teaching students
By Ileana Najarro
It's not uncommon for teachers to clock in
extra hours each day to ensure they meet students'
academic and social-emotional needs.
But everything from answering emails to grading
papers adds up: A typical teacher works about 54
hours a week-with just under half of that time
devoted to directly teaching students, a new survey
finds.
The nationally representative survey of more
than 1,300 teachers was conducted by the EdWeek
Research Center between Jan. 9 and Feb.
23 and commissioned by the Winston School of
Education and Social Policy at Merrimack College.
It was designed to replace the MetLife Survey
of the American Teacher, which ran for more
than 25 years and ended in 2012.
Teacher dissatisfaction appears to be at an
all-time high, the survey found, with heavier
workloads in part to blame. While teachers have
always, to an extent, known that good teaching
takes a lot of time, and workloads overall have
increased over the years, the pandemic has complicated
their schedules even more, say teachers.
In the last two years, they've had to juggle regular
teaching duties with covering classes during
staffing shortages; preparing for sudden pivots
to remote learning; figuring out how to get every
student to grade-level learning after interrupted
instruction; and supporting students with greater
mental health needs.
" In general, teachers work more than 40 hours
a week during normal times, and this is anything
but normal, " said Lynn Holdheide, senior adviser
for the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders
at the American Institutes for Research, which
provides technical assistance and consultation
to states and districts to best support their workforce.
While
teachers cited the need for better pay to
match the amount of work they put in each week,
they also said support systems to help manage
their workloads are crucial. It'll take logistical
changes such as reworking school calendars and
prioritizing the social-emotional needs of both
students and teachers, they said.
Teaching involves more work
than the general public recognizes
Those who do not work in schools may point
out that many other professionals also work more
than 40 hours a week, including taking work
home with them. Those outside education often
make arguments that teachers get summers off.
But if you take a closer look at what actually
goes into good teaching, how much time that
takes, and how teachers are compensated for that
work, you'll find that teachers' work weeks are in
many ways just as taxing, if not more so, than in
other careers, and that they receive much lower
pay and less public respect, Holdheide said.
The general public needs to consider that
teachers' work doesn't end with the day's final
school bell. And it's not just about lecturing at the
front of the classroom.
Teachers look at data to assess how students'
learning is progressing and where they need to
be. They care for the well-being of multiple children
at a time. They may not teach in the summer,
but they review curriculum, study and understand
academic standards, learn about and
LéAnn Cassidy, 57, sits in her
middle school classroom in
Connecticut. The 2018
Connecticut History Teacher
of the Year and 2018 finalist
for Connecticut Teacher of
the Year has been a
classroom teacher for 34
years, but is considering
retiring early.
Patrick Jiner teaches 7th
grade math at Lake Middle
School in Denver, where he
logs many extra hours in
the evenings and on
weekends to plan lessons
and respond to parents.
prepare to use new research-based learning strategies,
and more.
" A good teacher is constantly developing and
growing, and that does take time, " Holdheide said.
Yet in the new Merrimack College Teacher Survey,
74 percent of teachers slightly or strongly
disagreed that their salary was fair for the work
they do.
And 63 percent slightly or strongly disagreed
with the idea that they have a lot of control and influence
over their schedule such as the classes they
teach and non-academic duties they take on, which
Holdheide said can contribute to anxiety.
Patrick Jiner, a 7th grade math teacher at Lake
" As a teacher,
you're more
than just a
teacher.
We're parents,
we're friends,
we're
counselors. ...
And sometimes
it's at the
detriment of
our own mental
health and our
own stress. "
Middle School in Denver, said that lesson planning
can take up a lot of time that competes with other
demands in and out of school, such as being able to
attend his daughter's recitals.
If you teach the same grade for multiple years,
teachers can use lesson plans more than once, he
added, but if you're switching grades or need to
cover other classes, regular lesson planning takes
up more hours.
And sometimes teachers get overlooked for
school leadership positions if they're unwilling to
take on extra work outside of contracted hours,
Jiner said.
But very often the extra work is driven by students'
needs. For instance, Jiner had a student get
into a fight with their parents and confide in him
about it. It took 45 minutes to talk to the student,
talk to the parents, and in that particular case, contribute
to a police report about the incident. It was
an emotionally draining experience after a regular
work day.
" As a teacher, you're more than just a teacher.
We're parents, we're friends, we're counselors, and
I think we have this drive in us that we just push forward
no matter what's going on, " Jiner said. " And
sometimes it's at the detriment of our own mental
health and our own stress. "
The pandemic complicated an already
complex workload
If teachers were already noticing heavier workloads
over the years, the pandemic exacerbated
the challenge of not having enough time to get
everything done within set work hours, teachers
said.
Karen Lyon, a transitional kindergarten teacher
at DeVargas Elementary School in San Jose, Calif.,
had to make her own lesson plans for remote instruction
during the start of the pandemic, but also
had to draft instructional guides for parents to be
able to help their children learn at home.
At the same time, thanks to the pandemic, students
and their families are displaying greater social-emotional
needs. Teachers are still processing
those changes.
Afia Lewis, a 6th grade math teacher at Ardmore
Avenue Elementary School in Lansdowne,
Pa., was overseeing younger students recently
when a kindergartner pushed another student off
a bench. When Lewis asked why she did that, the
student said their peer " tried to share food and it's
COVID and it can make me sick so I just tried to
get it away from me because I didn't want to die. "
In another instance, Lewis was trying to teach
an introduction to algebra. When she checked in
with her students at the start of the class, one confided
they were scared because of the fighting in
Ukraine. The student didn't know Ukraine is in
Eastern Europe, and far from the United States. So
the class briefly veered into a geography lesson and
discussion of what the war means for the United
States.
" They have to be able to digest feeling safe first,
EDUCATION WEEK | April 27, 2022 | www.edweek.org | 17
Christopher Capozziello for Education Week
Rachel Woolf for Education Week
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - April 27, 2022

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