Jack Lynch is the CEO of HMH.
Teaching is tough, even in the best of times. But it is particularly challenging in this moment when students are still struggling to overcome pandemic learning disruptions, and our nation’s education system is being asked to do more with less.
But educators are also remarkably resilient. While dissatisfaction with the teaching profession is still below pre-pandemic levels—and far too low in absolute terms—there is reason for hope.
That’s a key finding of our 10th annual Educator Confidence Report, which found that 36% of educators feel positive about the teaching profession. That’s a marked improvement from 24% two years ago—but still below the 41% level in 2015 when we started collecting this data.
Teachers share concern and optimism
The challenges facing the teaching profession are neither new nor easily solved. However, there are grounds for cautious optimism, in teachers’ positive reports on the ability of fast-emerging technologies to help them with some of the challenges they face. Their reflections on the past decade will help us chart a course for how to support them in the decade to come.
Teachers’ chief concerns, as reflected in our survey, relate to pay and mental health supports for students and staff. Taking their needs and concerns seriously would be important anytime—but never more than when we as a nation rely on them to help students recover from COVID learning losses. For education and civic leaders, these should be seen as important signals.
It’s noteworthy that many of our respondents are seeing technology as a growing ally in a hard job. A decade ago, when we started our survey, merely putting a device in each student’s hands seemed an improbable dream. The pandemic remade the relationship among schools, families, and tech; then, a revolution in generative AI remade our sense of what’s possible. That’s created excitement—and caution.
In this year’s survey, a striking 97% express at least some confidence in their ability to use technology for effective instruction. And of those who have taught 10 years or more, 81% feel technology has had a positive impact on the profession over the past decade.
Perhaps most significant here are the views of the half of teachers who are already using generative AI. Among that group, 76% say GenAI has at least some value in their work. Nearly three-quarters say GenAI is already saving them time, and a similar number are planning to use it more in the coming school year.
These are immensely important findings at a time when teachers widely report a sense of being asked to do more with less. That feeling is a key reason for burnout—and almost a quarter say they plan to leave the profession in the next five years.
Delivering on the EdTech promise
As the leader of the nation’s largest provider of teaching and learning solutions, I take these findings as a challenge that my colleagues and I need to meet. If the last decade has seen the transition in tech’s presence from an occasional to a constant one, this is the one where we will see real progress in the use of technology, particularly GenAI, to free up teachers’ time. It should see technology deliver on the promise of giving teachers time back to do what they do best, working directly with kids, strengthening those bonds we know are so critical to student growth and achievement.
We’re seeing real progress on that journey. Today, teachers can use a single tool to access solutions to solve a range of problems: for example, an AI research assistant that can ride along with them as they plan lessons, saving hours in finding outside resources. Or digest information from a sea of assessments—tests, quizzes, etc.—and provide a synthesis of each student’s progress and individual needs. Or boil that advice down to recommendations on specific lessons tailored to individual students or small groups. The bottom line is technology that never aims to replace a teacher’s expertise—nothing ever should—but gives them back time to deepen relationships with students.
Equally important is the need to simplify and streamline the already vast profusion of technology offerings that teachers and schools must navigate. Already, our research shows that teachers use an average of 84 tech tools, with districts averaging 2,591 tools for the 2022–23 school year.
We need to offer solutions that provide a path, not a thicket.
And we must continue to rise to teachers’ rightful demands that new tools come with safeguards and ethics practices consistent with their power. Teachers are not naïve about the challenges that can come with new technology. Many worry about how students will use the technology, and a large majority are calling for professional development and training in how to use AI ethically. We agree; their views dovetail with our own call for ethical use guidelines and policies.
No one should mistake these directions as a panacea for the broader concerns teachers raise in our survey and elsewhere. But teachers are telling us that powerful tools, with appropriate safeguards, can make their jobs better and a little bit easier. It’s a challenge we will rise to.
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Our 10th annual Educator Confidence Report (ECR) reveals teachers’ views on generative AI, the state of the profession, and more. Download the report today.
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