California Teachers and COVID-19: How the Pandemic Is Impacting the Teacher Workforce

Abstract

California will need a stable, high-quality teacher workforce to weather the COVID-19 crisis and support student learning in the coming years. However, persistent and worsening teacher shortages threaten the state's ability to meet that need. Teacher shortages, which are often most acute in high-need fields and high-need schools, more severely impact students from low-income families and students of color, with significant implications for school stability and student achievement. Early evidence suggests that the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic could further worsen California's already-critical teacher shortages.Through interviews of a sample of California superintendents and human resources administrators, this study investigates the role COVID-19 has had on key aspects of teacher supply and demand, including resignations, retirements, turnover, vacancies, and new teacher credentials. Leaders from eight of the largest California districts were interviewed, representing districts that serve nearly 1 in 6 California students. In addition, the study included leaders from nine small, rural districts because research shows these types of districts often have additional challenges recruiting and retaining teachers. Five key findings emerged from an analysis of common themes raised in these interviews.

Elementary school teacher well-being and supportive measures amid COVID-19: An exploratory study.

“…Teachers have been facing numerous challenges since the start of the pandemic, but limited attention has been placed on their professional well-being. A report interviewed superintendents and administrators from 17 California school districts (Carver-Thomas et al, 2021) in which the school leaders commonly expressed major concerns on teacher mental health and workload and worsening teacher shortage in the COVID-19 context. Likewise, available studies from other countries indicated deteriorating psychological health among teachers during the pandemic (e.g., Allen et al, 2020; Kim et al, 2020).…”

“…Job characteristics of the teaching profession have changed considerably in the face of the pandemic, especially with the swift transition from face-to-face to remote instruction (Carver-Thomas et al, 2021; Daniel, 2020). The Job Demand–Resource (JD–R) model proposes that employee well-being is affected by two types of job characteristics: job demands and job resources (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017).…”

“…Role ambiguity and task stress are job demands that are strongly related to teacher well-being (Bottiani et al, 2019; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2018). These two job demands have also been affected considerably by the pandemic (e.g., Carver-Thomas et al, 2021; Kim et al, 2020). Role ambiguity occurs when teachers are unclear about their job expectations and how to fulfill them (Kyriacou, 2001), mostly due to information deficiency and unpredictability (Scheib, 2003).…”

“…Task stress refers to any stress experienced when performing specific job-related tasks, such as working overtime and keeping up with instructional standards (Pettegrew & Wolf, 1982). The rapid transition to ERT is also likely to have increased teachers’ workload and instructional difficulties (Carver-Thomas et al, 2021; Klapproth et al, 2020). Thus, this study focuses on teachers’ perceived level of task stress and role ambiguity.…”

“…Meanwhile, the qualitative results identified six job demands (e.g., workload and uncertainty) and three job resources (i.e., social support, work autonomy, and coping strategies) based on their responses to the impact on them as a teacher during COVID-19. The qualitative findings in Carver-Thomas et al (2021) showed that teachers experienced extraordinarily high workloads and uncertainties during COVID-19 based on school administrators’ reports. Additional research is needed to understand how these job demands and resources relate to teacher well-being.…”