Why Teachers Are Leaving: What the Research Says and What Would Keep Them

The story of teachers quitting is often told as a mystery, but the research tells a clearer and more hopeful version. Teachers are not leaving because they stopped caring about students. They are leaving because of conditions — workload, pay, support, and the chronic stress those conditions produce — and most of those conditions are things schools and systems can change. Understanding why teachers leave is the first step toward keeping more of them.

How Many Teachers Are Actually Leaving

According to the Learning Policy Institute, roughly one in seven public school teachers moves schools or leaves the profession each year — a turnover rate higher than in many comparable countries. Crucially, most of that turnover is not retirement. The majority of teachers who leave do so for other reasons, which is why researchers describe much of it as preventable. The good news buried in the numbers is that turnover responds to conditions: improve them, and more teachers stay.

Why They Leave: The Real Reasons

Across studies, the same drivers appear again and again. Teachers rarely leave over a single issue; it is usually an accumulation:

• Unsustainable workload — hours that stretch well past the contract day, with planning, grading, meetings, and paperwork on top of teaching.
• Inadequate compensation — pay that has not kept pace with the cost of living or with comparable professions.
• School leadership and support — the Learning Policy Institute finds that supportive, effective leadership is one of the strongest predictors of whether teachers stay.
• Lack of autonomy — limited control over curriculum and pacing under testing and mandate pressures.
• Working conditions — understaffing, insufficient resources, and student behavioral challenges without adequate backup.
• Chronic stress and burnout — the cumulative toll of everything above.

The Mental Health Dimension

Burnout is not just a byproduct of these pressures — it is one of the pathways out of the profession. RAND’s State of the American Teacher survey has consistently found that teachers report frequent job-related stress at far higher rates than comparable working adults, with roughly half reporting burnout, and that stress and burnout are closely tied to teachers’ intentions to leave. That connection is why supporting educator mental health is not separate from retention — it is part of it. Our guide to teacher burnout covers this in depth.

What Would Keep Teachers

Because the drivers are structural, the solutions are too. Research from the Learning Policy Institute points to a consistent set of levers:

• Competitive, sustainable compensation that reflects the demands of the work.
• Strong, supportive school leadership — one of the clearest differences between schools that retain teachers and those that do not.
• Better working conditions — manageable class sizes and workloads, adequate resources, and real planning time.
• Meaningful preparation and mentoring, especially in the early, high-turnover years of a career.
• Accessible mental health support that helps teachers manage stress before it drives them out.

If You’re Thinking About Leaving

If you are personally weighing whether to stay, know first that the exhaustion you feel is a reasonable response to real conditions, not a personal shortcoming. Burnout has a way of making every option feel impossible and every decision feel urgent. Before deciding, it helps to restore some rest, set boundaries where you can, and talk it through with people you trust — ideally including a counselor who can help you think clearly. Sometimes changes at your current school are enough. Sometimes leaving is the right, healthy choice. Making that call from a steadier place leads to better outcomes than deciding in the middle of a crisis.

How Schools and Communities Can Help

Retention is not only an individual matter. Districts can improve working conditions and leadership, and they can make mental health support a normal part of how they care for staff. One practical step is partnering with organizations that provide counseling designed for educators — see our school district partnerships page, and our overview of mental health funding for educators. Supporting the people who do the work is one of the most direct ways to keep them in it.

Frequently Asked Questions