The state of the teacher workforce never really leaves the news entirely these days. And it was certainly on my mind as the school buses started rolling past my house last month. So I was excited to see the recent report from Rise Indy, Teach Indy, and MelanatED Leaders called “Shaping the Future of Teaching: Advancing Satisfaction in Marion County Schools.”

The report captures the perspectives of nearly 600 local public school teachers, with findings broken down into three key areas: perception, pay, and policy. Today, I want to analyze a key finding from each area (alongside a couple of bonus items) that paint a picture for why Indianapolis teachers feel down about their jobs as we wade deeper into the 2024-25 school year.

1. Perception: “73% of respondents reported that society does not respect or value their profession”

This is the first key finding from the report, and it echoes much of what we’ve been hearing from education media outlets in the past few years. Whether or not teachers feel respected by society is crucial. But asking if they feel respected by society obscures a potentially more important source of respect.

When I was a teacher, it mattered to me what society thought of the teaching profession. But here’s the questions that really kept me up at night. Do my students respect me? Do my families respect me? Does my administration respect and value me? The first had implications for how my classroom functioned. The second for how I interacted with the immediate school community. The third for my autonomy as an educator and my chances of potential raises or increased leadership opportunities.

I would love to know what percent of Indianapolis teachers would agree that their school leadership respects and values them. I’m willing to bet it’s an important indicator of whether or not teachers stay at their schools, even more so than their perception of whether or not society respects them. I know it certainly was for me, even if society’s view of the profession does have an impact.

2. Pay: “64% of teachers 34 and under disagree they are paid a fair wage for their job”

I was thankful to see this typical finding bolstered by a few more layers in the report. For starters, the key finding is related to younger teachers. Certainly, all teachers deserve better pay. But I particularly sympathize with younger teachers, whose starting pay makes it pretty tough in those early years. I’ve even seen other states try interventions that drastically bump pay for early career educators to both draw people to the profession and keep them around through those particularly difficult first years. 

Moreover, it’s fascinating to see the pay question response diverge wildly among teachers at different school types. For instance, the report found 61% of traditional district teachers disagree they are paid a fair wage compared to just 33% of Innovation Network School teachers and 47% of public charter school teachers.

That’s fascinating to me amid a climate where one of the major knocks I hear against charter and innovation schools is that their educators are non-unionized. Let me be clear. I’m a huge union advocate generally. Worker protections and benefits, especially in Indiana, ought to be way stronger. But from what teachers are telling us in this data, the higher likelihood of being a union educator doesn’t correlate with better feelings about pay in Indianapolis. That’s worth further investigation.

The survey also asked “What are the primary factors that would keep you in the teaching profession?” In short, the report found this: better pay, respect, autonomy, and benefits. I think the benefits piece is oftentimes overlooked when we discuss increasing teacher pay. When I wrote about my own story of being a teacher and why I left the profession, benefits played heavily into my decision. My take home pay suffered enormously because of my monthly health insurance premiums. In my case, better benefits would have led to better pay.

3. Policy: “13% of teachers agree that recent policy changes have made them feel more secure”

This is perhaps the finding I am most intrigued by. I wish the survey would have taken the next step and offered examples of which policies are contributing to educators feeling this way. I have a hunch. But it would be great to know which interventions have teachers down.

This final section did, however, illuminate one more nugget. Beyond the three P’s, the report notes, “Lack of parental engagement is also identified as a challenge.” Here again, it’s interesting to look at how the data cut across different school types. Let’s break it down:

• 51% of teachers at traditional district schools disagreed that their students’ families make their lives easier.
• Meanwhile, 24% of public charter school teachers and 35% of Innovation Network School teachers said the same.

That’s a pretty big gap that I think might in part be explained by the way charter schools are often designed with parent engagement in mind.

Where to Next?

As any good report is wont to do, this one includes a “Recommendations” section. It’s worth a read, but I actually want to close by raising something else.

If you read the report, you’ll actually see what I’m about to note first, rather than in the recommendations section. Essentially, it’s the answer to the question, “Why does any of this matter?” In fact, it’s two answers, really.

• One, only 65% of teachers surveyed said they are satisfied with their workplace (that drops to 56% for teachers 34 and under).
• Two, the retention rate among Marion County public school educators was 68.5% in 2023.

It’s no surprise those numbers hew so closely together. Two-thirds of educators are satisfied, two-thirds of educators stay at their same school in any given year. Look at the other side of the coin in those numbers though and here’s what we’re facing. One in three educators switch schools or leave the profession every year. That isn’t good for kids or educators.

We have a lot of work to do on those 3 P’s to change this reality. This report was a great starting point in illuminating precisely how educators feel. Now it’s on the rest of us to listen up.