Creating Resilient Educators
The Problem in the Classroom
Teacher turnover is a pressing issue in education, with significant financial and instructional costs. The Learning Policy Institute reports that beginning teachers with little preparation are 2.5 times more likely to leave the classroom after just one year. Furthermore, new teachers without mentoring or support leave at more than twice the rate of their supported peers.
The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) reports a rising teacher turnover rate, which increased from 12.0% in 2019 to 18.2% in 2023. This shortage has led to an increased reliance on non-traditional pathways into the profession.
In Texas alone, a 2024 TEA report found that 34% of new teachers were non-certified, with another 14% being alternatively certified or interns. With more educators entering the field through alternative routes and experienced teachers leaving at higher rates, addressing teacher burnout and retention is more urgent than ever. A combination of external and internal strategies is essential to fostering resilience and ensuring long-term success for educators.
What is Resilience?
While strategies like reducing workloads, increasing salaries, and providing administrative support are critical, fostering internal resilience can empower teachers to navigate challenges effectively.
Resilience in education refers to an educator’s ability to adapt, persist, and thrive despite obstacles. It encompasses:
- Growth Mindset (Dweck) – Viewing failures as learning opportunities rather than permanent limitations
- Perseverance & Grit (Duckworth) – Staying committed to goals despite difficulties
- Emotional Regulation – Managing stress, frustration, and anxiety
- Cognitive Flexibility – Adapting to new teaching methods and challenges
- Support Systems – Leaning on peers, mentors, and school communities
Carol Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success and Angela Duckworth’s Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance highlight how a growth mindset fosters resilience, helping educators persist through challenges. Duckworth argues that resilience is a key ingredient of grit, enabling individuals to sustain their passion and perseverance over time.
Building Resilient Educators
How can teachers cultivate personal resilience while ensuring high-quality teaching and learning? Research-backed practices can help educators develop habits that promote resilience and reduce burnout.
John Hattie’s research on collective efficacy—the belief that teachers can positively impact student outcomes—is one of the highest influences on student achievement. Collective efficacy shows that when educators work collaboratively, resilience grows.
The book Habits of Resilient Educators: Strategies for Thriving During Times of Anxiety, Doubt, and Constant Change (Prendergast & Lee, 2024) outlines nine key habits that build resilience and prevent burnout:
1. Clarify Your Why: Purpose as a Habit
Understanding and articulating personal motivation fosters long-term resilience. Reflecting on and sharing one’s purpose with students, colleagues, and parents strengthens commitment.
2. Collaborate: Don’t Isolate
Collective efficacy thrives in collaborative environments. Engaging in peer observations, professional learning communities (PLCs), and partnerships with families enhances resilience.
3. Set High Expectations for All
High expectations, communicated through verbal and non-verbal cues, shape a culture where all students can succeed. Teachers shift their mindset from "Can this student learn?" to "How can this student learn?" and then “What are the next steps for them?”
4. Use Data to Drive Decisions
Using evidence, such as student work and assessments, in decision-making enables teachers to respond effectively to students’ needs. Using a collective inquiry cycle with real evidence like student work can empower teachers in more responsive teaching.
5. Establish Procedures and Routines
Clear, consistent routines create a safe and equitable classroom environment. Effective classroom management prioritizes shared ownership over strict rule enforcement and moves from “controlling students” to creating a high-quality learning environment. Routines and procedures should include physical and social-emotional/behavioral aspects.
6. Set Goals
Goal setting engages students in their learning and empowers them to take ownership. Teachers play a key role in tracking progress, providing feedback, and celebrating successes. Teachers should be involved in providing the tools to track, give feedback to students, and support their journey in goal attainment.
7. Get and Use Feedback Effectively
Seeking and delivering constructive, actionable feedback strengthens teaching effectiveness and resilience. By focusing on the learner and offering constructive feedback, strengths are built and next steps planned toward mastery and goal attainment.
8. Prioritize Effectively Amidst a Sea of Initiatives
The ability to effectively prioritize tasks leads to developing and sustaining personal well-being and provides an element of control over the ever changing and demanding educational landscape. Asset-based thinking—focusing on strengths rather than deficits—helps teachers manage new initiatives while maintaining personal well-being.
9. Avoid Negativity
Recognizing and disengaging from negative conversations, gossip, and toxic environments protects mental well-being and cultivates a positive school culture. Establishing norms and holding each other accountable is a great way to stop the negative talk whether self-talk, or discussions in the teacher lounge, classroom, or at the grocery store.
Resiliency Results
Resilient educators experience higher job satisfaction, improved self-efficacy, and enhanced performance. By intentionally developing these nine habits, teachers can transform feelings of burnout into renewed motivation and effectiveness.
By fostering resilience at an individual and collective level, schools can create supportive environments where both teachers and students thrive—ensuring long-term success for our education system and communities.
Tools like Evaluation help schools strengthen teacher retention by providing actionable insights into performance, fostering continuous development, and ensuring educators feel valued and supported. By promoting regular feedback and professional learning, schools can create an environment where teachers thrive and stay in the profession longer.
If your school is looking for ways to better support educators and improve student outcomes, Education Advanced offers a suite of tools designed to streamline operations and enhance the teaching experience:
- Evaluation: A solution for documenting every step of the staff evaluation process, including walk-throughs, self-evaluations, supporting evidence, reporting, and performance analytics.
- Pathways: A graduation tracking tool that enables administrators and counselors to create, track, and analyze graduation pathways, ensuring secondary students stay on track to graduate.
- TestHound: Our test accommodation software helps schools coordinate thousands of students across all state and local K-12 assessments while considering various accommodations, such as for reading disabilities, physical disabilities, and translations.
