Every spring, educators across the United States wrestle with life-changing professional decisions: Should I stay at this school? Should I retire? Should I transfer? In an era marked by increasing teacher resignations, a shrinking pool of teacher candidates, and mounting pressures on educators, it has never been more crucial for school leaders to understand what makes educators stay.
To explore this issue, we interviewed 26 educators from 12 U.S. states and 4 countries—Denmark, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Canada. Several questions in our survey asked why teachers chose to leave their school and what leaders could have done differently to make them stay. Based on the educators’ responses, four actions emerged. All are within a school leader’s influence and control, and all can increase retention.
1. Trust teachers and empower their professional judgment.
Across every interview, a consistent theme arose: Educators thrive when they’re trusted. When they’re micromanaged or treated like interchangeable parts, they disengage or leave.
School leaders can build trust and empowerment by:
- Resisting the urge to micromanage. Rather than scripting every instructional move, leaders can engage teachers in setting shared goals and trust them to chart the best path toward those goals. For example, at a school where Carrie coached, benchmark data revealed inconsistent levels of student mastery in English language arts (ELA). Rather than mandating a solution, school leadership brought the ELA team together and said, “Our shared goal is to ensure that all students demonstrate mastery on ELA standards. I’d like us to focus on using checks for understanding more intentionally. I trust each of you to decide what that looks like in your classrooms.” One teacher began incorporating quick writes throughout the lesson and exit slips at the end. Another used digital tools for annotation and embedded formative assessment questions to get real-time feedback. This leadership approach led to improved student outcomes and greater teacher investment because teachers felt ownership of both the problem and the solution.
- Creating structures for shared leadership. Teachers want a seat at the table when decisions are made. Involve them in scheduling decisions and professional learning planning in meaningful ways—not through tokenistic surveys that lack leadership follow-through on results.
- Focusing feedback on growth, not compliance. When feedback conversations center on outcomes, student impact, and continuous improvement—not on rigid protocol adherence—teachers feel respected as professionals.
As one educator put it, “I stayed at my school because my principal believed in me even before I fully believed in myself. I had room to take risks, innovate, and grow.” Empowering teachers doesn’t mean relinquishing standards or expectations. It means recognizing that the people closest to the work often have the best ideas for improving it.
Empowering teachers means recognizing that the people closest to the work often have the best ideas for improving it.
2. Move from appreciation to value and provide personalized support.
Every educator we interviewed could name moments when a leader’s personalized appreciation made them want to stay. One educator told us about the touching note she received from her principal during a particularly rough week. The principal had noticed that she was staying late to mentor a new teacher and that she was going the extra mile for a struggling student. “You make a difference here,” the principal wrote, “and I see it.” Unfortunately, many of the teachers also described how a lack of real value recognition made them leave.
There’s an important distinction to make here: Appreciation is about recognizing actions and efforts. Appreciation says, “I see what you do.” Value is about affirming importance, identity, and contribution. Value says, “You are essential to who we are.”
School leaders can move from appreciation to value by:
- Making appreciation specific and personal. Instead of generic praise, such as “Thanks for all you do!” recognize individual strengths and contributions: “Your relationship-building with students transforms their engagement in ways we all learn from.”
- Connecting individual strengths to the school’s mission. Show teachers how their skills advance the school’s mission so they see themselves as indispensable to the school’s success. One educator explained that after mentioning to their principal that they were interested in developing more inclusive learning strategies for students with diverse needs, their principal arranged for them to attend specialized training.
- Investing in their growth, not just their output. Ask about teachers’ aspirations. Some may aspire to become instructional leaders, mentors, curriculum designers, administrators, or content experts. Others may wish to present at conferences, lead equity work, or engage families more deeply. Offer leadership opportunities, personalized professional development, and mentorship pathways that match their passions and goals.
In the words of one educator, “You don’t stay for compliments. You stay when you feel like you matter.” When leaders consistently affirm educators’ worth, teachers are far more likely to feel a sense of belonging, purpose, and loyalty to their school community.
3. Build a safe, supportive, and collaborative work environment.
Talented educators don’t leave schools because the work is hard. They leave because the workplace feels isolating or unsafe. Top teachers stay when their school feels like a team, a place where they’re respected and where they know they’re part of something bigger than themselves.
School leaders can build this kind of environment by:
- Addressing toxic behavior promptly. Culture protection is leadership work. When gossip or unethical behavior arises, leaders must confront it swiftly and clearly. One educator shared that their administration singled out the individuals responsible for such behavior and worked with them directly, as opposed to sending out a pointed email to the entire staff. Left unchecked, toxicity drives away good people faster than any other factor.
- Prioritizing collaboration. Teaching is often isolating by default, but it doesn’t have to be. Leaders can build structures for regular meaningful collaboration, peer observation cycles, and professional learning communities so teachers learn with and from one another.
- Being visible and accessible. When leaders are present in hallways and classrooms—and not just in meetings—teachers feel more connected and supported.
One teacher shared, “I stayed because my principal didn’t just talk about an open-door policy: she lived it. She showed up in classrooms, she asked real questions, and she listened.” Belonging and safety are not bonuses. They are prerequisites for sustained engagement and retention.
'I stayed because my principal didn’t just talk about an open-door policy: she lived it. She showed up in classrooms, she asked real questions, and she listened.'
4. Elevate teacher voice.
This theme surfaced repeatedly. Teachers want input on decisions like curriculum design, assessment practices, discipline policies, professional development, and school culture initiatives. Involving them in these areas fosters ownership and is a cornerstone of healthy school cultures.
School leaders can elevate teacher voice by:
- Involving teachers early in decision-making processes, not just gathering feedback after decisions are mostly made. One educator shared, “Administrators ask for our input on big decisions and try to take into account how something will affect the faculty and students on the whole.” Teachers value that kind of consideration.
- Creating genuine listening structures. These might include teacher advisory groups whose work is tied to real decision points. “With each check-in,” one teacher explained, “my supervisor would ask, ‘If you had a magic wand, what would you change?’ He would write down these ‘wishes’ and do everything in his power to make them a reality.”
- Following up and communicating clearly. Teachers want to know how their input influenced (or didn’t influence) the final decision.
As one educator reflected, “Even when leadership couldn’t use every idea, the fact that they explained their thinking and showed us where our input mattered made me feel respected and made me want to stay.” When teachers are treated as partners rather than as subordinates, commitment deepens.
Creating Reasons to Stay
Educators will leave your school—and many will never tell you why. But the patterns are clear. Teachers are more likely to stay when they’re trusted, valued, heard, and supported. They stay when their school feels like a community, not just a workplace. And they stay when leaders create the conditions that invite their best work and fullest belonging.
These actions don’t require major funding or massive initiatives. They require intentionality, relational leadership, and daily decisions to prioritize people. In the words of one of our interviewees, “When you trust me, value me, and fight for a healthy place for me to work in, I will fight for this school, too.” School leaders who understand this truth won’t just keep their top teachers: They’ll create places where the best teachers choose to come—and stay.
Reflect & Discuss
Which of the four strategies outlined in the article represents your greatest leadership challenge? Why?
How might you communicate value to teachers, as opposed to merely showing appreciation?
What listening structures could you create to give teachers more meaningful input on school initiatives?
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