The University of Missouri research discovered ongoing issues including increased classroom disruptions and declining trust between teachers and parents, principal and colleagues. The researchers analyzed data from the 5Essentials Survey which collected responses about school wellness from roughly 123,000 to 130,000 teachers in more than 3,300 Illinois schools annually from 2019 to 2023.
“I would have thought the 2020-21 school year was the big disrupted year,” said Cory Koedel, a University of Missouri professor who worked on the study. “It’s quite reasonable to think that was the worst. But this data is telling us that’s clearly not true. And our findings give no indication that working conditions will rebound naturally now that the pandemic is behind us.”