In recent years, teaching has become less and less a personally rewarding profession. According to the US Department of Education, 29% of teachers leave the field after three years on the job, and after five years 39% have left the profession. In public schools with high concentrations of poor students, teachers leave at a rate of 15.2% a year.

High levels of stress, poor working conditions, and lack of support are three of the primary reasons teachers cite for leaving the profession. Yet of the millions of dollars being invested to assure schools leave no child behind, virtually none are going to help teachers and other school personnel improve their ability to cope with the stresses of working in today’s schools. Furthermore, few schools are acting to improve the quality of working conditions.

This is in stark contrast to the private sector. Every Fortune 100 company has implemented services designed to achieve high workplace performance by helping employees reduce sources of stress, enhance mental health and physical fitness, and meet personal as well as professional obligations. Companies losing employees to poor working conditions take steps to identify stressful aspects of work and design strategies to reduce or eliminate the identified stressors. We believe that educators deserve the same consideration.

Educator Support Network is being relaunched just for you, in March 2007 to provide greater access to a wide array of resources. For the latest on progress with the pilot, please contact esn@teachersupport.info.