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Are lecturers feeling extra optimistic within the face of continued uncertainty? Are they feeling trusted? What retains them up at evening? TPT performed a nationwide survey of almost 8,000 lecturers to uncover insights that assist reply these questions — and extra — forward of the 2025-2026 college yr. These findings supply insights into lecturers’ views on points on the forefront of schooling at this time, from college students’ social-emotional must synthetic intelligence.
Key takeaways
- A majority of educators (61%) really feel optimistic heading into the 2025-2026 college yr.
- A majority of lecturers (74%) don’t really feel like they’ve the belief wanted to do their finest work.
- Academics are extra involved about assembly college students’ social-emotional wants (53%) than their educational wants (41%).
Academics are feeling optimistic
Nearly all of educators are feeling optimistic as they head into the 2025-2026 college yr, regardless of dealing with an ever-changing and unsure panorama.
When digging a bit deeper into the information, this optimism is especially robust amongst newer lecturers. Sixty-five p.c of recent lecturers (who’ve been educating for 5 years or much less) report feeling optimistic, whereas solely 59% of seasoned lecturers (those that have been educating for 25+ years) report feeling the identical.

This optimism is guided by lecturers’ convictions in regards to the occupation. Universally — throughout grade ranges and states — 83% of educators mentioned “making a distinction for youths” is what first impressed them to turn out to be a trainer. And 93% of lecturers agreed that they’re guided by a robust sense of objective, which retains them motivated even when educating is difficult.

This constructive outlook varies throughout the nation, as lecturers from completely different states expressed differing ranges of optimism.

Academics really feel empowered, however not all the time trusted
Belief and empowerment are key drivers of lecturers’ general optimism. And whereas 95% of lecturers say that belief from directors helps them do their finest work, solely 74% really feel they really do have that belief.

Even so, lecturers are powering via to do nice work. Regardless of the belief hole, 87% of lecturers really feel empowered to show at their finest.
Academics fear essentially the most about social-emotional wants
Academics’ largest concern heading into the brand new college yr is college students’ social-emotional wants. In actual fact, extra lecturers are involved about assembly college students’ social-emotional wants (53%) than with assembly their educational wants (41%).

That is vital, given the rise in classroom disruptions. Over half (55%) of lecturers reported that scholar conduct has gotten worse over the previous two years.

Whereas lecturers could also be apprehensive about their college students’ social-emotional well-being, they nonetheless see the impression that they’re having on their college students: 92% of educators really feel they’re making a distinction for youths general.
TPT Survey Methodology
TPT despatched an 18-question survey of multiple-choice and open-ended inquiries to energetic trainer customers on the TPT platform to collect educators’ opinions upfront of the 2025-26 college yr. The survey was despatched through e-mail on July 23, 2025, and was accomplished by 7,964 lecturers. The margin of error is +/-3 proportion factors. Traits for the faculties the place the respondents educate are displayed beneath.
Years of Educating Expertise | |
Lower than 5 years | 20% |
5-10 years | 15% |
10-15 years | 12% |
15-20 years | 13% |
20-25 years | 15% |
25+ years | 25% |
Area | |
West | 19% |
Midwest | 22% |
Northeast | 13% |
South | 34% |
Different | 12% |
Scholar Grades (Respondents selected all that apply, percentages might not add to 100%) |
|
PreK-Ok | 16% |
Ok-5 | 52% |
6-8 | 25% |
9-12 | 20% |
Grownup Learners | 35% |
Different | 5% |
Empowering educators to show at their finest
At TPT, we imagine the perfect concepts for educating and studying come from individuals with expertise within the classroom. Along with our group of gifted Instructor-Authors, educators can discover countless revolutionary and galvanizing concepts to convey extra creativity to their instruction, higher interact college students, and degree up their educating expertise on our market.