Published: October 12, 2026
First Appeared In NEA Today, October 2026
Is Teacher Stress Declining?
Teacher well-being is a key driver in the decision to stay in the profession, and addressing burnout and exhaustion among educators should be a national priority.
A new report by RAND underscores this urgency.
RAND’s State of the American Teacher Survey, funded in part by the National Education Association, collected responses from 829 K–12 public school teachers across the country. RAND compared responses with a separate survey of similar working adults.
On each of the survey’s four measures—frequent job-related stress, difficulty coping with job-related stress, symptoms of depression, and burnout—teachers reported experiencing poorer well-being than other working adults in 2026.
There is some encouraging news, however. Teacher well-being has leveled off since the pandemic and improved slightly this year. The number of teachers who reported experiencing frequent job-related stress has declined—from 62 percent in 2025 to 55 percent in 2026. And the share of teachers who reported difficulty coping with job-related stress dropped from 21 percent in 2025 to 15 percent in 2026.
RAND found that female teachers are consistently more likely to report frequent job-related stress than their male counterparts and similar working adults overall. In 2026, 59 percent of female teachers experienced frequent job-related stress compared with 44 percent of male teachers—a consistent gap since 2021. Female teachers are also more likely to report feelings of burnout than male teachers.
Overall, the survey found that the share of teachers who intended to leave their jobs was 18 percent, while about 1 in 4 teachers say they plan to continue teaching for “as long as they are able.”
About 1 in 4 teachers say they plan to stay in teaching “as long as they are able.”
The State of Academic Freedom in Higher Ed
Academic freedom has been under assault over the past two years, and a new global report underscores how this campaign has impacted the standing of U.S. higher education in the world. The 2026 Academic Freedom Index, an annual benchmark report surveying 179 countries and territories, measures five indicators of academic freedom: The freedom to research and teach; freedom of academic exchange and dissemination; institutional autonomy; campus integrity; and freedom of academic and cultural expression.
Over the last decade, academic freedom has declined in 50 countries, and only 9 countries have registered improvements. But this year’s report focused on institutional autonomy, widely recognized as fundamental to protecting academic freedom. And it is on this specific measure where the United States has suffered the greatest decline—50 percent since 2015—and is now rated only “moderate.”
The decline in the U.S. has been swift and widespread. The report says it began in 2020, driven mostly by state-level actions that have only accelerated under the second Trump administration. “Political interference in university governance, curricular decisions, hiring practices, and research agendas has increasingly become a feature of contemporary U.S. higher education,” the researchers write.
The good news is that mobilizing by advocacy and legal action has led to some legal victories that have rolled back some of these intrusions and restraints—particularly in the area of research.
“Pushback by academic institutions, civil society organizations, and court action against illegal measures are key to protecting academic freedom,” the report says. Academic research indicates a remarkable resilience of academic freedom, even in situations of democratic backsliding.”
Institutional autonomy in the United States has declined by 50% since 2015.
Community Schools Still Expanding
In December 2025, the Trump administration abruptly cut $132 million in multiyear grants for Full-Service Community Schools (FSCS) programs across 11 states and Washington, D.C. Like many of the administration’s public education cuts, the rescinding of grants for community schools seems cruel in its intent to spread fear and hopelessness. But the community schools movement is resilient and is on the cusp of a historic expansion nationwide.
States like California and Maryland are incubating statewide community school systems that could serve as a blueprint for what a post-Trump federal education policy could look like, offering a vision for how to rebuild a better and more just education system.
In California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May budget revision for the 2026 – 2027 fiscal year, he reaffirmed his landmark commitment to community schools by proposing an additional $1 billion annually to expand the FSCS model across the state. That’s on top of the $4.1 billion already allocated, which could more than double the number of community schools across the state.
Maryland is another state rapidly expanding its community school network, with the schools now making up nearly 50 percent of all public schools across the state.
Other states that have used state resources to expand community schools include New Mexico, Minnesota, Florida, Vermont, Kentucky, New York, Maine, and more.
Read more about community schools.
https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/community-schools-grow-despite-trump-attacks
How do AI Data Centers Impact Schools?
Amid the artificial intelligence boom, the construction of data centers is accelerating across the country, sparking concern about their potential drain on community resources. Another concern is nearby schools, specifically, how student learning is being affected by noise generated by the structures. The researchers found that students who attend school within a mile of a data center have lower math scores than those that are farther away. The proximity to these structures, they note, not other factors, was behind this decline.
As of June, almost 1,900 public schools sit within a mile of at least one data center or one that is approved for construction, according to Brown University researchers.
Read more on why there's more data centers being built near schools.
The State of Child Well-Being
Despite some progress in family economic stability and community well-being (including child poverty) overall child well-being was lower in 2024 than in 2019, according to The Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2026 Kids Count Data Book, which has been measuring child well-being across states since 1990. The report ranks and scores states based on indicators in four domains: economic well-being, education, health, and family and community. This drop in child well-being was driven largely by education.
Specifically, the report found that:
54%
of young children ages 3–4 are not enrolled in school.
70%
of fourth graders are not proficient in reading.
73%
of eighth graders are not proficient in math.
The education measure that saw slight improvement was the four-year high school graduation rate, which improved by 1 percentage point, up to 87 percent. Overall, 47 states experienced declines in education, “underscoring how deeply the pandemic impacted students and schools,” the report said.
Read a more detailed report on the State of Child Well-Being
More Time in School Improves Academic Performance
Four-day school weeks, later school start times, longer school days, and flexible schedules are just a few of the ways some districts are reconfiguring school calendars. While many of these initiatives may be successful, experts have cautioned school leaders not to decrease the amount of time—instructional time especially—in schools each week. Research has generally shown that K–12 academic performance suffers with less instructional time.
In addition, increasing students’ time in school during the school year generally leads to improved achievement, especially in math, a 2026 University of Oregon study found.
Based on the authors’ review of 174 studies, they recommend that states and school districts avoid reducing time in school and use instructional time more effectively. The authors also note that focusing on schools that offer less time already might produce the largest returns on time.
“As policymakers consider changes to school calendars, it’s critical that decisions are grounded in strong evidence,” said Elizabeth Day, assistant director of outreach at the HEDCO Institute for Evidence-based Educational Practice. “This research shows that, in most cases, more time in school leads to better academic outcomes, especially when that time is well designed and focused on learning.”
“More time in school leads to better academic outcomes.”
—Elizabeth Day, HEDCO Institute for Evidence-based Educational Practice
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