Teachers are responsible for so many things these days. It is not only about educating students but also keeping them safe inside classrooms in this day and age. Teachers also had to keep students safe during the pandemic with remote learning. Keeping students engaged and learning was possibly the largest challenge teachers have faced. Remote teaching, hybrid learning, and increased workload have left teachers stressed, burned out and on the brink of emotional breakdowns. All you need to do is read the teachers subreddit to understand a bit about what they are going through. It seems as though teachers are being spread too thin. This map from the team at aaastateofplay.com shows student teachers ratios across the US. We can see that the states that have the best student teacher ratios are shades of blue or green. Schools with the lowest ratios are between 6:1 and 8:1 teachers to students. States in the red or orange have the highest student to teacher ratios. The worst offender is California, Nevada and Oregon where the student teacher ratio is 22:1, 20:1 and 19:1 respectively. The benefits of a low ratio of students to teachers are endless. Students with more one on one time tend to have better test scores, a lower dropout rate and better graduation percentages. When the pandemic hit, some of these schools with high student to teacher ratios fell even more behind during remote teaching. When many teachers had to adapt quickly to new technology and ways of keeping kids engaged in a virtual environment. learn how to teach in a virtual environment. Some schools still have hybrid learning in place also where teachers have to teach both in-person and remote students at the same time. This approach can add to a teacher’s stress and be mentally exhausting. Teachers today need more support now than ever before. This map shows which states may need the most help overall.
