The Decline in Teacher Working Conditions During and After the COVID Pandemic

We study changes to teacher working conditions from 2016-17 to 2022-23, covering school years before, during, and after the COVID pandemic. We show working conditions were improving leading into the pandemic but declined when the pandemic arrived. Perhaps more surprisingly, the peak of the pandemic was not a low point for teacher working conditions, which have continued to decline during the post-pandemic period. Teachers report worsening working conditions along most dimensions, with the largest declines in working conditions that involve interactions with students and their families. Trends in working conditions since the pandemic are similar in schools serving more and less socioeconomically advantaged students. However, schools in districts where online learning was the predominant mode of instruction during the 2020-21 school year have experienced larger declines than other schools.