The Delaware State Education Association recently released the results of its latest teacher satisfaction survey.
The email survey received nearly 1,500 responses between July 11th and July 18th this year.
It saw a bump in job satisfaction from 74% in 2024 to 80% this year. DSEA President Stephanie Ingram attributes that in part to Delaware’s recent efforts on teacher pay.
“If educators are being paid more, they’re more willing to stay in their jobs. It’s a small piece of the puzzle: we’re looking to see what educators need to improve job satisfaction, and this is what we know is one thing we can do to help our educators want to stay in the positions that they’re in.” she said.
The survey found 65% of educators now say they plan to stay in the profession for at least the next couple of years.
While overall job satisfaction is up, teachers were still generally unhappy with working conditions, with only 27% saying they’re satisfied with current conditions.
Ingram says working conditions depend on a variety of factors, and those polled make up more than just teachers.
“So we could be talking about the time it takes to create lesson plans and to grade the papers and to deliver instruction, we could be talking about nurses who are also busy doing the things that they need to do, food service workers are doing different things, are what we’re talking about as far as working conditions go.” she said.
Ingram says factors outside of the building also come into play, such as how much work a teacher needs to complete at home in order to be prepared for the next day of instruction.
97% of educators polled support smaller class sizes, 93% support the hire of additional instructional staff, and 83% want additional recess time and play-based learning in grades K-3.
Many teachers also supported limiting cell phone use or an outright ban on the devices bell to bell, which some think will have a positive impact on student behavior
“So the students [would] have to put their cell phones away, so they’re not distracted by all the things your phone can do, and they’re really focusing on what’s happening in the classroom and interacting with the people in the classroom,” Ingram said.
And improving student behavior is important to over half of teachers surveyed. 58% said they’re at least somewhat more likely to leave their position over the behavior of students.
