69´«Ã½

Special Report
Student Well-Being From Our Research Center

Student and Teacher Motivation, in Charts

By Arianna Prothero — February 21, 2023 1 min read
A group of high school students and their teacher crowd around a laptop and read the screen together.
  • Save to favorites
  • Print
Email Copy URL

Ask teens about how motivated they are to do well in school and hopeful they are feeling about the future, and the overall outlook is fairly sunny—in some cases, decidedly more so than it was two years ago.

But when you ask educators a similar question about their students and themselves, their answers paint a very different picture.

That’s according to the results of two nationally representative surveys conducted by the EdWeek Research Center between December 2022 and February 2023.

Perhaps the starkest difference between 13- to 19-year-olds and educators: Thirty-eight percent of students said that as of 2023, the pandemic had made them less motivated to do their best in school. But a whopping 80 percent of educators said that the pandemic had made students less motivated.

There is, however, one area where students and educators (teachers, principals, and district leaders) are in near total agreement, and that’s on how motivated teachers are to teach students. About 80 percent of students and educators say that teachers in their schools are motivated to do their best.

The following charts present a clearer picture of how student and teacher motivation are shaping up this school year, based on the perspectives of nationally representative samples of 1,011 students and 1,058 teachers, principals, and district leaders.

Coverage of whole-child approaches to learning is supported in part by a grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, at . Education Week retains sole editorial control over the content of this coverage.
A version of this article appeared in the March 01, 2023 edition of Education Week as Student and Teacher Motivation, in Charts

Events

School & District Management Webinar Crafting Outcomes-Based Contracts That Work for Everyone
Discover the power of outcomes-based contracts and how they can drive student achievement.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
School & District Management Webinar
Harnessing AI to Address Chronic Absenteeism in 69´«Ã½
Learn how AI can help your district improve student attendance and boost academic outcomes.
Content provided by 
School & District Management Webinar EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?
What issues are keeping K-12 leaders up at night? Join us for EdMarketer Quick Hit: What’s Trending among K-12 Leaders?

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.

Read Next

Student Well-Being Download Traumatic Brain Injuries Are More Common Than You Think. Here's What to Know
Here's how educators can make sure injured students don't fall behind as they recover.
1 min read
Illustration of a female student sitting at her desk and holding hands against her temples while swirls of pencils, papers, question marks, stars, and exclamation marks swirl around her head.
iStock/Getty
Student Well-Being How Teachers Can Help LGBTQ+ 69´«Ã½ With Post-Election Anxiety
LGBTQ+ crisis prevention hotlines have seen a spike in calls from youth and their families.
6 min read
Photo of distraught teen girl.
Preeti M / Getty
Student Well-Being 69´«Ã½ Are Eerily Quiet About the Election Results, Educators Say
Teachers say students' reactions to Trump's win are much more muted than in 2016.
6 min read
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump greets Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump greets Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Evan Vucci/AP
Student Well-Being Student Journalists Want to Cover Politics. Not Everyone Agrees They Should
Student journalists are grappling with controversial topics—a lesson in democracy that's becoming increasingly at risk for pushback.
7 min read
Illustration of a paper airplane made from a newspaper.
DigitalVision Vectors