National Data Confirms Why the Rowan Undergrad Chose Not to Teach: Student Misbehavior Is Negatively Impacting Schools and Teachers

Just as Sunlight reported on a Rowan University student’s choice not to become a teacher due to the negative effects of increased student misbehavior, the National Center for Education Statistics came out with new data that confirms what the Rowan undergrad said.  The numbers are shocking.  They are national, but surely they reflect the reality in many New Jersey schools at the end of the 2023-24 school year – a full two years after the pandemic ended.  The bottom line is that there is widespread student misbehavior that is negatively impacting instruction as well as teacher morale.  Just as the Rowan undergrad said.  Again, we ask: where is the NJEA on this issue?

Here are the numbers (showing the percentage of schools experiencing these problems):

1. The lingering effects from the pandemic negatively impacting both the behavioral and emotional development of students: 78%.
2. Student behavior worse than expected: Grades K-4: 38%; Grades 5-8: 46%; Grades 9-12: 34%.
3. Verbal threats against teachers: 41%.
4. Attacks on teachers: 30%.
5. Verbal abuse of teachers: 44%.
6. Students disrupting classrooms: Severe: 22%; Moderate: 41%.
7. Negative impact on teacher morale: 62% moderate or severe.
8. Need more support for student and teacher mental health: 76% moderate or severe.

The data shows clearly that there is a nationwide student misbehavior problem in our schools.  It is worst in the Middle School grades and involves threats and verbal abuse of teachers in almost half our schools.  Almost two-thirds of schools report disruption in their classrooms, which is having a negative impact on teacher morale.  The large majority of teachers want more help in dealing with this.

Given the substantial reporting Sunlight has done on this problem in New Jersey schools, we believe it is safe to conclude that the problems nationwide also exist in New Jersey schools.  It is precisely these problems and the resulting stress on teachers that the Rowan undergrad cited when she explained her decision not to choose teaching as a career.

We ask again: where is the NJEA on these important issues?  They are a union of teachers that is supposed to be looking out for teachers’ best interests.  Yet the NJEA has been silent on this longstanding problem that is directly and negatively impacting its members.  When the NJEA confronted a similar student misbehavior problem in 2010, it launched a statewide, political-style campaign to combat it.  Why the silence now?

And now it’s affecting whether college students choose teaching as a career. The NJEA has loudly decried New Jersey’s “teacher shortage,” but by its inaction it is now contributing to it.

Maybe NJEA leadership is too busy with state politics: pumping $8 million of teachers’ dues into NJEA President Sean Spiller’s run for governor — without teachers’ knowledge or consent. We’d bet that teachers would rather see the NJEA pump that money into addressing a serious problem that affects teachers in their jobs every day.