Can a Teacher Professional Learning Program Reduce Teacher Burnout? - AIR Impact Study Finds That a Unique Instructional Coaching Program Boosted Teachers’ Enthusiasm About Teaching - A Lever to Reduce Teacher Burnout

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by James

The study examines whether instructional coaching focused on teachers’ classroom successes can reduce burnout and strengthen enthusiasm for teaching. Building on findings that teachers face elevated job-related stress and widespread burnout, AIR conducted a randomized controlled trial beginning in fall 2021 using RAND-style burnout/enthusiasm survey items. Treatment teachers received MyTeachingPartner coaching for two years, and at program end reported significantly higher agreement with positive teaching statements and lower agreement with negative statements. The overall Enthusiasm About Teaching measure showed a 0.55-point impact on a 4-point scale.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Key question: reducing teacher burnout

Evidence from AIR and RAND

Study design and measurement approach

Program impact and results

Positive and negative survey items

Overall Enthusiasm About Teaching measure

Distinctive features of MyTeachingPartner

Focus on teachers’ successes

Efficiency and predictability of coaching cycles

Implications for policy and leadership

Can a Teacher Professional Learning Program Reduce Teacher Burnout? AIR Impact Study Finds That a Unique Instructional Coaching Program Boosted Teachers’ Enthusiasm About Teaching A Lever to Reduce Teacher Burnout Findings from RAND’s 2023 State of the American Teacher project underscore the importance of teacher well-being. Compared to average workers in the United States, teachers exhibit higher levels of job-related stress. In addition, roughly half of teachers show signs of burnout (Doan et al., 2023) . What can be done? For policymakers and school leaders, some promising levers are salaries, work schedules, and working conditions, according to RAND’s investigation of the State of the American Teacher Survey data (Steiner et al., 2023) . A new impact study from the American Institutes for Research® (AIR®) calls attention to another lever to reduce teacher burnout—instructional coaching that focuses on teachers’ successes in the classroom. The study examined the impact of a program called MyTeachingPartner, which has features that distinguish it from most coaching programs. To assess the program’s impact, AIR launched a randomized controlled trial in fall 2021. Within each study school, AIR randomly assigned half of the volunteering teachers to participate in the instructional coaching program for 2 years on top of their normal activities (i.e., treatment teachers). The other half of volunteering teachers (i.e., control teachers) just continued as normal. At the end of the program, AIR compared the treatment and control teachers. AIR’s Findings About the Program’s Impact on Enthusiasm About Teaching To measure enthusiasm about teaching at the end of the 2-year program among treatment and control teachers, AIR used the same survey question that RAND uses in its State of the American Teacher Survey to measure burnout. The question asks teachers to indicate their level of agreement with four statements about teaching—two statements that express positive sentiments about teaching and two statements that express negative sentiments. For the two positive statements, a higher percentage of treatment than control teachers agreed (Exhibit 1) . For example, 89% of treatment teachers either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I am glad I selected teaching as a career,” compared with 58% of control teachers. The third and fourth statements express negative sentiments about teaching, consistent with burnout. For these statements, a lower percentage of treatment than control teachers agreed or strongly agreed, again demonstrating that the program had a positive impact on teachers’ enthusiasm about teaching (Exhibit 2) . To provide a high-level summary of findings across all four survey items, AIR combined the four items to form an overall measure called Enthusiasm About Teaching and compared the average value of this overall measure between treatment and control teachers using a statistical model that properly accounts for both the study design and teacher characteristics. The impact analysis showed a difference of 0.55 points on the 4-point agreement scale.1 Exhibit 1. At the End of the 2-Year Program, a Higher Percentage of Treatment Than Control Teachers Expressed Positive Sentiments About Teaching Note. The percentages shown reflect observed teacher survey responses from the 19 treatment teachers and 19 control teachers, unadjusted for study design or teacher background characteristics. Exhibit 2. At the End of the 2-Year Program, a Lower Percentage of Treatment Than Control Teachers Expressed Negative Sentiments About Teaching Note. The percentages shown reflect observed teacher survey responses from the 19 treatment teachers and 19 control teachers, unadjusted for study design or teacher background characteristics. Distinctive Features of MyTeachingPartner That Could Explain Its Impact A digital story accompanying the impact study report illustrates how the MyTeachingPartner program

FAQs

What coaching approach did the study evaluate to reduce teacher burnout?

AIR evaluated MyTeachingPartner, an instructional coaching program that focuses on teachers’ classroom successes using short video clips and coaching to help teachers understand and replicate those successes.

How did AIR measure teachers’ enthusiasm about teaching?

AIR used the same survey question RAND employs in its State of the American Teacher project, asking teachers to rate agreement with four statements—two positive and two negative about teaching.

What were the key findings at the end of the two-year program?

Treatment teachers reported a higher share of agreement with positive teaching statements and a lower share of agreement with negative statements. AIR also found a statistically meaningful difference of 0.55 points on the overall 4-point Enthusiasm About Teaching scale.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by James