Team Work: Time Well Spent

Teachers in high-poverty schools often feel that their work is so demanding that it may be unsustainable. They can go full-tilt for only so long before fatigue and stress take over. Ultimately, many of them leave.

You might expect that if we asked teachers in these schools to commit scarce time to working with colleagues on teams, they would respond with skepticism, even resentment. But our recent study of teachers' working conditions in six successful high-poverty urban schools suggests otherwise. We were surprised by teachers' enthusiasm as they explained how their teams helped them manage the many pressing challenges of teaching. Although the teachers reported serious concerns about the pace of their work, they said that their teams reduced stress rather than intensified it.

Where Teams Are at the Center