TPT Survey: How Teachers Are Really Feeling This Back-to-School Season

During back-to-school season, ask any educator how they’re feeling, and you’ll likely hear two things in the same breath: excited and anxious. That tension is exactly what came through in TPT’s survey of nearly 7,500 classroom teachers, administrators, and specialists.

Here’s what the data revealed: Teachers are heading back to school with hope and optimism. But digging deeper, we found that educators are quietly managing the stress of increased workloads, weathering the changes of a fast-evolving profession, and navigating their way through an AI boom that’s seemingly both their biggest blessing and curse.

The mood for the year is hopeful, but not carefree

Three-quarters of educators (77%) say they are heading into the new school year feeling optimistic, excited, or motivated. What’s fueling those feelings? Mostly, the simple things: meeting a new crop of students, getting a fresh start, watching kids grow, and experimenting with new ideas in their own classrooms.

Educators’ optimism, however, isn’t blind to the realities that they’ll be facing in classrooms. As one veteran teacher put it:

“After 22 years, I still love walking into my classroom in August. I’m an optimist by nature. I believe in kids, I believe in public education, and I’ve seen students overcome things that should have been impossible. But I’d be lying if I said I’m not worried. Teaching gets harder, not easier, because the world our students live in gets more complicated — and more of it lands on our desks. This year, I’m most worried about bandwidth — mine, my colleagues,’ and my students’.”

When asked about what worries them the most about the year ahead, educators pointed to: students’ social-emotional and behavioral needs (61%), student engagement and motivation (45%), and academics (43%). Notably, the social-emotional needs of students was the top concern for the second year in a row, up 8% from back-to-school 2025. As one educator noted: “Students are coming in with more anxiety, trauma, and basic needs — issues that hit home for many families. Teachers are asked to fill the roles of counselor, social worker, and data analyst on top of instruction, and it’s burning people out.”

Educators remain resilient in the face of increased workloads

Nearly two-thirds of educators describe their current workload-related stress as moderate, while 30% report high or critical stress levels, a meaningful share that is worth watching. 

Interestingly, stress levels held steady regardless of how many years of teaching they had under their belt. Newer teachers aren’t necessarily more stressed than veteran ones, which suggests the pressures educators face today are systemic, rather than a matter of experience level.

The pressures they face are largely due to how fast education has changed, particularly in recent years. We asked educators to reflect on what’s different since they started teaching. Four themes dominated:

• Technology has transformed the classroom. Teachers describe it as a “double-edged sword,” opening up access to information and saving enormous amounts of time, but also introducing new distractions and challenges. 

• Student behavior has become more difficult to manage, with many teachers citing a lack of consequences and inconsistent backing from parents and administrators.

• Parent involvement has shifted from partnership to an indifferent — or, in some cases, an adversarial — dynamic. Teachers report they’re now expected to teach skills — such as potty training, fine motor skills, and basic manners — that were once handled at home.

• Workload keeps growing and expanding without anything coming off teachers’ plates. In addition to lesson planning, grading, classroom management, and day-to-day teaching, they describe being asked to serve as first responders for student mental health, informal social workers, and behavioral interventionists. 

Today’s students are capable, but distracted

When it comes to how educators see this generation of students, the picture is nuanced. Educators overwhelmingly describe today’s students as being technologically capable (80%), in addition to creative (22%) and adaptable to change (21%). At the same time, 79% of teachers say social media, internet use, and screen time have the greatest impact on student learning. Overall, teachers believe that this generation has the potential to thrive in the modern, digital world, tempered by lingering questions about that world’s effects on student learning.

AI adoption among educators is now mainstream

The vast majority of educators now use AI tools, and adoption has increased 3% compared to a prior TPT survey conducted in early 2026. Teachers report using AI primarily as a tool to help them create resources (60%), brainstorm ideas (42%), and complete administrative tasks (41%).

The sentiment from educators using AI is generally positive. Many describe it as a genuine time-saver that lets them refocus energy on their students, rather than paperwork.

“Before AI, the sheer volume of administrative tasks — drafting repetitive emails, formatting newsletters, and writing standard communication — ate into the hours I should have spent focusing on student engagement. Now, I use AI to instantly draft the boilerplate text, clear the administrative clutter, and protect my energy for what matters most: actual teaching.”

There is a trust gap with AI-generated content

Despite its increasingly widespread use, teachers haven’t handed over the reins to AI entirely. When rating the resources they trust most, educators overwhelmingly favor materials created by real educators over purely AI-generated content. Most express comfort with AI-assisted resources — but only when a human has played a role in reviewing or refining the material.

This trust gap shows up again when we asked teachers about AI’s effect on student learning. Forty-one percent believe AI offers real benefits but also creates notable challenges, and nearly a third are still forming an opinion. Half (51%) are somewhat concerned about AI’s impact on learning, and 43% are very concerned.

Their specific worries are clear and consistent: AI’s potential impact on students’ critical thinking skills (83%), cheating (57%), and writing skills (50%) top the list. 

In short: Teachers see AI as a genuinely useful tool for managing their own workload — but they’re far more cautious about using it to actually teach.

TPT Survey Methodology

TPT sent a survey of multiple-choice and open-ended questions to users on the TPT platform to gather educators’ opinions ahead of the 2026-27 school year. The survey was sent via email on Jul 8, 2026, and was completed by 7,345 educators. The margin of error is +/-3 percentage points. Characteristics of the respondents are displayed below.

Region
West	18.5%
Midwest	21.4%
Northeast	13.87%
South	29.3%
International	12%
Student Grades(Respondents chose all that apply, percentages may not add to 100%)
PreK-K	27.3%
1-5	49.7%
6-8	25.4%
9-12	18.7%
Adult Learners	2.3%
Other (Write Ins)	3.4%
Teaching Experience
0-1 years	5.5%
2-5 years	15.2%
6-10 years	13.8%
11-15 years	13.1%
16-20 years	12.8%
21-25 years	14.9%
26+ years	24.8%
Role
Classroom Teacher	85.2%
Specialist (e.g., Counselor, Librarian, etc.)	13%
School Administrator	1.8%

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