Hey Teacher Tapp Community!
It’s Week 33 and for many of you the school year is coming to a close – but others still have a while to go! In any case, there’s lots to learn, so let’s go!
Want to help Teacher Tapp grow?
👥 Invite your colleagues to join!
The best link to share is onelink.to/teachertapp — it takes them straight to the app store! 📲✨
📌 Share us in your teacher lounge!
Print this poster and pin it in your lounge to help spread the word.
Now, time for the edu-data!
1. Salary Talk: A Taboo? 🤔
Picture this: you get a job offer. You know you’re worth more.
Do you ask?
Turns out: most teachers don’t.
A clear majority—60%—said they’d feel uneasy even trying. Only 1 in 3 have ever asked for more money after receiving an offer.
That might not be so surprising. In many districts, salary just isn’t negotiable. Public school teachers are typically paid on district-wide scales, especially where collective bargaining agreements are in place. Your salary depends on your years of experience and education level—not your negotiating skills.
Even in places where there’s some flexibility—like private schools, charter networks, or non-union districts—negotiation still isn’t the norm. Most teachers are used to transparent formulas, not back-and-forth bargaining.
In the UK edition, Teacher Tappers told us something similar. And with a bigger sample there, we’ve also seen clear gender differences: women are significantly less likely than men to negotiate.
Could the same be true in the US? Let’s find out—get more colleagues answering questions, and we’ll crunch the data.
2. AI Temptation 🤖
Imagine: you’re 13, you’ve got a homework assignment, and AI tools are available.
Do you use it? It depends on what the teacher says.
Here’s how it played out:
- 🟡 No guidance given?
59% of you said you’d probably use AI. - 🟢 Explicitly allowed?
79% said yes—you’d go ahead and use it. - 🔴 Explicitly banned?
Just 20% said you’d still be tempted.
So what does this tell us?
AI use isn’t just about temptation—it’s about clarity.
If you don’t want students to use AI, you really do need to tell them!
3. Who is responsible for mental health? 🧠
Young people’s mental health continues to be a prime concern – but who is or should be responsible for it?
The word ‘responsible’ can have different meanings. Typically when we ask about who is responsible for something that has already occurred, we use it to mean ‘whose actions got us to this place’. When we ask about responsibility for a future situation, then it’s about who will improve the situation.
Whichever way we asked, your answers were remarkably consistent.
74% felt parents had caused the current situation. And even more of you—82%—said parents need to take the lead in fixing it.
Social media took second place, with a solid 23% saying it plays a major role in the current problem. But only 1% thought it could be part of the solution. Government? Even lower. Teachers and schools? Just 2–10%, depending on the question.
What does this tell us?
Teachers feel they’re already doing as much as they can. The emotional labor of supporting students is real—and growing—and many of you are reaching your limits. It’s not that you don’t care. It’s that you can’t carry it all.
4. Principal Dreams? 🧑🎓
We’re often told that the best teachers should become school leaders. That climbing the ladder—from classroom to principal’s office—is the natural next step.
But most of you don’t see it that way.
67% of teachers said they definitely don’t want to be a principal. Another 18% said probably not. That’s 85% steering well clear of the job.
Only 4% said “yes, definitely”—and even they might want to sleep on it.
Why the hesitation? It could be the workload. The stress. Or maybe it’s just that many teachers didn’t get into the profession to become administrators—they got into it to teach.
And for many of you, even that wasn’t the original plan.
Almost half of those answering this week said teaching wasn’t their first-choice career. And yet—you stayed!
Which shows that even getting reluctant people into the classroom might still be a way to fight shortages. So don’t forget to tell your friends, neighbors, random person at the airport, that they may want to try it out!
Daily Reads
We know lots of teachers on Teacher Tapp LOVE the daily reads! If you have ideas of reads we could feature, get in touch by emailing usa@teachertapp.com and we will check it out!
This week our most-read blog was on Why Quizzing Works Better Than Re-Reading.
Until next week!
