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Teaching Profession From Our Research Center

How Teachers Spend Their Time: A Breakdown

By Hayley Hardison 鈥 April 19, 2022 1 min read
Patrick Jiner, a seventh grade math teacher at Lake Middle School in Denver, writes on a smart board as he talks to his class on April 13, 2022.
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A new, nationally representative survey of teachers found that a typical teacher works a median of 54 hours per week. But just 46 percent of their time in the school building is spent teaching. The survey, which was administered by the EdWeek Research Center and commissioned by the Winston School of Education and Social Policy at Merrimack College, offers a closer look at how all those hours are spent.

鈥淭he general public needs to consider that teachers鈥 work doesn鈥檛 end with the day鈥檚 final school bell. And it鈥檚 not just about lecturing at the front of the classroom,鈥 wrote 91直播 reporter Ileana Najarro in recent coverage.

Hundreds of teachers have shared how many hours they clock in per week. With teacher job satisfaction hitting an all-time low, it鈥檚 crucial to examine how teachers鈥 schedules have intensified over the years鈥攅specially since the start of the pandemic. On top of their core job, more than half of teachers work second jobs to supplement their teaching salaries.

Here鈥檚 a breakdown of how much time (the median number of hours) teachers report spending on specific tasks throughout their workweeks, according to the survey:

5 hours     grading and providing feedback of student work

5 hours     planning or preparing

3 hours     doing general administrative work

3 hours     on non-teaching student interaction

2 hours     collaborating/planning with colleagues

2 hours     communicating with parents or guardians

2 hours     doing other work activities

1 hour     doing school committee work

1 hour     doing professional-development activities

1 hour     on non-curricular activities (such as sports, clubs, after-school events)

Check out a visual representation of this information from (and be sure to for more information and inspiration):

education week logo subbrand logo RC RGB

Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center鈥檚 work.

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