Overwhelmed Teachers Don’t Grow—Here’s How Leaders Fix That

“The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.” — Tony Blair. 

"When it comes to student performance on reading and math tests, teachers are estimated to have two to three times the effect of any other school factor, including services, facilities, and even leadership." — Isaac M. Opper, Understanding  Teachers’  Impact  on  Student  Achievement  (RAND Corporation, 2019)

It’s not new or flashy, but it’s true: The greatest influence on student achievement is the classroom teacher. If we want to improve student outcomes, we must improve teaching. That puts professional learning at the center of any effective school improvement strategy. Almost all leaders we work with have this belief. Unfortunately, in almost all of their schools, one of the biggest barriers to improvement was trying to do too much. We feel so much pressure that it’s easy to say yes to all the possible good things that our students need. Because leaders are so busy, they sometimes are unaware of all the new things teachers are facing.

We intuitively know that more is not always better. We recognize that being overwhelmed leads to less effectiveness. And yet, both leaders and teachers often feel overwhelmed.

This happens for a myriad of reasons—accountability pressure from state and federal governments, district initiatives, the needs we see in our building. If you’re like most of the leaders with whom we work, it’s easy to find yourself in a place where both you and your teachers are overwhelmed.

We’ve helped many school leaders overcome this challenge. In this post, you’ll see how to plan for coherence as the first step in creating effective professional development plans for teachers. Our next post will explore how to differentiate learning for teachers just as we do for students. Finally, we’ll bring it all together into a practical, powerful system for professional learning that actually changes teaching practice.

Personal Experience

Let me tell you a story that might resonate with you. Recently, I sat down with a school leader who was planning professional development for the upcoming school year. She was committed to preventing her teachers from being overwhelmed and was committed to only focusing on implementing the new reading curriculum the district had purchased. As we brainstormed, we began to write things on the board. We started with the new reading curriculum, but the list quickly blossomed. We discovered the district had also mandated a new behavior reporting system. Teachers were all also receiving new laptops—but shifting from PCs to Macs. The assistant principal had planned a new component of their PBIS system which was going to launch at the start of the year. In their school improvement plan, they had identified focusing on second language learners. Pretty soon, the board was full of competing areas of focus.

We don’t intend to be overwhelmed, but if we don’t plan carefully, it almost always happens.

Here’s where the concept of coherence comes in. Imagine different initiatives as waves. These waves can either build on one another, creating a larger effect, or they can cancel each other out. One comes from coherence; we call the other dissonance. In one, we get a larger impact, in the other we often get little or no impact.

Coherence Amplifies Impact 

Great leaders know they can’t eliminate every requirement. The district will still mandate trainings. The state will still require evaluations. But they can manage how those things interact. They can reduce the noise and increase clarity. Coherence isn’t about doing less for the sake of doing less—it’s about finding ways to align our improvement work in a way that makes sense and limits the overall sense of being overwhelmed.

How to Build Coherence in Your School's Professional Learning System

1. List All the Initiatives 

   Get it all on the board. Literally. Include everything requiring teacher time or change—from district trainings to schedule shifts, new devices, forms, and expectations. Ask your leadership team or a group of trusted teachers to help you see what you’ve missed.

   
   

2. Eliminate or Reduce What You Can 

   What can wait? If something doesn’t have to happen this semester, delay it. If something can be absorbed by admin instead of teachers (like managing a new referral system), make that adjustment.

   
   

3. Align the Big Three: SIP, PD Plan, and Evaluation System 

   Your professional development should mirror your school improvement plan. And both should align with your evaluation system. If it's not in your SIP, ask: does it really deserve your staff’s time and energy?

   
   

4. Prioritize and Sequence 

   Identify what will have the biggest impact on student outcomes. Choose one or two areas of focus. Give teachers time to adjust. For example, let them settle into a new schedule before launching new MTSS processes.

   
   

5. Make the Connections Explicit 

   Help teachers see how their learning focus connects to their evaluation, coaching, and the school’s goals. This builds purpose and trust.

   
   

6. Hold the Course

   This is probably the most challenging part. Many new “opportunities” will come up that can distract from your focus and overwhelm staff. This is why saying “no” is one of the hardest things that leaders MUST do.

Coming Up Next: 

In the next post, we’ll explore how to support different teachers differently—even within a coherent system. Just like students, teachers bring different needs, readiness levels, and learning styles. We’ll explore how to differentiate professional learning while staying focused on shared goals.

Then, in our third and final post, we’ll show how to bring it all together into a cohesive, effective professional learning system that truly supports teacher growth and improves student outcomes.

Discussion Question:

What is your greatest challenge in preventing teachers from being overwhelmed?  What strategies have you found that prevent this from happening?