A new report that explores the experiences that make educators feel as though they matter correlates burnout to whether they perceive their role and contributions as valued by their school communities.
The Mattering Gap Among K-12 Educators, published in October by the Walton Family Foundation, Gallup and The Mattering Institute, covers the results of a national survey of 1,952 classroom teachers, teaching assistants, substitutes and paraprofessionals that was conducted in summer 2026.
“The findings show that one in five teachers doesn’t think they matter much or at all and barely a third say they matter a great deal. Among those who lack a sense of mattering, 68 percent are frequently burned out, and fewer than half plan to remain in education,” according to a press release announcing the report.
Though teachers have a critical job in the development of young people “many K-12 educators do not feel a strong sense that they matter within their school communities,” according to the report. “In a school setting, mattering means educators not only feel seen and valued as individuals but also recognize that their perspectives, abilities and work make a meaningful difference to their school community.”
Among key findings were that one in three educators (35 percent) believe they matter a great deal at their school, 47 percent feel they matter somewhat, 15 percent don’t think they matter too much and 4 percent said they do not at all.
“Mattering varies slightly by school type and subject taught, but the differences are small. This suggests mattering is less demographically driven and more a function of the system in which educators teach,” the report states.
Activities that make teachers feel they matter most often involve working with students, including helping a student work through something they find difficult; seeing students do well academically; giving them individual feedback on work; and leading creative, hands-on or open-ended projects.
The report found that feeling appreciated is strongly connected to mattering “as 72 percent of educators with high appreciation scores say they matter a great deal, compared with 7 percent of those with low scores,” it states.
Respondents indicated that being recognized by supervisors is especially vital to feeling as though they matter but only 25 percent have this happen on a weekly basis and 33 percent said it occurs a few times a month.
“Statistical analysis confirms that recognition from a supervisor has a stronger relationship with mattering than recognition from students or parents, which makes its relative infrequency particularly notable,” according to the report.
For educators, feeling invested in typically means seeing a future at their school and like their professional growth and development is supported.
Feeling invested in “has the strongest independent relationship with educators’ likelihood of leaving their jobs within the next year. The share of educators who say they are likely to leave falls from 41 percent among those with lower Invested In scores to 12 percent among those with higher scores,” the report explains.
The majority of those surveyed indicated that they always or often give more to their school community than they receive back. “Frequent burnout rises sharply with this imbalance, from 13 percent among educators who rarely or never feel they give more than they receive to 57 percent among those who always do.”
Incorporating creative activities into their practice is another way to build mattering, according to the report, and it can help educators find students’ strengths.
To foster a sense of mattering, local educational agencies may consider:
- Making appreciation systemic
- Equipping supervisors to regularly recognize staff
- Making visible investments in educators’ growth and futures
- Finding a balance between what is asked of educators and what they receive
- Establishing room for creative practice
Find more details in the report.
