Everywhere you look, it appears that the U.S. teaching profession is in a state of crisis. While the severity varies by state, the nation continues to see in teacher education program enrollment and perceptions of teaching as a prestigious career. From my regular interactions with students, it鈥檚 clear that negative messages about the profession are deeply ingrained in their minds. So where are these messages coming from? Why aren鈥檛 young people interested in teaching? While these are complex questions without simple answers, TikTok, the ultimate message spreader, offers us a window into one part of the puzzle.

Over half of Americans aged 18-34 . However, the fate of the app is now uncertain. On Sunday, TikTok shut down as a nationwide ban was set to go into effect. On Monday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order granting a 75-day extension, allowing the Chinese company more time to consider selling. Whatever the future holds, it鈥檚 crucial to reflect on what it taught us about the field of education.

TikTok has been a paradoxical tool for education: both damaging and useful. For every report about the app鈥檚 negative effects on teaching and learning (e.g., mental health concerns and 鈥渄estructive challenges鈥�), there are reports of the app鈥檚 benefits (e.g., open-source instructional strategies and community engagement). When I began researching teachers鈥� use of TikTok, I was struck by how videos tagged with the hashtag epitomized this duality.

#TeacherQuitTok, with over 400 million views, serves as a digital repository of teachers鈥� resignation stories. Scrolling through these videos reveals raw emotion and unfiltered truths. Teachers across the U.S. share their journeys of leaving the profession, often capturing poignant moments packing up classrooms, bidding farewell to students, or speaking directly to the camera through tears. These videos combine personal footage with text overlays, music, and storytelling to underscore the gravity of resignations and expose systemic challenges that push educators to the brink.

Teachers鈥� reasons for quitting echo decades of : unmanageable workloads, insufficient pay, deteriorating mental health and a lack of support. One teacher shares, 鈥淚 quit my teaching job in the middle of the year because of the daily stress. I developed anxiety and fell into a depression. I had to take meds just to cope.鈥� Her story is far from unique. Many educators on TikTok describe similar struggles, reflecting a profession under immense strain.

In a sense, #TeacherQuitTok has become a digital picket line, allowing teachers to bypass traditional exit interviews and speak directly to the public. The sheer volume of posts transforms individual resignations into a collective statement: The U.S. teaching profession is unsustainable under current conditions.

While some may dismiss these posts as venting, I argue that #TeacherQuitTok plays a vital role in shaping public discourse about the profession. TikTok鈥檚 algorithm amplifies these stories, enabling some to reach millions of viewers. For instance, one viral video of a teacher resigning has garnered over 13 million views鈥撯�揳n unprecedented audience for a workplace grievance.

This amplification is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it reinforces the perception that teaching is a profession riddled with stress and systemic obstacles, potentially deterring young people from pursuing it. On the other hand, it validates educators鈥� struggles, fosters solidarity, and pressures policymakers to address the systemic issues driving teachers away. For researchers, social media platforms like TikTok provide valuable data to gauge public sentiment about teaching and identify critical areas for reform.

In this case, the popularity of #TeacherQuitTok is a clarion call for urgent action. These stories underscore that teacher well-being is inexorably linked to the quality of education students receive. Schools cannot function without teachers, and if the profession continues to erode, the consequences for students and communities will be severe. To create an environment where teachers can thrive, schools must address foundational issues such as manageable workloads, competitive salaries, and mental health support.

Whatever happens to TikTok, let鈥檚 not forget the lessons it taught. Teachers are voting with their feet and sharing their decisions online. Whether it鈥檚 on TikTok or another app, teachers are no longer leaving quietly. By sharing their resignations online, they expose the challenges of the profession to the next generation. At a time when recruitment is plummeting, the country cannot afford for young people to be disillusioned before they even begin. Reforming the profession is no longer optional; it is essential for safeguarding the future of our education system.

Yet, I often felt overwhelmed by the number of hats I was asked to wear and my inability to meet my students’ individual academic needs. I saw too many fall further and further behind in a rigid system built for sameness and standardization. I was frustrated and saw this frustration reflected in students as they struggled to excel.

As more and more educators consider leaving the public schools for these very reasons, now is the time for systemic change. Merely patching holes in a failing industrial-era K-12 education model will continue to deliver dismal results. Instead, now is the time to redefine the role of educators and transform their role by equipping them with the strategies needed to engage more meaningfully with their students. This can be accomplished by reorienting school around personalized, competency-based learning.

With this approach, teachers work with students to design learning experiences that empower them to progress toward their individual goals at their own pace. This facilitates a stronger relationship between students and teachers and is having a positive impact on .

Research shows positive impacts of student-centered teaching on both and . But it also with greater levels of job satisfaction among teachers in higher education. Working with hundreds of educators in dozens of states and schools, the team at KnowledgeWorks has seen first-hand how this approach positively affects teacher morale in K-12.

Educators overwhelmingly say , and they have more power than ever before to of learning and their profession. With so many teachers leaving the classroom, those who remain have an opportunity to demand more power, compensation and autonomy.

Because so much education policy and politics happens at the state level, it is critically important for educators to engage directly with state leaders and policymakers 鈥� governors, legislators, state board members and education chiefs.

Here are a few things educators should advocate for to lay the groundwork for the future they want: 

• Prioritize teacher development in a student-centered vision. State policymakers should be encouraged to create a vision for K-12 education that establishes a clear set of expectations for what students should know or be able to do by the time they graduate. This vision can then be integrated into teacher preparation, credentialing, professional development and evaluation systems. For example, Virginia created a to help educators put the state’s into practice in their classrooms. The Council of Chief State School Officers and Jobs for the Future also detailed for personalized learning that states could use as a baseline. At least have similar visions in place, providing examples for other states looking to explore personalized learning possibilities.
  
• Build capacity for professional learning. State policymakers can rethink professional development, evaluation systems and school leadership programs by creating professional learning communities for educators across the state to share lessons learned. These networks can also be leveraged to disseminate best practices statewide. KnowledgeWorks has helped facilitate these learning networks in states including South Carolina, North Dakota, Arizona and Ohio. Districts could also explore pathways to personalized, competency-based learning by offering that acknowledge a specialized skill a teacher has learned. This allows educators to earn points toward demonstrating mastery in personalized-learning classroom practices and can be used to recognize and reward ongoing professional development.
  
• Incentivize and learn from district innovation. With education innovations taking shape in and districts across the country, many states have examples of personalized learning and corresponding shifts in educator practice that are ripe for replication. One state, South Carolina, has created that allow schools to achieve this by learning from others.
  
• Start small. To implement a sustainable shift to personalized, competency-based learning, teacher preparation and professional development programs will need to be reformulated to better equip teachers with the strategies needed to promote competency-based learning. However, state policymakers might first seek to reorient smaller programs around personalized learning practices. For example, and districts have established teacher residency programs for aspiring educators where this could occur. Policymakers might also consider dedicating resources or allowing districts to implement teacher residencies oriented around personalized-learning approaches.
  
• Connect to postsecondary education. States should also consider engaging with the burgeoning to inform their teacher preparation programs. Arizona State University, boasting one of the largest teachers colleges in the country, has been working with KnowledgeWorks over the past 18 months to unveil a personalized, competency-based learning specialization during the next semester.

These are just some ideas for teachers to begin advocating for the transformational changes needed to the nation’s traditional delivery of education. More ideas and state level examples can be found in this short policymakers’ guide, . 

Now, more than ever, teacher voices are needed to help advocate for the state-level changes that are needed to create a sustainable education system and teaching profession for the future.