Teachers Work Hard

Teachers routinely work 50 hours every week. Typically, teachers get a 30-minute lunch break every day. During that lunch break, teachers must often also monitor students. Teachers get no paid holidays.

School hours are packed with labor-intensive, student-focused work from the moment students arrive in the morning until they leave in the afternoon. Many teachers oversee after-school activities and conduct education-related evening and weekend activities. Teachers, like students, have "homework." For many teachers summers mean professional development. All teachers begin preparing for an upcoming school year before their summer is over.

Fact: 2001 mean number of hours spent on all teaching duties: 50.3.
Source: Status of the American Public School Teacher 2000-2001, page 40.

Fact: 2001 average lunch break: 32 minutes.
Source: Status of the American Public School Teacher 2000-2001, page 48.

Fact: 2001 # of annual teaching (paid) days: 181.
Source: Status of the American Public School Teacher 2000-2001, page 46.

Fact: 2001 percentage of teachers who spent time each week on non-compensated school-related activities (ie., bus duty, club advising, grading papers): 99%.
Source: Status of the American Public School Teacher 2000-2001, page 40.

Fact: Average # of weekly hours spent on such non-compensated duties: 11.6.
Source: Status of the American Public School Teacher 2000-2001, page 40.