Educational Problems Often Masquerade as Progress
- Lindsey Cannon
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 13 minutes ago
Schools are filled with hardworking professionals. Teachers push through long days, principals juggle countless priorities, and districts set ambitious goals.
Yet year after year, the same educational problems resurface. Test scores remain flat, student engagement wavers, and teachers feel stretched thin.
The biggest barrier to improving student outcomes does not always look like a problem. It often looks like effort. Teachers staying late. Leaders launching new initiatives. Teams producing binders of data. All of it gives the appearance of progress.
At the center of these educational problems is a root cause many have overlooked: teacher workload and how educators cope with the unrealistic demands.
The Hidden Cost of Teacher Workload
Teachers are not just employees. They are high achievers who want to succeed. Many were the students who excelled in school, who thrived on earning A’s, who carried that drive into their profession. When given too much to do, they will still find a way to make it work. But the cost is steep.
Teachers report they do not have enough time in the workday to handle the basics, such as grading, lesson planning, and parent communication. A 2024 Pew Research Center study found that 84 percent of teachers reported being unable to complete all their required tasks during regular work hours. The same report indicates that overwhelming workloads are the primary reason for this time crunch.
Decision fatigue sets in as teachers make hundreds of daily choices without a clear hierarchy.
Accountability measures intended to improve schools become box-checking exercises.
The most important priorities, such as deep instruction, meaningful relationships, and innovative problem-solving, get lost in the shuffle.
This is not about teachers being unwilling or unmotivated. It is about an impossible load placed on high achievers who then invent their own personal hierarchies just to survive. That is no recipe for sustainable improvement.
Why Leaders Must Set the Hierarchy
When leaders do not define what matters most, teachers are left to decide for themselves. Each teacher builds a personal to-do list of what matters, what is urgent, and what can be set aside. The result is inconsistency and wasted energy.
Instructional leadership requires more than setting goals. It requires clarifying the order of operations.
Leaders need to answer key questions:
What belongs at the top of a teacher’s daily priorities?
Which weekly or monthly responsibilities truly impact learning?
Which compliance tasks are necessary but not mission-critical?
By building a clear task hierarchy, leaders remove the guesswork. Teachers no longer spend energy debating what matters most. Instead, they can focus their time and creativity where it counts: improving student outcomes.
A Seasonal Approach to Priorities
The school year has natural rhythms. Early fall brings a lull after the back-to-school rush, yet before the holiday season and end-of-semester push. This is the perfect time for leaders to rethink workload.
Rather than expecting teachers to accomplish everything at once, create a seasonal hierarchy of tasks that allows for a more manageable approach. Not everything has to be urgent in August. Not everything has to be urgent in October. By adjusting expectations to the flow of the year, leaders can free up space for teachers to operate as true professionals.
Imagine providing clarity such as:
In August, focus heavily on building family relationships.
In October, shift energy toward assessment analysis.
During testing windows, reduce other nonessential duties to keep teachers steady.
This approach acknowledges reality. It enables schools to move the needle on priorities without burning out teachers.
How to Build a Task Hierarchy
Creating a task hierarchy requires thoughtful leadership and honest collaboration. Here are the essential steps:
Inventory every responsibility. Document everything teachers do, from lesson planning to bus duty. Include subgroups such as special education, electives, and coaches.
Validate each task. Decide which responsibilities are truly necessary. Eliminate outdated or low-value initiatives.
Sort by cadence. Place remaining tasks into daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly categories.
Add seasonal focus. Layer in expectations by time of year, aligning with natural cycles of the school calendar.
Mark non-negotiables. Highlight the tasks that must never fall off the plate. Pair accountability with room for growth.
This process is not a one-day exercise. It requires input from multiple leaders and feedback loops with teachers. The payoff is clarity that cuts through decision fatigue.
Pitfalls to Avoid
A task hierarchy can solve many educational problems, but only if it is realistic. Leaders should avoid these common mistakes:
Making lists as long and unrealistic as before.
Applying the same expectations to new and veteran teachers without adjustment.
Adding new initiatives without re-ranking priorities.
Collecting data that looks good on paper but does not change practice.
Teachers must be able to accomplish the tasks within their regular workload. Otherwise, the hierarchy becomes yet another set of boxes to check.
The Benefits for Teachers and Students
When schools build clear hierarchies, teachers benefit in tangible ways:
Expectations become clear and consistent.
Decision fatigue is reduced.
Teachers can spend more time on creative problem-solving.
Leaders and teachers share the same definition of success.
The ultimate benefit is for students. When teachers are not buried under endless tasks, they can focus on what truly matters: helping young people grow. Students feel the difference when classrooms run with clarity, purpose, and genuine innovation.
A New Way Forward
This framework is not about making teaching easy. It is about making teaching possible. It is about ensuring that the people responsible for educating our next generation have the space to do so with creativity and focus.
Educational problems will not be solved by asking teachers to run faster or by layering on the newest initiative. Real progress comes when we address the root cause: teacher workload.
When teachers are freed to focus, students thrive. Communities notice. And long-term outcomes improve. Because when kids win, everybody wins.
Join Us to Learn More
This blog is just the beginning. Reify Educates addresses educational problems beyond teacher workload. We help schools apply business principles to improve student outcomes.
In our upcoming workshop, we will walk through shifts schools can take to operate like successful business organizations.
👉 Attend our upcoming workshop on November 12, 2025 and begin your work with Reify Educates.
Source: Pew Research Center, 2024. How Teachers Manage Their Workload by Luona Lin, Kim Parker, and Juliana Menasce Horowitz.
Lindsey Cannon is the owner, lead presenter, and coach at Reify Educates.
She is on a mission to continuously ask, WHAT IF... because most things are possible, and the world needs more creative solutions.
She loves to meet educational leaders and help them pull all the pieces together to benefit the students! Start a conversation here.