Please don’t get me wrong. I am not on a vendetta against administrators. I know and respect many good ones, and I am fully aware that they have more plates in the air than most teachers. They must serve faculty, students, parents, board members, and the community. They balance budgets, develop curriculum, coordinate professional development, maintain positive PR for the school, and handle staff hiring and firing—to name just a few of the tasks in their job description. Nonetheless, teachers often feel a distinct “us versus them” attitude when it comes to their school’s administrative team.
I think the main reason for this friction is a lack of clear communication and genuine support. Some administrators have lost their way when defining that very same job description. At the very top of their list should be supporting and knowing their faculty, yet too many have lost sight of this core duty. If administrators were to restructure their priorities, it would go a long way toward removing the “us versus them” thorn in teachers’ sides and pave the way to a more unified school community. Working together instead of against each other helps everyone maintain a positive attitude, saving precious energy and directly lessening burnout.
Shifting Priorities to the Classroom
A teacher needs to feel seen and supported. This support is the fuel that feeds their desire to serve students to the best of their abilities. Administrators should be honest about how they run their school. Do they truly know their faculty? Do they listen when faculty share their concerns?
If the answer isn’t an enthusiastic yes, administrators need to get into their teachers’ classrooms—all of them—and not just once or twice a semester. Leadership should be present every week, if not every day. This collaborative partnership needs to become the norm. When an administrator is a regular presence, they gain a firsthand understanding of the teaching environment, leaving them fully prepared when a student or parent raises a concern. A positive relationship with an administrator can also help teachers learn and grow as they hone their craft—something all educators want to do.
Redefining Teacher Retention
Ultimately, active administrative presence is no longer just a “best practice”—it is a necessity for survival. Education is facing a national crisis of teacher burnout, driven by overwhelming workloads, lack of resources, and systemic isolation. Administrators have a unique and vital opportunity to alleviate this crisis by prioritizing teacher retention—the ability to keep qualified educators working in their classrooms year after year. True retention is not about offering free coffee or casual dress days; it is about building a sustainable workplace where educators feel valued enough to stay.
Administrators play the single most critical role in achieving this by shifting their focus from managing paperwork to protecting their staff and helping them grow into the teachers they were meant to be. When leaders actively listen, validate classroom struggles, help teachers improve and shield teachers from unnecessary burdens, they transform school culture. By dismantling the “us versus them” divide and building a united front, administrators can improve teacher retention, keeping the best educators right where they belong: with the students.
Teaching is an incredibly demanding yet profoundly vital job, and it cannot be done effectively in isolation. When teachers and administrators unite in genuine partnership, the opportunities for collective synergy and structural alignment increase exponentially, creating an environment where both staff and students can truly thrive. Thanks for reading! kim
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