People Before Pedagogy
In districts across the country, professional development season is in full swing. Schedules are filling with sessions on instructional frameworks, classroom management, and data-driven strategies. But one critical issue continues to be overlooked—one that quietly undermines all the others:
Educators are exhausted. And pedagogy won’t fix burnout.
We don’t have a professional development problem.
We have a human sustainability problem.
The assumption that more training will automatically lead to better teaching outcomes has long dominated our PD calendars. But what’s often missing from the conversation is that instructional improvement can’t take hold when the people delivering it are depleted.
According to a 2022 RAND study, 87% of principals and 73% of teachers report frequent job-related stress—numbers that far surpass other professions (Steiner & Woo, 2022). These are not just statistics. They represent thousands of educators walking into buildings every day, trying to lead, teach, and serve while their own capacity is running dangerously low.
Professional development must evolve to meet this moment—not just in content, but in philosophy.
At EdSolutions Group, we work with districts to reframe professional development from the inside out. The foundation of our approach is simple: start with the person, and the performance will follow.
Rebuilding Leadership Capacity Starts with Well-being
Our Joyful Leadership Institute™ helps principals and district leaders realign their priorities, manage overwhelm, and lead from clarity rather than chaos. The goal isn’t to add more to their plates—it’s to take the right things off.
Principals are the culture carriers of their buildings, yet they are leaving in record numbers. A 2022 NASSP report found that nearly 40% of principals are considering leaving the profession in the next three years. If we don’t address the toll leadership takes, the pipeline of experienced, empowered leaders will only shrink.
Strategic leadership well-being isn’t optional—it’s essential.
Statistic: 87% of principals report daily job-related stress. Without systems of support, leadership capacity will continue to erode.
Parent Partnership Is More Than a Compliance Task
One of the most misunderstood drivers of school culture is family engagement. When treated as a checklist—newsletters, parent nights, occasional surveys—it rarely moves the needle. But when treated as a strategic partnership, it becomes a protective factor for students, staff, and communities.
Our Parent Engagement Lab™ supports districts in building authentic, relational systems of family engagement that reduce chronic absenteeism and increase trust. Research from Attendance Works shows that strong family partnership strategies can cut chronic absenteeism by nearly 50% (Chang et al., 2023).
Engaged families not only support student success—they reduce stress on teachers and reinforce a shared sense of purpose.
Trauma-Informed Practice Requires Staff Protection, Too
Trauma-informed education has become more prominent in recent years, but what’s often missing is a dual focus: not just how we support students, but how we protect educators.
The emotional toll of teaching students with high ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) scores is real. Yet educators rarely receive training in how to recognize and navigate secondary trauma and compassion fatigue.
Our ACE Aware™ program addresses both sides—building trauma-responsive classrooms while equipping educators with tools to support their own well-being. Research from Hydon et al. (2015) shows that over 75% of educators experience signs of emotional exhaustion related to their caregiving roles.
A trauma-informed system must include the adults in it—not just the children it serves.
A Strategic Investment—Not a Wellness Week
For districts ready to take this work systemwide, we offer a District Well-being Director model: a 15 month partnership to embed well-being, retention, and leadership sustainability into the heart of district operations.
This isn’t a themed week or a motivational talk. It’s a data-informed, capacity-building initiative that reduces turnover, increases morale, and shifts culture.
And the return on investment is substantial: with the cost of turnover averaging over $20,000 per educator and even more per school leader, districts that invest in well-being strategies are seeing annual savings of $500,000 or more. Our solutions pay for themselves.
The Shift That’s Needed
Burnout is not a personal failure. It’s a systemic signal.
We can no longer afford to treat educator well-being as optional or separate from school improvement. It must become the foundation on which everything else is built.
Professional development that ignores burnout is no longer “traditional”—it’s ineffective. And continuing to roll out instructional strategies without addressing the people behind them is a strategy destined to fail.
We must give our educators what they actually need: the space to reconnect with their purpose, the tools to manage stress and fatigue, and the systems that support sustainable leadership.
You can’t teach from an empty tank.
Let’s stop expecting educators to.
Ready to Lead Differently?
Let’s explore how a well-being-first approach to professional development can create real change across your district.
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About the Author
Lisa Imel is the Founder and CEO of EdSolutions Group and the Eunoia Institute, where she helps educational leaders and school systems build sustainable, human-centered cultures through leadership development, educator well-being, and strategic innovation. A former principal, curriculum coordinator, and PK–16 educator, Lisa holds a superintendent license and is a Fulbright Scholar and Paul Harris Fellow. She is the author of Unleash Your Potential: A Holistic Approach to Personal and Professional Development and a national speaker on burnout prevention, system transformation, and leadership sustainability.
References
Chang, H. N., Balfanz, R., & Byrnes, V. (2023). Attendance Playbook: Smart Solutions for Reducing Chronic Absenteeism in the COVID Era. Attendance Works.
Hydon, S., Wong, M., Langley, A. K., Stein, B. D., & Kataoka, S. H. (2015). Preventing secondary traumatic stress in educators. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 24(2), 319–333.
National Association of Secondary School Principals. (2022). Voices from the Principal’s Office: The State of School Leadership in 2022.
Steiner, E. D., & Woo, A. (2022). Job-Related Stress Threatens the Teacher Supply. RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-1.html
