Communities Are Built Around Their Schools
Schools are built by the teachers and leaders who show up for kids everyday.
of Colorado teachers stayed teaching in the same school from 2020–21 to 2021–22, about 20 points below the national average.
of Colorado teachers plan to leave the profession as soon as they can.
Starting salary and wage competitiveness are among Colorado’s lowest-scoring areas nationally.
For time for professional development, perceptions of evaluation, dissatisfaction, and test-related job insecurity.
According to the Learning Policy Institute’s teaching attractiveness ratings, Colorado sits in the lowest tier nationally, scoring low on compensation, working conditions, and teacher turnover and hiring. The bright spots: collegiality and classroom autonomy rank near the top.
Why Retaining Colorado’s Educator Workforce MattersEducator turnover carries real costs.
When educators leave, instructional continuity breaks and relationships reset.
spent by Colorado districts annually on teacher turnover alone, by current estimates.
Especially in rural and frontier areas, when schools cannot recruit and retain educators, communities become harder to sustain.
growth in total education spending since 2020, while K–12 enrollment has fallen five straight years.
Retention Is a Systems Problem
Research consistently shows workplace conditions, not just pay, are among the strongest predictors of whether an educator stays. Teachers remain where they experience trust in leadership, strong collegial relationships, professional autonomy, and manageable workloads.
Educators can see how decisions get made, and have a real voice in making them.
Professional development that respects educators’ time and connects directly to their work.
Support educators can count on when the job gets hard, not just when it’s easy.
These aren’t abstract culture goals. They’re design choices leaders can measure, adjust, and improve.
What Can We Do to Support Colorado’s Educator Workforce?
Burnout is a design flaw, not a personal failure.
The conditions driving Colorado’s numbers, heavy workloads, thin decision-making power, unsustainable meeting and evaluation loads, are the same conditions that have been successfully redesigned elsewhere. Colorado is already trending in the right direction: turnover fell from over 19% in 2023 to 17% in 2025. The open question is whether that improvement stays incidental, or becomes intentional and sustained.
Vital defines two forces that counter burnout:
The mental energy and motivation that comes from knowing a brighter future can be created through your own actions.
The purpose and energy that comes from working in an empowering community that values your worth.
Here’s what it looks like when a state gets intentional about building both.
Explore Vital’s Work in North Dakota
Vital Network is running a multi-year pilot with schools in North Dakota aimed directly at educator burnout. Founder Nate Eklund described what’s changing on the ground in a 2025 conversation on the Trending in Education podcast:
- Decision-making redesigned so teachers aren’t just consulted. They’re driving change.
- Meetings and professional development streamlined to give staff real time, and dignity, back.
- New measures that track how educators are doing, not just how students perform on tests.
“In places like North Dakota, where Vital’s multi-year pilot is taking aim at burnout... it’s working. Educators are reporting more connection, more clarity, and even more hope.”
Nate Eklund, Founder & CEO, Vital Network
Sources
- Learning Policy Institute, The State of the Teacher Workforce (interactive map)
- Learning Policy Institute, What’s the Cost of Teacher Turnover? (2024)
- Common Sense Institute, Dollars and Data 2025 (Colorado)
- Vital Network, “The Future of Education Starts with Great Workplaces” (Trending in Education recap, May 2025)
What North Dakota Educators Say
Across districts partnering with Vital Network, educator voice data reveals a consistent statewide pattern: educators remain deeply connected to students and to the purpose of their work, even as structural conditions continue to strain daily experience.
Source: Vital Educator Workplace Experience Survey, Fall 2025 (N = 5,370)
Working in education is one of the most meaningful and challenging paths you could choose. It’s not easy. There are long days, emotional demands, and moments of frustration, but the impact you make is real and lasting.
— Fargo educator
Through the Vital Experience survey, educators reported…
The extent to which required meetings are worthwhile.
The ability to maintain a healthy balance between school responsibilities and your life outside of work.
The experience of having enough time, resources, and support to do the job well without the work feeling unmanageable.
When we address work-life balance and workload pressure, schools become more attractive places to work.
How and Why: Measuring Educator Experience – Pillars of Educator Experience
Quality of leadership relationships, collegial trust, and sense of community among staff and families.
Psychological safety and belonging are foundational for engagement, collaboration, and stability.
Educator input in school and district decisions, clarity of communication, and collective problem-solving.
Ownership and collective efficacy are strong predictors of motivation and retention.
Workload manageability, value of meetings, and autonomy over time use.
Sustainable time use reduces burnout and protects effectiveness.
Hope, sense of purpose, energy, and belief in school improvement.
Closely linked to intent to stay and long-term career satisfaction.
Surveys & Actionable Insights
Vital surveys are meticulously crafted to be short, practical, and lead to learning and action. Data are delivered quickly to allow data review to happen right away.
Each question yields insights on the leading indicators of what makes great places to work, illuminating educator experiences that help leaders get ahead of burnout and turnover. By drawing on the latest research on the underlying causes of educator well-being and job satisfaction, the data become a powerful shared text on which teams can reflect, act, and improve.
- The people closest to me would say that I speak positively about my job.
- Most days, I feel a sense of accomplishment about what I do.
- I receive the information I need in order to effectively do my job.
- Staff have a process through which we work with administration to improve our school.
- Staff in my school work well as a team.
- Educators are respected in my community.
- The amount of time I spend in scheduled meetings is reasonable.
- I find value in the meetings I am required to attend.
Vital Districts are seeing increases in critical areas of workplace experience: Hope, Life Balance, Workload Manageability among the top ranked.
Resources & Reports
Research, tools, and reference materials from Vital Network's work in North Dakota.
The full research report on educator workforce conditions in North Dakota. Data, findings, and recommendations.
View Resource →Learn how more than 10,000 special education professionals across North Dakota experienced their workplace during the 2025-26 school year, in this short policy brief.
Download PDF →An interactive self-assessment tool helping school and district leaders identify their mindset strengths and growth opportunities.
Take the Quiz →Jeff McCanna shares how Vital Network transformed staff well-being and organizational health at one of North Dakota's largest school districts.
Dr. Jeff McCanna
Chief Human Capital Officer, Fargo Public Schools
North Dakota education leaders speak on Vital Network's influence: amplifying voices, improving morale, and driving measurable change.
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