A May and June 2026 poll found that 25% of Michigan teachers are strongly considering leaving within a year. Schools are testing team teaching to share workloads and keep educators in classrooms.
A statewide poll conducted in May and June 2026 found that 25% of Michigan teachers are strongly considering leaving the profession within the next year. More than half, 56%, are at least somewhat considering leaving within five years.
More than a third of newer teachers are already weighing an exit. The retention problem is here.
The Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative poll points to a workload problem as well as a recruitment problem. Many educators remain committed to their students and communities, yet still question whether they can stay in the profession.
Across Michigan, public policy discussions have framed the issue as a statewide workforce problem. Compensation, rising costs, staffing shortages and difficult working conditions all add pressure. Communities such as Farmington and Farmington Hills must turn statewide funding and workforce decisions into daily classroom support.
The pressure inside classrooms
Nearly half of Michigan teachers strongly agree that their jobs require them to be "all things to all people at all times." One person may be expected to plan lessons, manage a classroom, support students and handle many other tasks.
The traditional classroom setup has made that isolation seem normal. In a grade level with three or four classrooms, one teacher may be especially strong in reading while another has greater strength in math.
Under the usual structure, students are divided among those classrooms. Team teaching would let educators share responsibility. Students could receive help from teachers with different areas of expertise.
The proposal is not simply about putting another adult in a classroom. It would organize teaching around a group of educators who divide responsibilities according to their strengths, coordinate support and share the daily work.
That work can become unsustainable.
For local communities, the change would require more than a classroom decision. The Farmington Public Schools board, district administrators and educators would need to review staffing schedules, collective bargaining considerations, professional development and measures of student progress. They would then decide whether a team-based approach fits a particular school.
A model already being tested
The Michigan Educator Workforce Initiative is working with the Next Education Workforce at Arizona State University to develop team-based teaching in Michigan schools. Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences is one of the participating schools. Its leaders describe the shift as a substantial change for students and staff.
At DAAS, educators move away from isolated classrooms. Students can receive targeted instruction when they need it. The model also gives teachers more leadership opportunities and divides the instructional workload.
Supporters say the approach is helping create stronger academic outcomes. They also say it gives educators a more sustainable way to work.
The approach remains a pilot and expansion strategy. It is not a statewide requirement.
Michigan schools are testing flexible staffing models while districts and policymakers assess their effects on instruction, teacher retention and costs. The practical argument is simple: teachers can use their strengths more effectively when they work together.
Students are not limited to the capacity of one teacher. Educators have more time to plan, lead and support one another.
Teachers want structural change
The poll indicates that educators are not resisting innovation. Eighty-nine percent of teachers agree that rethinking the teacher's role is critical to making the profession sustainable.
A significant share also believe they would be more effective with collaborative approaches such as team teaching. Fewer than one-third of teachers strongly agree that assigning one teacher to one group of students is the best way to teach.
That gap matters.
The finding points to a difference between the way schools are commonly organized and the model many educators believe could work better.
Leadership support remains uneven. Most teachers say their schools allow them to try new approaches. Only 39% credit their district or charter network leadership with having an innovative mindset.
The poll points to a system problem. Teachers show interest in new approaches, but they do not always have the support needed to make those structures work.
The City of Farmington municipal portal and the City of Farmington Hills provide civic channels for residents to follow local decisions. School governance rests with elected boards and district leadership.
A classroom redesign would be more credible if schools explained the staffing model, invited feedback from educators and families, and published clear evidence about student access and outcomes.
What Michigan must change
Launch Michigan is promoting a broader redesign through its Michigan Education Guarantee. The initiative calls for cooperation among business, education and policy leaders on compensation, a modernized graduation standard, stronger educator pipelines and district support for practices such as team teaching.
Those proposals address different parts of the workforce problem. Higher pay may affect whether teachers can remain in the profession. A stronger pipeline may affect how schools fill vacancies. Clearer goals may help align the system.
Hiring alone will not settle the workload issue.
Without changes to the daily organization of teaching, educators may face the same pressure after they are hired.
Michigan is also investing in professional support tied to literacy instruction. A 2026 Council of State Governments Midwest analysis said the state directed more than $100 million toward science-of-reading professional development and expanded literacy coaching.
The same analysis reported that $9 million was available for early-literacy coaching in fall 2025. The Michigan Department of Education expected to contract with 36 full-time early-literacy coaches for two years.
Those investments could give teachers more instructional support. They do not by themselves resolve the wider workload and retention problem.
Michigan's school spending and student outcomes are already under scrutiny. An earlier literacy breakdown examined how increased investment has not translated into stronger third-grade reading results since 2019.
The teacher workforce issue adds another operational test. Schools must retain the people responsible for turning resources into instruction.
Districts should not have to solve that challenge one classroom at a time. Michigan needs a coordinated educator workforce plan that gives teachers time, leadership paths and workable team structures. Teachers cannot be expected to absorb every unmet need in the system.
The Michigan Department of Education, Oakland County administration and local school boards each have different responsibilities. All operate within the policy environment that shapes staffing decisions.
Team teaching is not a guaranteed cure. The available evidence in this material does not establish that it will work everywhere.
It is a concrete response to a measurable warning. When 56% of teachers are considering leaving within five years, preserving the old one-teacher silo is no longer a defensible default.
