In schools, educators and administrators are always in planning mode. We plan lessons, assemblies, fire drills, assessments, field trips and daily schedules down to the minute. But far too often, our planning feels like deciding what’s for dinner each night: fast, reactive and based more on what’s expected than what’s needed. We plan for the day, not for the learner.
This isn’t because teachers lack skill or dedication. They plan with extraordinary care and effort. But the system rarely gives them the time, tools or trust to plan for individuals. Instead, they are expected to cover a standardized curriculum, meet rigid pacing guide targets and prep for tests – regardless of whether their students are ready, interested, or in need of something different. They can’t achieve the professional goals they set out to achieve because they’re prevented from doing so.
The teaching profession is unfinished – not because teachers aren’t ready, but because the system isn’t. We’ve mistaken coverage for learning and efficiency for equity. And in doing so, we’ve obscured what teaching was meant to be.
The good news is that districts can finish it. And they already have what they need to begin.
Why the job feels misaligned
Ask teachers why they entered the profession, and the answers are remarkably consistent: “To make a difference.” “To inspire a love of learning.” “To help kids grow.” Unfortunately, the job structure pulls them away from the meaningful, creative and impactful aspects of the role. The job begins to feel like managing a checklist rather than cultivating minds, and the joy of the profession drains away.
And still, teachers stay. They adapt. They innovate quietly within constraints. But imagine what might be possible if the structure itself matched the spirit of the profession. If districts pulled away from top-down mandates and instead leaned into trust, collaboration, and professional judgment.
At Eastern Hancock Schools, we restructured the teacher support system by replacing traditional evaluations with growth-centered plans. Teachers co-create personalized goals and participate in regular coaching conversations, emphasizing reflection and improvement over compliance. This shift has fostered deeper trust and professional autonomy, aligning day-to-day work with the reasons teachers chose the profession in the first place.
Separating teaching from supervision
Among the many uncomfortable truths revealed during the pandemic was that society leans as heavily on schools for child care as they do for education. As a culture, we’ve layered these two essential tasks – supervision and instruction – so tightly that they’re often indistinguishable.
But watching kids and causing learning are not the same thing. Conflating the two can diminish the value of both. They must be pulled apart, not because one is less important, but because they are different. When supervisory structures that might be necessary for a few are applied to all, every child’s learning is impacted, from the student who is struggling to their classmate who is under-challenged
One way to shift from a systemized mindset is to rethink how educators structure student agency. Most older students can work independently for extended periods – if we let them. But we’ve built systems around the assumption that all students require constant adult presence, creating environments based more on control than trust. Personalized, self-paced and small group learning experiences provide students the autonomy to follow customized learning paths while receiving one-on-one help as needed.
In younger grades, the solution might look different. It could mean shifting how districts staff classrooms – ensuring that students have caring adults available for support and safety, while freeing teachers to focus more intentionally on the complex work of teaching. It doesn’t mean reducing support; it means targeting it.
The profession that isn’t treated like one
If a doctor walked into every appointment with a diagnosis already written, we’d question their professionalism. If a Michelin chef prepared the same dish for every customer, we’d question their skill. Yet, in education, we often expect teachers to follow rigid scripts, deliver uniform lessons, and suppress their judgment in favor of fidelity to a plan created far from the classroom.
Teachers are not technicians executing someone else’s blueprint. They are highly-trained professionals with expertise in content, pedagogy, development, and differentiation. They are diagnosticians, designers, motivators and mentors, but treated like cogs in a system that prioritizes compliance over creativity.
Re-professionalizing teaching means restructuring the job to reflect its complexity, giving educators the space to do what only they can do: interpret data, adapt instruction, build relationships, and make moment-to-moment decisions that move students forward. It also means resisting the urge to define professionalism by how tightly someone sticks to a script.
At Eastern Hancock, re-professionalization includes giving teachers autonomy. Administrators provide clear learning goals, but trust educators to design instruction that fits their students. This approach honors their expertise and allows for real-time decisions that support learning.
The path forward: Finish the work
If districts want to retain their most influential and inspiring teachers and motivate every student they serve, it’s time to recognize educators as the experts they are.
Districts must expand their efforts to separate supervision from instruction, design new staffing models that provide students with more agency, and give teachers real authority to make instructional decisions and the time to collaborate deeply with peers. School leaders must value the skill of adjusting in real-time – not punishing it.
The public narrative around teaching must also be elevated. Stop referring to teachers as “heroes” only when convenient. Stop celebrating resilience while ignoring the conditions that require it. Start treating teaching like the complex, rewarding, essential profession it truly is.
Let’s stop asking teachers to fit into a system never built with them –– or their students –- in mind. Let’s design something better. Let’s give students the freedom they’ve earned. Let’s give teachers the professional space they deserve.
Let’s finish what we started.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
Subscribe to SmartBrief’s FREE email newsletters to see the latest hot topics on educational leadership in ASCD and ASCDLeaders. They’re among SmartBrief’s more than 200 industry-focused newsletters.