Should I Quit Teaching Quiz
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Build a realistic timeline for leaving classroom teaching.
- Propose targeted changes within my present position.
- Research several teaching formats before choosing where to apply.
- Actively pursue a better-matched teaching setting with defined non-negotiables.
- I would prefer to improve my current teaching role instead.
- I would mainly use the offer to compare teaching environments.
- I would feel interested but need time to examine the loss of familiar routines and identity.
- I would feel energized by the chance to build a working life beyond the classroom.
- Redesign a difficult part of my current teaching week.
- Compare roles and conditions across other teaching settings.
- Speak with someone who has transferred teaching skills into another field.
- Create a portfolio, résumé, or work sample aimed at non-classroom roles.
Should I Quit Teaching Quiz - Description and methodology of the test
Educators considering whether to remain in classroom teaching can use the Should I Quit Teaching Quiz to compare three concrete career directions. It is intended for teachers weighing a teaching career decision and wanting to examine their current pull toward reshaping the role, changing teaching settings, or moving beyond classroom teaching. The result supports focused reflection before a conversation or next step.
What This Assessment Explores
Three directions shape a teaching career change: reshaping the role, changing settings, or moving beyond teaching. These show current pull, not a verdict:
- Move to a Different Teaching Setting (0-15) measures affinity for another school or teaching setting: Limited pull (0-5) means a new setting may not resolve the deeper change; Conditional pull (6-10) calls for evidence about conditions; Strong pull (11-15) shows teaching appeal and a present-setting mismatch.
- Stay and Reshape Your Current Role (0-15) measures affinity for changing boundaries, routines, duties, or support: Limited pull (0-5) means adjustments may not address change; Conditional pull (6-10) depends on improvements; Strong pull (11-15) means core role fits; focused changes may renew sustainability.
- Transition Beyond Classroom Teaching (0-15) measures affinity for work beyond the classroom: Limited pull (0-5) favors changing conditions; Emerging pull (6-10) needs exploration; Strong pull (11-15) means this direction feels more compelling.
Methodology and Evidence Base
Each item presents a career situation with four response choices about current duties, other teaching environments, workload boundaries, or work beyond the classroom. The choices let respondents indicate which direction feels most relevant; the questionnaire reports that pattern through three scores.
Answers contribute to three independent scores. The highest shows the strongest current affinity, while scores within one point form a blended result. The displayed result helps compare what to investigate, negotiate, or test next.
The closest conceptual context comes from Lindqvist and Nordänger (2016) and Rinke and Mawhinney (2017), whose work addresses teacher identity, workplace pressures, and leaving teaching. Quartz et al. (2008) on role changes and retention and Loeb, Darling-Hammond, and Luczak (2005) on teaching conditions and turnover provide broader context. The questionnaire is conceptually consistent with these directions; the studies do not supply its scoring method.
Self-reported answers can shift with current workload, leadership, finances, and hopes about alternatives. A decision to quit teaching is best weighed with workplace evidence and realistic information about possible roles.
- Quartz, Karen Hunter, Andrew Thomas, Lauren Anderson, Katherine Masyn, Kimberly Barraza Lyons, and Brad Olsen. (2008). Careers in Motion: A Longitudinal Retention Study of Role Changing among Early-Career Urban Educators. Teachers College Record, 110(1), 218-250. 10.1177/016146810811000102
- Loeb, Susanna, Linda Darling-Hammond, and John Luczak. (2005). How Teaching Conditions Predict Teacher Turnover in California Schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 80(3), 44-70. 10.1207/s15327930pje8003_4
- Lindqvist, Per, and Ulla Karin Nordänger. (2016). Already elsewhere - A study of (skilled) teachers' choice to leave teaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 54, 88-97. 10.1016/j.tate.2015.11.010
- Rinke, Carol R., and Lynnette Mawhinney. (2017). Insights from teacher leavers: Push and pull in career development. Teaching Education, 28(4), 360-376. 10.1080/10476210.2017.1306047
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