The first national evidence base connecting school building conditions to educator health.
The impact of school environments on students has been studied for decades. The same spaces where educators spend years of their lives teaching in doesn’t have the same research. We want to fill in those gaps, and we need your help to do that. Whether that’s taking the survey, sharing it, or funding compensation.
It’s time to…#HearOurTeachers
Are you an educator?
Both versions of the survey ask the same questions. The accessible version was made for screen readers.
Our Goal
10,000 educators.
All 50 states.
15–20 minutes
to complete the survey
$20
compensation to the first 350 participants
1 chance
at making a difference for our teachers
You know what your school is like. Your response to this survey turns those stories into data.
We will ask about air quality, temperature, noise, and lighting, across your whole workspace, from your classroom to the teachers’ lounge to the restroom you may or may not reach between periods.
Your answers shape how schools nationally get designed, built, and maintained. Enough responses will mean educator health stops being an afterthought.
Learn More Here →Why This Survey
Decades of research proved that healthy schools matter for students. It’s time to do the same for the adults in the room.
Since the 1990s, research has linked school buildings to how students perform:
- Daylight to how fast they learn to read (Heschong Mahone Group, 1999).
- Fresh air to math scores (Haverinen-Shaughnessy et al., 2011).
- Noise to test failure rates (Shield & Dockrell, 2008).
Student evidence reshaped standards and gave districts a reason to spend. This survey builds the same case for educators.
Give districts something to point to
School construction authorities decide what gets built. This dataset gives them the educator-health evidence to justify lactation rooms, planning space, and acoustic standards in every project.
Shape the standards themselves
By mapping lived experience to building certifications like LEED, WELL, and ASHRAE metrics, results can show where current standards protect educators and where they fall short.
Make retention a design problem
Recruiting and retaining educators is a national crisis with a real price tag. Healthy workplaces are part of the answer, and this survey makes that case with data.
Partner With Us
Every dollar supports participants.
Right now, the first 350 educators who complete the survey receive a $20 gift card, you can help us grow that number.
Bronze Apple
$1,000
Funds 50 educators
What you get
- Logo on this page and in the published report
- Named in the final acknowledgements
Silver Apple
$5,000
Funds 250 educators
What you get
- Everything from the previous level
- Recognition in conference presentations and media appearances
- Logo in partner launch materials
Gold Apple
$20,000
Funds 1,000 educators
What you get
- Everything from the previous levels
- An early briefing on findings with the research team
- Named as a lead partner throughout the campaign
AREA Research is a partnership of designers and researchers committed to enhancing the built environment. We co-create community and data-driven solutions to address our most pressing problems through innovative partnerships and research methods.
Questions: educatorhealthsurvey@arearesearch.org
Just One Example
Let’s Talk Teacher’s Voice.
- Teachers develop voice disorders at 2–3 times the rate of the general population (Martins et al., 2014)
- More than half report one at some point in their career (Baghban et al., 2025)
- Women carry more of this burden; they have a higher lifetime prevalence than men and more of the chronic cases (Hunter et al., 2011)
Why does this happen?
Part of it is physiology. Women are 77% of the U.S. public school teaching workforce, and 89% of elementary teachers. A smaller larynx and shorter vocal folds mean more vibrations to produce the same sound, and more wear across a thirty-year career.
But physiology isn’t a design problem. The room is. Hard surfaces, a loud HVAC unit, no amplification equipment? All of these are design decisions.
This is one of the topics explored in the Educator Health Survey.
To our partners,
Thank you for making this research possible.
We are grateful for the support of our partner organizations for seeing the value of this evidence-based work, supporting it, and furthering the vision for improving educator health nationally.
You can help
Whoever you are, there’s a way in.
The guidance provided on this site is based on the available information as of the date of publication and does not replace federal, state, or local public health recommendations but aggregates best practices and innovative solutions at the intersection of buildings and school health. We encourage schools to reach out and seek expert advice on their unique circumstances.
