Episode 164: Students Are Quiet Quitting in School

What if the rise of “quiet quitting” isn’t just about the workplace, but also the classroom? I dig into why so many teens are doing the bare minimum, why homework time has plunged since 2021, and how parents and educators can turn the tide with strategies that actually stick. Drawing on current data, lived experience as a parent and researcher, and proven frameworks, I connect the dots between motivation, belonging, and achievement in a way that’s practical and hopeful.

I start by unpacking what quiet quitting looks like for students: present in class but emotionally elsewhere, completing tasks without curiosity or pride. Then I trace the roots—shifting homework policies, AI confusion, grading changes, and a broader cultural slide in engagement—and show why relationships are the hidden engine of effort. Students learn best when work feels authentic, when they feel like respected members of a school community, and when they can see themselves succeeding. High expectations, paired with support, transform compliance into commitment.

Parents leave this discussion with concrete steps to make homework equitable and motivating: confirm understanding, aim for quality, coordinate with teachers for purpose-driven tasks, and add simple, reinforcing practice at home. When learning is designed for authenticity, belonging, and competence, students rediscover purpose and progress.

If this resonated, follow the show, subscribe, and share it with a friend or parent who cares about K‑12 success. Your review and your stories help more families find strategies that work—what’s one approach you’ll try this week?

Love my show? Consider being a regular subscriber! Just go to https://tinyurl.com/podcastsupport. 

Chapters

• 1:01 Host Intro And Mission
• 3:35 Defining Quiet Quitting At Work
• 5:45 Translating Quiet Quitting To K‑12
• 8:25 Homework Declines And Why It Matters
• 11:45 Parallels With Workplace Disengagement
• 13:45 Why Relationships Drive Motivation
• 16:25 Dropout Risks And Early Foundations
• 20:57 What Engagement Really Means
• 24:37 Three Drivers: Authenticity, Belonging, Competence
• 28:17 High Expectations As A Catalyst
• 30:47 Quiet Quitting Explained In School Context
• 33:37 Using The SOAR Framework

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:36

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Public Education Insights, Empowering Parents of Color Podcast. The podcast that converges at the intersection of educational research and parental actions. It's about making the trends, topics, and theories in public education understandable so that you can implement them into practical, actionable strategies that work for your children. My name is Dr. Kim J. Fields, former corporate manager, turned education researcher, and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microaggressions that I faced as an African-American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. This battle-tested experience is what I provide as action steps for you to take. It's like enjoying a bowl of educational research with a sprinkling of motherwit wisdom on top. If you're looking to find out more about the current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, and the action steps you can take to give your children the advantages they need, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 public education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. Give me 30 minutes or less, and I'll provide insights on the latest trends, issues, and topics pertaining to this constantly evolving K-12 public education environment. You may have heard the term quiet quitting before, or you may know some co-worker who has actually practiced this. But did you know that there are students in K-12 that are also practicing quiet quitting? Curious about how they're doing it, and more importantly, why? In this episode, I discuss what quiet quitting is, how it applies to K-12 public education settings, and what strategies can be used to mitigate this behavior. I also discuss how homework is a key part of disengaged students, and what you can do to help your child overcome being disinterested in homework. Let's gain some insight on this. What is quiet quitting? Quiet quitting is the current term that defines ceasing to be fully committed to a person's job and doing just enough to meet the minimum requirements of the job description. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, 50% of today's workforce have chosen to limit their commitment to their jobs. The quiet quitting movement can be explained as an attempt by a growing percentage of employees, especially millennials and Generation Z workers, to communicate to employees that the workplace environment is no longer healthy for employees and it needs to change. One of the root causes of the decline in employee commitment lies within the failure of many managers and supervisors to honor the fundamental leadership responsibilities required to engage, empower, and inspire employees with whom they work. So, how does this apply to K-12 public school students? Teenagers in the American K-12 public education system on average are spending less time on homework than they did as little as a generation ago, and the decline has gotten steeper since the pandemic. In 2023, 8th graders averaged 36 minutes of homework daily, which was down 70% from 2021. 10th graders spent an average of 47 minutes daily on homework in 2023, which was down from 60 minutes in 2021. Also in 2023, teenagers who claimed they had no homework reached a peak. 15% of 8th graders and 10.8% of 10th graders reported doing no homework that entire school year. There seems to be a reconsideration of everything pertaining to academic work. A lot more cynicism, a lot more pessimism, and a lot more pushing back on the idea of working hard. The data in this report didn't differentiate between how much homework students completed and the amount of homework that teachers assigned. It appears as though many teachers have scaled back on assigning homework for a variety of reasons, including gaps in access to resources and parental help, the rise of artificial intelligence that could be used for cheating, and a shift toward grading policies that don't give students credit for just completing homework. Even with these so-called reasons, some teachers say they've seen an uptick in students who just aren't completing the assignments. Doing less homework may be symptomatic of students' declining motivation, which is part of a broad cultural shift that accelerated during and after the pandemic. And although the pandemic has been over for a few years, it may be time to stop blaming it for academic-related fallout. Working adults seem to share similar feelings with teens as far as low motivation. A nonpartisan research group at the University of Chicago polled 1,019 U.S. adults in March 2023, and 67% of the respondents agreed that hard work was very important to them. But this was down from 83% in 1998 when the survey was first conducted. Further, findings from recent National Gallup survey of U.S. employees looked at employee engagement before, during, and after the pandemic, and it showed that engagement began to fall in 2021 and reached a 10-year low in 2024 when only 31% of employees reported being actively engaged in work, and 17% reported being actively disengaged. These data align with the recent workplace trend of quiet quitting, which is a workplace behavior in which employees do as little as possible on the job. Quiet quitters made up 59% of total global workforce in 2023. Data from the latest Gallup survey found a strong correlation between low employee morale and employees' feeling of disconnectedness. Similar to employees, students are motivated when they feel connected. They work harder when they have a positive connection to school and in particular with a teacher or other staff member. All students tend to be relational learners, meaning that they learn best when they have a positive relationship with the teachers. Researchers suggest that teachers should, through their leadership responsibilities, give students specific roles or responsibilities in class as far as engagement and effort are concerned. It's especially important for educators to make students feel like they are an integral part of a community. The downside to school being boring, students being disengaged and disconnected to the school environment and feeling unmotivated is that students are highly likely to drop out of high school. That's the reality for many students. When students are not motivated or inspired to work hard, they have no reason to be inspired about learning. Students who have dropped out of high school have indicated that they did one hour or less of homework each day in high school, and many would have worked harder if more was demanded of them as far as higher academic standards and more studying and homework. Do you know of one way that helps students stay motivated to do their best work? High teacher expectations. I'm sure many of you can recall a teacher that you had that had high standards and strict rules that you experienced when you were going through school. You may not have liked the teacher at the time, but when you look back on it, you think about that teacher fondly and appreciate that he or she did have high expectations for your academic success. I remember the teachers that I had that had high expectations, and I had those types of teachers consecutively from the second grade through the fifth grade. So meeting teachers' high expectations became a way of academic life for me. Additionally, a strong foundation in early middle school may help prevent the lack of motivation and a lack of connection to school. When students fall behind in elementary school and middle school without the necessary supports to help them make up those losses, there's a high probability of dropout. The fact of the matter is that dropping out of high school is not a sudden decision, but a gradual process of disengagement, often expressed through attendance patterns. I discussed the criticality of chronic absenteeism in a previous episode. That episode was episode 104. Again, check out episode 104 about my discussion for the impact of chronic absenteeism on a child's academic success. As I said before, and I'll continue to say, parent involvement and commitment are vital for student academic success. So what can be done about student quiet quitting? Are there ways to mitigate this behavior? The most immediate and persisting issue for students and teachers is student disengagement. Disengaged students can be the ones who disrupt classes, skip classes altogether, or fail to complete assignments, including homework. Interestingly, disengaged students behave well in school. Many attend class and complete the work, but with little indication of excitement, commitment, or pride in mastery of the subject area. On the other hand, engaged students make a psychological investment in learning. They try hard to learn what school offers. They take pride in earning grades and also in understanding the material and incorporating it into their lives. The question is, how do we engage students to the point that they stay motivated to learn and stay engaged and connected to school? Lifelong learning develops largely through the labor of the student who must be enticed to participate in a continuous cycle of studying, producing, correcting mistakes, and starting over again. It's very unlikely that students achieve unless they concentrate, work, and invest themselves in the mastery of school tasks. Therefore, student engagement is critical to educational success. Without engagement, there's very little improvement in academic achievement. An engaged student is actively involved, committed, and gives concentrated attention to a task. According to the noted researcher Fred Newman, student engagement in academic work is the student's psychological investment in an effort directed toward learning, understanding, or mastering the knowledge, skills, or crafts that academic work is intended to promote. Completing an assigned task does not necessarily indicate engagement because the student can complete academic work and perform well without being engaged in the mastery of a topic, skill, or craft. Engagement requires an inner quality of concentration and an effort to learn. Additionally, engagement is more than an underlying motivation. It calls attention to the extent to which students demonstrate active interest, effort, and concentration in the specific work of an assignment. For teachers, keeping students engaged may be quite the challenge because the teachers have to compete for students' attention from parents, siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, bosses, coaches, salespeople, media figures, influencers, friends, and a host of other people that touch the students' lives. Three overall factors influence student engagement in school. One, the authenticity of the work students are asked to complete. Two, the extent to which students feel a part of the school community, like a school membership, so to speak. And three, the students' underlying need for competence. Children have a powerful need to develop and to express competence. For students to experience a sense of belonging in school and therefore invest themselves in the forms of mastery required by schools, they need to perceive that school is deserving of their committed effort and honors them as respected members. A sense of fair treatment is critical to forming bonds at school. Students also need to feel that their teachers, staff, and peers offer support for the hard working of the learning process. Authentic work characterizes all tasks that are considered meaningful, valuable, significant, and worthy of one's efforts. That's why it's critical that academic work be designed to maximize student engagement. Work needs to entail extrinsic reward, meet intrinsic interests, offer students a sense of ownership, is connected to the real world, and involves an aspect of fun that's likely to engage students. This is where high expectations are so important as far as improving learning. High expectations and challenge can enhance membership in school by demonstrating clear goals, support, equity, and caring. High expectations are also likely to enhance intrinsic interests and a sense of ownership, all of which should promote and increase student engagement. In a nutshell, quiet quitting among students in middle school and high school refers to a situation where the students are physically present in class, but emotionally detached from the learning process. They often do what's necessary to meet expectations, but show little enthusiasm, little initiative, and no sense of purpose in their studies. It could potentially be described as emotional exhaustion, which shows up as a loss of interest in learning, and reduced participation in classroom activities. A recent concept paper discussed quiet quitting through the SOR model, that's SOAR, a theoretical framework which focuses on strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. The goal of the framework is to examine how each element can be applied to understand the causes, responses, and potential interventions related to quiet quitting. Strengths in the SOAR matrix are the foundational elements that include internal attributes, capabilities for resources that give a school the competitive advantage or those that contribute to its success. Opportunities include recognizing and capitalizing on opportunities that allow schools to be responsive to its stakeholders, understanding what the school wants to achieve, and focusing on those areas primed for growth. The aspirations element of the model emphasizes the importance of perseverance, competitiveness, and the desire to achieve beyond the minimum standard. Finally, the results element examines the role of assessing the extent to which the interventions that were implemented and their impact on students' well-being. Although students who exhibit quiet quitting characteristics show signs of losing motivation, most of them still possess a sense of responsibility and a desire to succeed. Emotional exhaustion directly influences student behavior, but if students have strong self-worth as well as the ability to perceive things positively, that can be enough to restore their motivation. This inner strength can be referred to as a strengths-based approach. This approach helps schools not only focus on academic achievement, but also play a vital role in nurturing a student's holistic development. In providing the necessary opportunities, teachers, administrators, parents, and even local community must work together in planning activities and strategies that support students who may be quietly disengaging from school. One of the most important opportunities that teachers can provide is creating learning experiences that build on students' individual strengths and interests. When students are given the freedom to choose activities and express their ideas, they begin to see learning not as a task, but as something that reflects who they are. These kinds of opportunities have the power to reignite students that may have dimmed under disinterest or academic pressure. The opportunities should also be mindful of providing trusted environments where students can build their confidence and emotional strength because emotional well-being plays an important role in helping students stay connected and enjoy learning in a meaningful way. The aspirations element in the SOAR model highlights the importance of passion, determination, and the drive to achieve more than just the basics. This element provides a vital role in helping students find their purposes, their directions, and their inner motivations to learn. The key piece to this is that it must be supported by guidance, encouragement, and emotional understanding from teachers as well as peers. When students have clear and meaningful aspirations, they're more likely to stay persistent and to show emotional resilience even when facing academic or personal challenges. This requires a caring and positive school culture where every student feels valued. Education should not just focus on academic success. It should also focus on building students' confidence, curiosity, and sense of responsibility as well as accountability. The bottom line is that by fostering aspirations, students begin to believe in themselves again. The results element of the SOAR model highlights those strategies that evaluate whether interventions to mitigate quiet quitting have generally improved students' engagement, motivation, and emotional well-being. The evaluation should focus on how far students show interest, enthusiasm, and ownership in their learning process. Meaningful indicators in this phase include improvements in attendance rates, lower signs of passive participation during lessons, greater involvement in co-curricular activities, and higher self-reported well-being scores based on classroom reflections or surveys. Positive changes in behavior could include improvements in how students show curiosity, take initiative, or collaborate more confidently. Research indicates that students are more likely to stay motivated and engaged when their basic needs for autonomy, competence, and connection are fulfilled. To summarize what's been discussed about ways to mitigate quiet quitting, there are early warning signs for students who begin to exhibit signs of quiet quitting, namely disengagement, lack of motivation, and emotional exhaustion expressed through a lack of interest. However, there are ways to redirect these behaviors. One, keep students engaged by making learning fun and by providing opportunities for students to showcase their strengths and interests. Two, ensure students feel welcomed in the school community as a valued member of the community. And three, highlight students' goals, their purposes, their dreams to help them associate where they want to go with current academic rigor. Now, given the information that's been discussed thus far, what specific steps can you take if your teen is exhibiting signs of quiet quitting? Here are the action steps you can take regarding quiet quitting. Just to touch on the homework topic once again, homework policies can exacerbate inequities among students, especially if teachers judge students' efforts by their family's involvement. If students are being given less homework, what can teachers and parents do to make this necessary learning exercise more engaging and applicable? The inequity part of the homework evaluation is based on the findings from a study in the journal Educational Researcher, which found teachers were more likely to have attributed missed homework to irresponsibility or to parent disinterest, especially with low-income students and students of color, than with wealthier or white students. Homework policies are often applied in favor of students or parents who are highly involved in the school. The thing about homework is that it is extremely necessary and useful for children's learning. And while parental input is often needed as a guide, homework should be designed to help the student become a leader in explaining the goals and purpose of the homework. Here are some things to keep in mind when overseeing your child's completion of his or her homework. One, make sure your child understands the homework. Ask clarifying questions about it when necessary. Two, ensure that your children complete assignments to the best of their ability and at the highest quality. And three, ideally, homework should be designed so that your child is showing, sharing, and demonstrating what he or she has learned in class. If it is not, this is an opportunity for you to follow up with your child's teacher. Finally, number four, and this one I highly recommend incorporate supplemental exercises to enrich and or reinforce the concepts practiced in the homework assignments. Here are this episode's takeaways. Teenagers in the American K-12 Public Education School System, on average, are spending less time on homework than they did as little as a generation ago, and the decline has gotten steeper since the pandemic. In 2023, 8th graders averaged 36 minutes of homework daily, which was down 70% from 2021, and 10th graders spent an average of 47 minutes daily on homework in 2023, which was down from 60 minutes in 2021. The downside to school being boring, students being disengaged and connected in the school environment and feeling unmotivated is that students are highly likely to drop out of high school. When students aren't motivated or inspired to work hard, they have no reason to be inspired about learning. Students who have dropped out of high school have indicated that they did one hour or less of homework each day in high school. And many would have worked harder if more was demanded of them as far as higher academic standards and more studying and homework. The most immediate and persisting issue for students and teachers is student disengagement. Disenged students can be the ones who disrupt classes, skip classes altogether, or fail to complete assignments, including homework. Interestingly, disengaged students behave well in school. Many attend class and complete the work, but with little indication of excitement, commitment, or pride in the mastery of the subject area. On the other hand, engaged students make a psychological investment in learning. They try hard to learn what school offers. They take pride in earning grades, and also in understanding the material and incorporating it into their lives. Three overall factors influence student engagement in school: the authenticity of the work students are asked to complete, the extent to which students feel a part of the school community, and the students' underlying need for competence. For students to experience a sense of belonging in school and therefore invest themselves in the forms of mastery required by schools, they need to perceive that school is deserving of their committed effort and honors them as respected members. A sense of fair treatment is critical to forming bonds at school. Students also need to feel that their teachers, staff, and peers offer support for the hard work of the learning process. Authentic work characterizes all tasks that are considered meaningful, valuable, significant, and worthy of one's effort. That's why it's critical that academic work be designed to maximize student engagement. The work needs to entail extrinsic reward, meet intrinsic interests, offer students a sense of ownership, is connected to the quote-unquote real world, and involves an aspect of fun that is likely to engage students. If this is a type of subject matter and discussion that resonates with you, please follow my podcast on whatever service you're listening to this. Be sure to subscribe so that you are aware of when the next episode drops. And if you enjoyed this episode, why not listen to another episode from my catalog? It could take as little as 15 minutes of your day. And remember, new episodes come out every Tuesday. Thanks for listening today. Be sure to come back for more insights on K-12 educational topics that impact you and your children. And remember to share my podcast with anyone that you think would find it valuable. That includes your friends, family, and your community. Until next time, learn something new every day.