Profile of Teachers in the U.S. 2011

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Profile of Teachers in the U.S. 2011 by the National Center for Education Information

K-12 public school teachers in the United States are amazingly similar over time. They constitute a unique profession that has self-propagated itself for at least the last half century. But, due to an influx of individuals from non-traditional backgrounds entering teaching through non-traditional preparation programs, the teaching force may be changing.

One-third of first-time public school teachers hired since 2005 entered the profession through an alternative program other than a college campus-based teacher education program.

The findings throughout this survey illustrate striking differences between this non-traditional population of new teachers and teachers who enter teaching through undergraduate and graduate college campus-based teacher education programs, especially in attitudes concerning current proposed school reform measures and ways to strengthen teaching as a profession, such as:

 Getting rid of tenure for teachers
 Performance-based pay
 Market-driven teacher pay – paying teachers more to teach in high needs schools and high demand subjects
 Recruiting individuals from other careers into teaching and school administration
 Using student achievement to evaluate teacher effectiveness

The findings also show amazing similarities among all teachers surveyed, regardless of their backgrounds, how they prepared to teach, their age, how long they’ve been teaching and other variables we analyzed the data by. Public school teachers surveyed:

 Strongly support getting rid of incompetent teachers regardless of seniority
 Are generally satisfied with their jobs and various aspects of teaching
 Think they are competent to teach
 Rate their teacher preparation programs highly
 Consider the same things as valuable in developing competence to teach – their own teaching experiences and working with other teachers/colleagues top the list
 Plan to be teaching K-12 five years from now

The proportion of public school teachers who have five or fewer years of teaching experience increased from 18 percent in 2005 to 26 percent in 2011. At the other end of the spectrum, the proportion of teachers with 25 or more years’ experience dropped from 27 percent in 2005 to 17 percent in 2011. These newer teachers are considerably more open to proposed reforms in the profession and in American education.

Reversing a trend toward an older teaching force that began in the 1990’s, the proportion of teachers under 30 years of age rose dramatically from the 2005 survey to 2011, while the proportion of teachers 50 and older dropped. More than one in five (22 percent) teachers surveyed in 2011 was under the age of 30, compared with only 11 percent in 2005 and in 1996. The proportion of teachers 50 and older dropped from 42 percent in 2005 to 31 percent in 2011. Clearly, the older teachers are retiring and being replaced once again by teachers in their 20s and 30s.

Teaching is still an overwhelmingly female occupation. The profession is also strikingly White, but there is some shift toward more people of color entering the ranks of teaching. Hispanics are the fastest growing non-White group entering teaching.

More than half of public school teachers hold at least a Master’s degree. In the overall teaching force, there has been a slight shift in highest degree held. In 2005, a master’s degree in education was the highest degree held by nearly half of the teaching force (47 percent); an additional 10 percent held a Master’s degree in a field other than education. In 2011, the proportion of the teaching force holding masters’ degrees in education as their highest degree was 43 percent; 12 percent held Master’s degrees.

The proportion of teachers whose highest degree is a non-education degree rose from 21 percent in 2005 to 27 percent in 2011.

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