Interesting trends from the 2001 Status of the American Public School Teacher that still have meaning today. The document can be viewed at
http://www.nea.org/edstats/images/status.pdf
There is a new study coming out in the next year.
The study shows 40 years of data, from 1961 through 2001. There is a lot in the report that indicates how much better our schools were in 2001 (and by extrapolation, today) than they were 45 years ago. By 2001:
- Teachers were substantially better educated,
- Teachers received more professional development during the school year
- There were more teachers in Math and Science
- Teachers prepared more for their classes, and spent more hours per week on their jobs.
- Classes were substantially smaller in Primary Schools
- Teachers saw fewer students per day in Secondary Schools
- Teachers were paid substantially more
But, fewer teachers say that if they had to do it all over again, they would definitely choose teaching.
Here are some of the details (of the 300+ page document).
The level of education of teachers is going up, most teachers now have a Masters degree or higher.
Year |
No Bachelors |
Bachelors |
Masters |
Doctors |
1961 |
15 |
62 |
23 |
0 |
2001 |
0 |
43 |
56 |
1 |
Teaching experience has stayed flat through 40 years, the average teacher has a median of 11 to 14 years teaching experience.
Over 40 years, in Secondary Schools, English teachers have remained about 20%; math has grown from 11% to 18% of teachers. Science was flat at around 12% but jumped to 15% in 2001. Special Ed and “Other” (combined) have gone from nothing to 10%. The biggest drop-offs have been in Industrial Arts and Home Economics, going from 11% to 2%.
In Elementary Schools, class sizes have decreased from 29 in 1961 to 21 in 2001. Secondary classes have remained about the same size, but teachers were seeing an average of 132 students per day, decreasing to 89 per day by 2001.
Teachers are spending more hours per week, going from 47 in 1961 to 50 in 2001.
In 1966, nearly ¼ of all secondary teachers spent no time preparing for classes (70% spent 4 hours or more),. By 2006, only 3% spent no prep time and 83% spent 4 hours or more.
Total number of teaching days has remained a constant 180 to 181, but professional development has grown from 5 to 7 days a year.
Interestingly, lunch “hour” has decreased from 40 minutes down to 32 minutes.
In 1961, 50% of all teachers said they would definitely choose teaching as a career if they had the opportunity to do it all over again. In 2001, only 32% said that.
In today’s dollars (assuming 4% inflation), the average teacher made $25,000 a year in 1961, as opposed to $44,000 today.
Note: Farimah Schuerman, Rita Ferrandino, and I will be conducting a pre-conference workshop at IIR’s Education Industry Investment Forum. The Forum is being held from March 26 to 28 at the Trump International Sonesta Beach Resort. Our workshop will be on Developing Outside Investments to Drive Growth. There is a 15% discount off of registration if you use the code XU2253MW or if you click this link:
http://iirusa.com/edu?registration=XU2253MW