Fast Facts

Question:
What are the current trends in the teaching profession?

Response:

Pupil/Teacher Ratio

A projected 3.7 million full-time-equivalent (FTE) elementary and secondary school teachers were engaged in classroom instruction in fall 2008. This number has risen 15 percent since 1998. The 2008 projected number of FTE teachers includes 3.2 million public school teachers and 0.5 million private school teachers.
The number of public school teachers has risen faster than the number of public school students over the past 10 years, resulting in declines in the pupil/teacher ratio. In the fall of 2008, there were a projected 15.3 public school pupils per teacher, compared with 16.4 public school pupils per teacher 10 years earlier.

Salaries

The average salary for public school teachers in 2006–07 was $50,816, about 3 percent higher than in 1996–97, after adjustment for inflation. The salaries of public school teachers have generally maintained pace with inflation since 1990–91.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2009). Digest of Education Statistics, 2008 (NCES 2009-020), Introduction

Mobility

At the end of the 2003–04 school year, 17 percent of the elementary and secondary teacher workforce (or 621,000 teachers) left the public and private schools where they had been teaching.

Almost half of this teacher turnover was due to transfers: 8 percent of the teacher workforce (or 289,000 teachers) transferred to a different school. The remainder (9 percent of the teacher workforce or 333,000 teachers) was due to teachers who left teaching: teachers who took a job in a field other than elementary or secondary teaching (4 percent), returned to school for further education (0.3 percent), left for family reasons (e.g., to raise children or take care of other family members) (1 percent), retired (2 percent), and left for miscellaneous “other”¹ reasons (1 percent).

The percentage of teacher turnover at the end of 2003–04 was larger than at the end of 1987–88, 1990–91, and 1993–94 but was not measurably different from that at the end of 1999–2000.

In public schools, the turnover rate for high-poverty schools was greater than for low-poverty schools at the end of 2003–04 (21 vs. 14 percent).

¹Leavers in this category left teaching for a variety of personal reasons, ranging from “starting their own business” to becoming “a member of a contemplative religious community.” However, the most common reason reported by leavers who left for “other” reasons was to take a year-long sabbatical or leave of absence from teaching.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2008). The Condition of Education 2008 (NCES 2008-031), Indicator 31

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