Table 66.

Selected characteristics of public school teachers: Selected years, spring 1961 through spring 2001

Selected characteristic	1961		1966	1971	1976	1981	1986	1991	1996	2001
1	2		3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Number of teachers (in thousands)	1,408		1,710	2,055	2,196	2,185	2,206	2,398	2,164	2,979
Sex (percent)
Male	31.3		31.1	34.3	32.9	33.1	31.2	27.9	25.6	21.0
Female	68.7		68.9	65.7	67.1	66.9	68.8	72.1	74.4	79.0
Median age (years)
All teachers	41		36	35	33	37	41	42	44	46
Males	34		33	33	33	38	42	43	46	47
Females	46		40	37	33	36	41	42	44	45
Marital status (percent)
Single	22.3		22.0	19.5	20.1	18.5	12.9	11.7	12.4	15.2
Married	68.0		69.1	71.9	71.3	73.0	75.7	75.7	75.9	73.1
Widowed, divorced, or separated	9.7		9.0	8.6	8.6	8.5	11.4	12.6	11.8	11.7
Highest degree held (percent)
Less than bachelor's	14.6		7.0	2.9	0.9	0.4	0.3	0.6	0.3	0.2
Bachelor's	61.9		69.6	69.6	61.6	50.1	48.3	46.3	43.6	43.1
Master's or specialist degree1	23.1		23.2	27.1	37.1	49.3	50.7	52.6	54.5	56.0
Doctor's	0.4		0.1	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.7	0.5	1.7	0.8
College credits earned in last 3 years
Percent who earned credits	—		—	60.7	63.2	56.1	53.1	50.3	50.2	46.3
Mean number of credits earned2	—		—	14	—	9	4	4	—	—
Median years of teaching experience	11		8	8	8	12	15	15	15	14
Teaching for first year (percent)	8.0		9.1	9.1	5.5	2.4	3.1	3.0	2.1	3.1
Average number of pupils per class
Elementary teachers, not departmentalized	29		28	27	25	25	24	23	24	21
Secondary and departmentalized elementary teachers	27		27	27	25	23	26	26	31	28
Mean number of students taught per day by   secondary and departmentalized elementary teachers	—		132	135	127	118	97	93	97	86
Average number of hours in required school day	7.4		7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.3	7.2	7.3	7.4
Average number of hours per week spent on all teaching duties
All teachers	47		47	47	46	46	49	47	49	50
Elementary teachers	49		47	46	44	44	47	44	47	49
Secondary teachers	46		48	48	48	48	51	50	52	52
Average number of days of classroom teaching in school year	—		181	181	180	180	180	180	180	181
Average number of nonteaching days in school year	—		5	4	5	6	5	5	6	7
Average annual salary as classroom teacher (current dollars)	$5,264	3	$6,253	$9,261	$12,005	$17,209	$24,504	$31,790	$35,549	$43,262
Total income, including spouse's (if married) (current dollars)	—		—	15,021	19,957	29,831	43,413	55,491	63,171	77,739
Willingness to teach again (percent)
Certainly would	49.9		52.6	44.9	37.5	21.8	22.7	28.6	32.1	31.7
Probably would	26.9		25.4	29.5	26.1	24.6	26.3	30.5	30.5	28.7
Chances about even	12.5		12.9	13.0	17.5	17.6	19.8	18.5	17.3	18.4
Probably would not	7.9		7.1	8.9	13.4	24.0	22.0	17.0	15.8	15.7
Certainly would not	2.8		2.0	3.7	5.6	12.0	9.3	5.4	4.3	5.6

—Not available. 1 Figures for curriculum specialist or professional diploma based on 6 years of college study are not included. 2 Measured in semester hours. 3 Includes extra pay for extra duties. NOTE: Data are based on sample surveys of public school teachers. Data differ from fig­ures appearing in other tables because of varying survey processing procedures and time period coverages. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding. SOURCE: National Education Association, Status of the American Public School Teacher, 2000–01. (This table was prepared August 2003.)