Table 74.

Selected characteristics of public school teachers: Selected years, spring 1961 through spring 2006

Selected characteristic	1961		1966	1971	1976	1981	1986	1991	1996	2001	2006
1	2		3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Number of teachers (in thousands)	1,408		1,710	2,055	2,196	2,185	2,206	2,398	2,164	2,979	3,588
Sex (percent)
Male	31.3		31.1	34.3	32.9	33.1	31.2	27.9	25.6	21.0	29.9
Female	68.7		68.9	65.7	67.1	66.9	68.8	72.1	74.4	79.0	70.1
Median age (years)
All teachers	41		36	35	33	37	41	42	44	46	46
Males	34		33	33	33	38	42	43	46	47	44
Females	46		40	37	33	36	41	42	44	45	47
Marital status (percent)
Single	22.3		22.0	19.5	20.1	18.5	12.9	11.7	12.4	15.2	13.2
Married	68.0		69.1	71.9	71.3	73.0	75.7	75.7	75.9	73.1	73.1
Widowed, divorced, or separated	9.7		9.0	8.6	8.6	8.5	11.4	12.6	11.8	11.7	13.8
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	1.0
Bachelor's	61.9		69.6	69.6	61.6	50.1	48.3	46.3	43.6	43.1	37.2
Master's or specialist degree1	23.1		23.2	27.1	37.1	49.3	50.7	52.6	54.5	56.0	60.4
Doctor's	0.4		0.1	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.7	0.5	1.7	0.8	1.4
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	55.7
Mean number of credits earned2	—		—	14	—	9	4	4	—	—	—
Full-time teaching experience (percent)
1 year	8.0		9.1	9.1	5.5	1.6	2.5	2.8	2.1	3.1	1.8
2-4 years	19.5		23.7	23.3	21.8	11.9	6.9	10.9	11.9	15.2	11.3
5-9 years	19.4		21.7	24.0	28.9	26.2	17.7	16.3	16.6	19.1	20.7
10-14 years	15.1		14.2	15.6	17.3	23.0	22.3	17.2	16.9	13.3	15.8
15-19 years	10.4		9.8	9.7	12.5	15.4	23.1	18.2	14.3	11.5	14.3
20 years or more	27.6		21.4	18.3	14.1	21.9	27.7	34.7	38.1	37.8	36.0
Median years of full-time teaching experience	11		8	8	8	12	15	15	15	14	15
Average number of pupils per class
Elementary teachers, not departmentalized	29		28	27	25	25	24	23	24	21	22
Secondary and departmentalized elementary      teachers	27		27	27	25	23	26	26	31	28	29
Average number of students taught per day by    secondary and departmentalized elementary    teachers	—		132	135	127	118	97	93	97	86	87
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	7.4
Average number of hours per week spent on
all teaching duties
All teachers	47		47	47	46	46	49	47	49	50	52
Elementary teachers	49		47	46	44	44	47	44	47	49	52
Secondary teachers	46		48	48	48	48	51	50	52	52	53
Average number of days of classroom teaching    in school year	—		181	181	180	180	180	180	180	181	181
Average number of nonteaching days    in school year	—		5	4	5	6	5	5	6	7	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	$49,482
Average annual salary as classroom    teacher (in constant 2008-09 dollars4)	37,982		42,066	50,043	46,467	42,644	48,338	50,957	49,391	53,038	53,378
Average total income, including spouse's (if    married) (current dollars).	—		—	15,021	19,957	29,831	43,413	55,491	63,171	77,739	87,630
Average total income, including spouse's (if    married) (in constant 2008-09 dollars4).	—		—	81,167	77,246	73,922	85,639	88,948	87,768	95,306	94,529
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	38.2
Probably would	26.9		25.4	29.5	26.1	24.6	26.3	30.5	30.5	28.7	27.3
Chances about even	12.5		12.9	13.0	17.5	17.6	19.8	18.5	17.3	18.4	16.1
Probably would not	7.9		7.1	8.9	13.4	24.0	22.0	17.0	15.8	15.7	12.7
Certainly would not	2.8		2.0	3.7	5.6	12.0	9.3	5.4	4.3	5.6	5.8

—Not available.

1 Includes education specialist or professional diploma based on 6 years of college study.

2 Measured in semester hours.

3 Includes extra pay for extra duties.

4 Constant dollars based on the Consumer Price Index, prepared by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, adjusted to a school-year basis.

NOTE: Data are based on sample surveys of public school teachers. See Appendix A: Guide to Sources for information on interpreting data from this survey. 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, selected years, 1960-61 through 2005-06. (This table was prepared June 2010.)