• Introduction
• Data Source and Definitions
• Highlights
• Discussion
• References

New college graduates with teacher education training have traditionally been the largest source of newly hired teachers each year in the nation's elementary and secondary schools. In the 1960s, for example, 67 percent of newly hired teachers in public schools were new college graduates. By the mid-1980s, however, this proportion had fallen to only 17 percent (National Education Association 1987). By that time, rising school enrollments, together with decreasing numbers of college graduates with education degrees, had led to increased concern about possible shortages in the supply of teachers. In school year 1987-88, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) implemented the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to provide better measures of teacher supply and demand and of factors influencing its balance, including teacher salaries, qualifications, and career patterns.

Although concern about teacher shortages has fluctuated since the late 1980s, a number of factors make continued monitoring of teacher supply and demand important. For example, school enrollments continue to increase, the numbers of new college graduates with education degrees are still smaller than in the past (Snyder 1999, p. 326), and the continuing practice in several states of waiving standard teacher credentials when hiring new teachers suggests that some adjustments in teacher qualifications are being made, possibly in response to shortages.

This report presents national estimates of the numbers and proportions of four types of newly hired teachers in both the public and the private sectors. It also examines the basic demographic characteristics, teaching qualifications, career paths, and former occupations of each type of newly hired teacher.

This report uses data from the 1987-88, 1990-91, and 1993-94 SASS "Teacher Survey," which collected information from public and private school teachers. Specifically, the report analyzes data from those teachers in the SASS sample who indicated that they were newly hired in that state or sector that school year, that they taught half time or more, and that they were regular teachers-that is, neither itinerant teachers (those whose assignment requires them to provide instruction at more than one school) nor long-term substitute teachers.

Various models can be used to count newly hired teachers. These models differ in the way that they count teachers who have transferred from other schools, districts, states, or sectors (public or private). In other words, which transfers are counted as new hires depends on the model used. For example, a national-level model counts as new hires only those teachers who transferred from outside the country, while a school-level model counts all the teachers who transferred from other schools. This report uses a district-level model to define which transfers to count as newly hired teachers. The model counts all teachers who transferred between public and private schools (i.e., between sectors); all teachers who transferred from one state to another state; and-among teachers who stayed in the same state-those teachers who transferred either from one public school system to another or from one private school to another. The inclusion of some transfers who stayed within both the same state and the same sector marks a departure from previous work by the authors (Rollefson and Broughman 1994 and 1995; Rollefson 1993).

In this report, newly hired teachers are classified into four types. Of these four types of new hires, two are experienced teachers and two are first-time teachers.

• newly prepared teachers-first-year teachers who were attending college or had earned their highest degree in the previous year; or
• delayed entrants-first-year teachers who had engaged in other activities in the year or years between graduating from college or receiving their highest degree and becoming teachers.

• transfers-teachers who in the previous year were teaching in another school either in the other sector (public or private), in another state, or within the same state and sector but in another school system (for public school teachers) or in another private school (for private school teachers); or
• reentrants-teachers who in the previous school year were not teaching elementary or secondary school, but who had taught in the past.

In 1993-94, about 2.4 million public and 337,000 private school teachers were teaching half time or more, an increase of 280,000 public and 53,000 private school teachers since 1987-88. Between these two points in time, the percentage of private school teachers who were newly hired remained stable at about 17 to 18 percent, while that for public school teachers increased from 6 to 9 percent. While the percentage of teachers who were newly hired was greater in private than in public schools, the absolute numbers of both newly hired and continuing teachers were greater for public schools than for private schools. This report focuses on the 184,000, 223,000, and 259,000 public and private school teachers who were newly hired in school years 1987-88, 1990-91, and 1993-94, respectively.

Between 1987-88 and 1993-94, a shift in sources of newly hired teachers occurred as public school districts and private schools hired relatively more first-time teachers and relatively fewer reentrants (table A). Among the first-time teachers, there was increased hiring of both the newly prepared and delayed entrant groups.

In 1993-94, the proportions of first-time teachers, transfers, and reentrants hired by the public and the private sectors were similar. In both sectors, these three sources of new hires had the same relative importance: first-time teachers were most important, followed by transfers, then by reentrants. Of the two types of first-time teachers, the public sector hired relatively more newly prepared teachers and fewer delayed entrants than the private sector.

Like the public and private school teacher workforces as a whole, newly hired teachers in 1993-94 were predominately female; they were also predominately white, non-Hispanic, although less so than the teacher workforce as a whole (table B). Between 1987-88 and 1993-94, the percentage of newly hired teachers who were minority increased in public and private schools. The percentage of minority newly prepared teachers doubled in the public sector and quadrupled in the private sector, and there were relative increases in the numbers of minority public reentrants and private transfers.

Table A. — Percentage distribution of newly hired public and private school teachers, by supply source: School years 1987-88, 1990-91, and 1993-94

Table B. — Selected demographic characteristics of newly hired and all public and private school teachers: School year 1993-94

In both sectors in 1993-94, delayed entrants were less likely than newly prepared teachers to hold qualifications (major or minor, certification) in their primary field of assignment (figure A). In both sectors, experienced new hires (that is, transfers and reentrants) were very similar to each other and to newly prepared teachers in terms of qualifications.

The percentage of public-sector delayed entrants, transfers, and reentrants holding a major or minor plus certification in the primary field of assignment increased between 1987-88 and 1993-94. In 1987-88, for example, 36 percent of public-sector delayed entrants held a major or minor plus certification in their primary assignment field, compared to 55 percent in 1993-94.

In school year 1993-94, many new hires gained access to teaching jobs through substitute teaching positions. Many delayed entrants (36 percent of public and 22 percent of private delayed entrants) were substitute teachers in the previous year, as were 28 percent of public and 18 percent of private reentrants.

Among both delayed entrants and reentrants, working in nonteaching occupations was a major prior-year activity. Over a third of public and almost half of private delayed entrants, and a fourth of public and over a third of private reentrants transferred from nonteaching occupations in 1993-94. Most occupational transfers also are from occupations outside education. Overall, occupational transfers occur more often in the private sector than in the public sector.

The relative contributions of different sources of newly hired teachers have changed dramatically over the past 3 decades. After falling sharply between the 1960s and the mid-1980s, for example, the proportion of new hires who were first-time teachers rose between 1987-88 and 1993-94. Whether this shift is supply or demand driven is not clear. For instance, one supply scenario is that the reserve pool of former teachers is shrinking, so that schools must turn increasingly to first-time teachers. An example of a demand scenario is that budget restrictions may push schools to hire the less expensive first-time teachers.*

Hiring of both types of first-time teachers (newly prepared teachers and delayed entrants) increased between 1987-88 and 1993-94. Since the qualifications of the delayed entrants in their primary assignment fields were less than those of newly prepared teachers and experienced teachers, the increased hiring of delayed entrants may indicate an adjustment in teacher qualifications due to supply and demand imbalances.

The data suggest that the two types of first-time teachers were different from one another. In 1993-94, for example, almost half of public and three-fourths of private delayed entrants lacked a major or minor plus certification in their primary assignment field, suggesting that they did not plan to enter the teaching profession when they were earning their highest degrees and that they may be in need of alternative teacher training programs. In both sectors, between 13 and 15 percent more newly prepared teachers than delayed entrants held a major or minor plus certification in their primary field.

Figure A. — Percentage distribution of newly hired teachers, by sector, supply source, and qualifications in primary assignment field: 1993-94

NOTE: Detail may not add to 100 percent due to rounding.

The two types of experienced teachers, on the other hand, were remarkably similar across all variables examined in this report. The data suggest that reentrants and transfers may, in many cases, represent teachers with the same basic career path, which includes a break in service. According to this scenario, reentrants-who were slightly older than transfers-are at a later stage of their career, namely, after the break in service. However, those reentrants who transferred from nonteaching occupations may not have been following the typical teacher career path.

Continued reporting of data from SASS (collection of the 1999-2000 SASS began in the fall of 1999) will clarify some of the issues raised and verify the nature and magnitude of the apparent trends examined in this report. Since shortages often take the form of decreasing quality of those hired rather than failure to fill vacancies, the issues of teacher supply, demand, and shortage cannot be adequately addressed without better measures of teacher quality (Boe and Gilford 1992). Data on teacher preparation and qualifications, while important, do not directly measure how well a teacher teaches students in the classroom. Improvement in this area requires research to define the dimensions of teacher quality and to develop methods to measure them.

Finally, for policymakers to be able to influence supply and demand balances and for schools to attract and retain the most qualified teachers, a better understanding of the factors that influence supply and demand balances and for schools to attract and retain the most qualified teachers, a better understanding of the factors that influence individuals' decisions to enter, leave and return to the teaching profession is needed.

Boe, E. and Gilford, D. (eds). (1992). Teacher Supply, Demand, and Quality: Policy Issues, Models and Data Bases. Washington DC: National Academy Press.

National Education Association. (1987). Status of the American Public School Teacher: 1985-86. Washington, DC: Author.

Rollefson, M.R. (1993). Teacher Supply in the United States: Sources of Newly Hired Teachers in Public and Private Schools (NCES 93-424). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Rollefson, M.R., and Brougham, S. (1994). Sources of Newly Hired Teachers in Public and Private Schools: 1988 and 1991 (NCES 94-481). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Rollefson, M.R., and Brougham, S. (1995). Teacher Supply in the U.S.: Sources of Newly Hired Teachers in Public and Private Schools: 1988-1991 (NCES 95-348). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Snyder, T.D. (1999) Digest of Education Statistics: 1988 (NCES 1999-036). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office.