Table 2.  Percentage distribution of 2007–08 beginning public school teachers, by teacher status and selected 2007–08 teacher and school characteristics: 2008–09 and 2009–10
Selected teacher or school characteristic in 2007–08	Total	2008–09 teacher status1		Total	2009–10 teacher status
		Current	Former		Current	Former
Age
Less than 30 years	100.0	91.3	8.7	100.0	90.0	10.0
30 or more years	100.0	87.1	12.9	100.0	81.0	19.0
Sex
Male	100.0	87.9	12.1	100.0	86.4	13.6
Female	100.0	90.8	9.2	100.0	87.9	12.1
Race/ethnicity
White, non-Hispanic	100.0	90.0	10.0	100.0	87.8	12.2
All other races/ethnicities2	100.0	90.3	9.7	100.0	86.6	13.4!
Base salary
Less than $40,000	100.0	87.5	12.5	100.0	87.0	13.0
$40,000 or more	100.0	96.6	3.4!	100.0	89.0	11.0!
Teaching status
Full time	100.0	91.3	8.7	100.0	88.1	11.9
Part time	100.0	75.5	24.5	100.0	80.6	19.4!
Highest degree earned
Less than Bachelor's degree	100.0	67.6	32.4	100.0	78.6	21.4!
Bachelor's degree	100.0	91.4	8.6	100.0	88.4	11.6
Master's degree	100.0	89.1	10.9	100.0	88.2	11.8
Higher than a Master's degree3	100.0	52.2!	47.8!	100.0	48.8	51.2!
Assigned a mentor in 2007–084
Yes	100.0	91.6	8.4	100.0	90.2	9.8
No	100.0	83.7	16.3	100.0	77.5	22.5
Entered teaching through an alternative certification program5
Yes	100.0	90.1	9.9	100.0	87.8	12.2
No	100.0	90.1	9.9	100.0	87.4	12.6
Certification type6
Regular teaching certificate	100.0	90.9	9.1	100.0	87.7	12.3
Other certificate	100.0	88.4	11.6	100.0	87.2	12.8
Class organization
Departmentalized instruction	100.0	90.3	9.7	100.0	87.3	12.7
Elementary subject specialist	100.0	87.4	12.6!	100.0	85.8	14.2!
Self-contained class	100.0	89.7	10.3	100.0	87.9	12.1
Team teaching	100.0	92.6	‡	100.0	92.8	‡
"Pull-out" class or "push-in" instruction	100.0	90.4	9.6!	100.0	85.3	14.7!
School level
Elementary	100.0	90.4	9.6	100.0	89.5	10.5
Secondary	100.0	89.8	10.2	100.0	85.8	14.2
Combined	100.0	88.3	11.7!	100.0	78.4	21.6
Community type
City/suburban	100.0	91.5	8.5	100.0	88.9	11.1
Town/rural	100.0	88.1	11.9	100.0	85.7	14.3
Percent of K–12 students who were approved for free or reduced-price lunches
Less than 50 percent	100.0	90.4	9.6	100.0	89.4	10.6
50 percent or more	100.0	90.3	9.7	100.0	85.9	14.1
School did not participate in free or reduced-price lunch program	100.0	78.1	21.9!	100.0	72.6	27.4!
! Interpret data with caution. The standard error for this estimate is equal to 30 percent or more of the estimate's value.
‡ Reporting standards not met.
1 These estimates include those who provided 2008–09 data during the 2009–10 data collection.
2 All other races/ethnicities includes Black, not Hispanic or Latino; Hispanic or Latino, of any race; American Indian or Alaska Native, not Hispanic or Latino; Asian, not Hispanic or Latino; Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, not Hispanic or Latino; and two or more races, not Hispanic or Latino.
3 Higher than a master's degree is defined as teachers who completed any of the following: an educational specialist or professional diploma, a certificate of advanced graduate studies, or a doctorate or first professional degree.
4 Data for this item were collected in 2008–09 and do not include 2008–09 nonrespondents. Data are not available for 0.7 percent of 2009–10 respondents because they did not respond in 2008–09.
5 An alternative program is a program that was designed to expedite the transition of non-teachers to a teaching career, for example, a state, district, or university alternative certification program.
6 Regular teaching certificate includes teachers with a regular or standard state certificate or advanced professional certificate, as well as teachers holding a certificate issued after satisfying all requirements except the completion of a probationary period, regardless of other certifications held. Other certificate includes teachers who did not hold a regular certificate in the state, including those with a certificate that requires some additional coursework, student teaching, or passage of a test before regular certification can be obtained and teachers with a certificate issued to persons who must complete a certification program in order to continue teaching.
NOTE: Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding and because some data are not shown.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Beginning Teacher Longitudinal Study (BTLS), "First Through Third Wave Preliminary Data File," 2007–08, 2008–09, 2009–10.