This Data Point examines the background and school settings of teachers of Hispanic or Latino origin in public and private schools in the United States before the coronavirus pandemic. It uses data from the public and private school teacher data files of the 2017–18 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), which is a national sample survey of public and private K–12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. State-level estimates can also be produced for public schools, principals, and teachers.
What were the characteristics of teachers of Hispanic or Latino origin in 2017–18?
During school year 2017–18, 9 percent of all teachers were Hispanic. Teachers of all races who noted they were Hispanic are counted as Hispanic for this report.1
About three-quarters (76 percent) of Hispanic teachers were female (FIGURE 1). This was the same percentage as for all teachers.
On average, Hispanic teachers were slightly younger than teachers in general. Compared to all teachers, a higher percentage of Hispanic teachers were less than 50 years old (77 percent versus 71 percent). A lower percentage of Hispanic teachers (23 percent) than all teachers (29 percent) were 50 or more years old.2
In comparison to all teachers, Hispanic teachers tended to have less teaching experience. Forty-six percent of Hispanic teachers had less than 10 years of experience compared to 38 percent of all teachers. Thirty-three percent of Hispanic teachers had at least 15 years of experience compared to all teachers at 43 percent.
FIGURE 1. Characteristics of teachers: Percentage distribution of all school teachers and teachers of Hispanic or Latino origin, by selected teacher characteristics: 2017–18
NOTE: Teachers include both full-time and part-time teachers. Hispanic teachers include teachers who selected Hispanic or Latino origin as their ethnicity. A teacher’s response to the separate survey question about race was not a factor. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), “Public School Teacher and Private School Teacher Data Files,” 2017–18.
Compared to all teachers, a higher percentage of Hispanic teachers reported their highest degree earned as a bachelor’s degree (51 percent versus 40 percent), and a lower percentage reported their highest degree as a master’s (37 percent versus 48 percent).
A higher percentage of Hispanic teachers than all teachers used an alternative path to certification.3
Thirty percent of Hispanic teachers used an alternative path to certification, compared with 18 percent of all teachers.
What were the characteristics of schools where teachers of Hispanic or Latino origin taught in 2017–18?
When compared to all teachers, a higher percentage of Hispanic teachers taught in city schools, and a lower percentage taught in rural schools. Forty-four percent of Hispanic teachers taught in city schools, compared with 31 percent of all teachers (FIGURE 2). While 19 percent of all teachers taught in rural schools, 8 percent of Hispanic teachers taught in schools located in rural areas.
FIGURE 2. Characteristics of schools: Percentage distribution of all school teachers and teachers of Hispanic or Latino origin, by selected school characteristics: 2017–18
NOTE: Teachers include both full-time and part-time teachers. Hispanic teachers include teachers who selected Hispanic or Latino origin as their ethnicity. A teacher’s response to the separate survey question about race was not a factor. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS), “Public School Teacher and Private School Teacher Data Files,” 2017–18.
A higher percentage of Hispanic teachers taught in schools located in the South and West, when compared to all teachers. Half (50 percent) of Hispanic teachers were in schools in the South, compared with 39 percent of all teachers. Also, 29 percent of Hispanic teachers were in schools in the West, compared with 19 percent of all teachers. Hispanic teachers were underrepresented in the Midwest and Northeast.
Compared to all teachers, a higher percentage of Hispanic public and private school teachers were in schools with 75 percent or more minority enrollment in the school, and a lower percentage were in schools with less than 25 percent minority enrollment.4
Public school Hispanic teachers were in schools with at least 75 percent minority enrollment (65 percent) at a higher rate than all public school teachers (27 percent). Only 5 percent of Hispanic public school teachers were in schools with less than 25 percent minority enrollment compared to 29 percent of public school teachers as a whole.
A similar pattern is seen for private school teachers. A quarter (25 percent) of Hispanic private school teachers were in schools with at least 75 percent minority enrollment, compared with 9 percent of all private school teachers. Twenty-eight percent of Hispanic private school teachers were in schools with less than 25 percent minority enrollment, compared with half (50 percent) of all private school teachers.
Endnotes
1 Teachers who selected Hispanic or Latino origin as their ethnicity are referred to as Hispanic teachers in this report for ease of presentation. A teacher’s response to the separate survey question about race was not a factor. As context, 27 percent of public school students and 11 percent of private school students were Hispanic in fall 2017 (National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, Tables 203.50 and 205.40 [https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/current_tables.asp#top]).
2 Percentages were calculated from unrounded numbers, which may differ from summing rounded percentages.
3 An alternative route to certification is a program that was designed to expedite the transition of nonteachers to a teaching career, for example, a state, district, or university alternative route to certification program.
4 The variables used to calculate percent minority enrollment in the school are different for public and private schools, and thus the data are not combined. For public schools, the variable is from the 2017–18 NTPS sampling frame, while for private schools, the minority enrollment data are collected on the NTPS private school questionnaire. Additional information about NTPS sampling frames and questionnaires is available at https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/methods-procedures1718.asp.
To learn more, visit: https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ntps/. For questions about content or to view this report and supplemental tables online, go to https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2022025.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Data Point presents information on education topics of current interest. The authors are Soheyla Taie and Laurie Lewis of Westat. Estimates based on samples are subject to sampling variability, and apparent differences may not be statistically significant. All stated differences are statistically significant at the .05 level, with no adjustments for multiple comparisons. In NCES surveys, efforts are made to minimize the effects of nonsampling errors such as item nonresponse, measurement error, data processing error, or other systematic error.
