The Making of a TeacherThe Making of a Teacher
Copyright © 1999 by the Center for Education Information.
All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
Much has been made in recent years of the demand for additional teachers in the United States in the next decade. Recent estimates indicate that the nation will need to hire 2.2 million additional teachers in the next decade. While this figure may appear alarming, it must be noted that the projection actually refers to the number of teachers who might be needed to fill projected school district vacancies, which are often filled by former teachers coming back into the profession, teachers moving around from district to district, and from private schools to public schools.
Data from the U.S. Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics Schools and Staffing Surveys show that of the 139,000 new public schools hired in 1993-94 (the latest year available), fewer than half (42 percent) had just finished a college program and had never taught before.
Whether or not the nation faces a shortage of teachers has been a topic of debate for decades and will probably continue to be one. But one thing is for sure: very little is known about the actual supply available for teaching in the nations elementary and secondary schools.
In an effort to provide hard data about teacher supply, the Center for Education Information (CEI), set out to shed some light on this topic. We sought to determine which Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) in the United States have programs for the initial preparation of teachers and then to collect data from these institutions about the individuals completing those programs prepared to teach. In addition, we set out to collect data about the nature of these Teacher Preparation Programs.
Several prominent deans and directors of teacher education helped design the 36-item questionnaire which was sent to the dean or director of teacher education at the 1,354 Institutions of Higher Education identified by state teacher education and licensing officials as having a Teacher Preparation Program.
THE MAKING OF A TEACHER: A Report on Teacher Preparation in the U.S. reports the results of that effort. It provides hard data about the nature of Teacher Preparation Programs and the number of individuals being prepared to teach by Institutions of Higher Education in the United States at the Undergraduate and Post-baccalaureate levels.
The National Center for Education Information (NCEI) conducted a similar survey of Institutions of Higher Education that had Teacher Education Programs in 1984. In the current report, comparisons are made between the findings of this l999 survey and the 1984 NCEI survey.
No project of this magnitude can be accomplished without the expert help of many people. I wish to thank, first of all, the deans and directors of teacher education for their invaluable help in designing the questionnaire and in pilot testing it at their institutions: Gary Galluzzo, Charles Tesconi, Rich Kunkle, Ken Howey, Clark Dobson, Bill Hawley, Frank Murray, Dick Arends, Clint Bruess, and Paul Warren.
My deepest gratitude goes to the state directors of teacher education and certification who provided the complete list of Institutions of Higher Education that have Teacher Preparation Programs and to the deans and directors of teacher education who responded to the survey.
I am indebted to the National Center for Education Statistics, especially to Paula Knepper, who was most helpful in the design of the questionnaire and in the analysis of the data, and to Tom Snyder, Frank Morgan and Vance Grant who provided NCES data that validate the findings of this study.
I am indebted to the Donner Foundation for providing funding which made this project possible.
Lastly, I wish to thank my staff who worked tirelessly to accomplish this task: David Chester, Emily Joseph, Phyllis Ince, Fred Quelle and Paul Mertins.
Emily Feistritzer
October 4, 1999
I. SUPPLY OF NEW TEACHERS
Reversing trends of the seventies and eighties, the 1990s have seen a sharp rise in the number of individuals studying to be teachers in the United States. While total enrollment in Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) increased 15 percent in the last 15 years, the number of new teacher graduates jumped 49 percent -- from 134,870 in 1983 to 200,545 in 1998, according to a survey conducted by the Center for Education Information in 1999 and one by the National Center for Education Information in 1984. These surveys also show that the number of institutions preparing teachers increased from 1,287 in 1984 to 1,354 in 1999. (Tables 1 and 2)
Entering teacher preparation later
- The most dramatic change in the past 15 years has been a shift toward people beginning their preparation to teach later in life and later in their academic careers.
- Nearly three out of 10 (28 percent) prospective new teachers who completed Teacher Preparation Programs in 1998 began their preparation to teach at the Post-baccalaureate level, and 72 percent had begun their preparation in Undergraduate programs. (Figure 1)
- More than one in four institutions in the CEI survey reported that students preparing to be teachers were formally admitted into their initial Teacher Preparation Program at the Post-baccalaureate level. This represents a marked increase in the last 15 years. In 1984, only three percent of IHEs that prepared teachers reported that people beginning a program for the initial preparation of teachers entered such a program at the Post-baccalaureate level. (Table 3).
- Two-thirds (65 percent) of institutions surveyed by CEI indicated they have at least one program for the preparation of teachers in which candidates enter at the Post-baccalaureate level.
- Nearly eight out of 10 (79 percent) prospective secondary school teachers who had begun their preparation to teach at the Post-baccalaureate level had degrees in fields other than education. One-half (49 percent) of persons who completed an Undergraduate program prepared to teach at the secondary school level had a degree in a field other than education. Three out of four (75 percent) prospective elementary teachers who began their preparation to teach at the Post-baccalaureate level had a degree in a field other than education. One in three (29 percent) individuals who completed an Undergraduate program prepared to teach in elementary schools had a degree in a field other than education. At the middle school preparation level, 69 percent of the Post-baccalaureate candidates and one-third of the Undergraduates had degrees in fields other than education. (Table 4)
- More than half (55 percent) of the individuals who were admitted into Teacher Preparation Programs at the Post-baccalaureate level within the last year were transitioning into teaching from an occupation outside the field of education. More than one in 10 (11 percent) of those admitted into Teacher Preparation Programs at the Undergraduate level were transitioning into teaching from an occupation outside the field of education. (Table 5)
- More than one-third (36 percent) of persons admitted into Teacher Preparation Programs at the Post-baccalaureate level and 14 percent of those admitted as Undergraduates within the past year had prior teaching-related experience, such as substitute teacher, teachers aide, or school paraprofessional. (Table 5)
- The CEI survey results clearly show that there is a shift away from the stereotype of recent high school students going to college and majoring in education as the sole source of new teachers. Counting education degrees does not equate to the number of teachers being prepared.
Data from the U.S. Department of Educations National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) show that 105,509 Bachelors degrees in education were awarded in 1995-96 down from 106,079 the year before. NCES data also show that 106,253 Master's degrees in education were awarded in 1995-96, compared with 101,242 in 1994-95.
Data from the NCES 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Followup show that of the 142,104 Bachelors degree recipients prepared to teach in 1992-93, approximately one in three received a Bachelors degree in a field other than education. This study also shows that more than half (51 percent) of Bachelors degree recipients in 1992-93 who had prepared to teach did not apply for teaching jobs in the year following graduation. It also shows that 38,964 graduates (3.4 percent of all Bachelors degree recipients in 1992-93) who were not fully prepared to teach were teaching the year following graduation. It must be noted that these individuals could be teaching at any level and in any types of school, such as private schools, pre-schools, or postsecondary institutions.
According to data from the NCES Schools and Staffing Surveys of 1993-94 (the latest), 139,000 new teachers were hired that year. Of these new teachers, 42 percent had just completed a college program and had not taught before.
Data from NCES also show that 114,000 teachers in 1993-94 were first-time teachers. These individuals may have actually gotten their teacher preparation earlier than the year before they were hired as teachers. (Table 6)
Dr. Feistritzer is president of the National Center for Education Information
in Washington, D.C.
The National Center for Education Information
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