The Making of a TeacherThe Making of a Teacher
Copyright © 1999 by the Center for Education Information.
All rights reserved.
VI. PROFILE OF STUDENTS PREPARING TO BE TEACHERS
The average candidate preparing to teach at the Undergraduate level is a young, white female who recently graduated from high school and is attending college full-time.
Individuals preparing to teach at the Post-baccalaureate level tend to be older, slightly more people of color, more males, transitioning into teaching from an occupation outside the field of education, have prior teaching-related experience and are attending college part-time. (Table 23)
More than half (55 percent) of people in Post-baccalaureate Teacher Preparation Programs are transitioning into teaching from an occupation outside the field of education. Eleven percent of those in Undergraduate programs are coming into teaching from another occupation.
The smallest institutions that enroll fewer than a total of 1,000 students have the highest percentage of students from other occupations 13 percent at the Undergraduate level and 62 percent at the graduate level. However, these institutions produce only four percent of all teacher graduates.
About one in three individuals in Post-baccalaureate Teacher Preparation Programs have had prior teaching-related experience, such as substitute teacher, teachers aide, or school paraprofessional. An average of 14 percent of those studying to be teachers at the Undergraduate level have had prior teaching related experiences.
About four in ten Post-baccalaureate students and 13 percent of Undergraduates preparing to teach are attending college part-time. The incidence of part-time teacher preparation is greatest in institutions that enroll 5-10,000 students and least in the largest institutions that enroll 10,000 or more students. (Table 23)
Age
The average age of students preparing to teach at the Undergraduate level is 22 years, compared to 30 years for individuals studying to be teachers at the Post-baccalaureate level. (Table 24)
Race
There is tremendous variation in the racial composition of students studying to be teachers in different types of Institutions of Higher Education. Overall, it would appear that eight out of ten teacher candidates are White, non-Hispanic, approximately 10 percent are Black, non-Hispanic, three percent are Asian/Pacific Islander, and two percent are American Indian/Alaskan Native. Approximately six percent are of Hispanic origin. (Table 25)
However, these statistics change radically from institution to institution and from state to state. For example, of the 486 institutions that provided data for this item in the CEI survey, 48 or 10 percent of the respondents, reported that more than five percent of their teacher preparation students were Asian/Pacific Islander; 14 IHEs reported that more than five percent of their teacher preparation students were American Indian/Alaskan Native, and 133 IHEs reported that more than 10 percent of their teacher education students were Black (22 of these indicated that more than half of their teacher preparation students were black).
Gender
The ratio of men to women preparing to teach in Institution of Higher Education is about 1:4 at the Undergraduate level. At the Post-baccalaureate level, 29 percent of Teacher Preparation Program candidates are male. (Table 26)
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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