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Education Week--Today's Teaching Force Is Larger, Less Experienced, More Diverse Than Ever
Over the past 25 years, the U.S. teacher workforce has grown larger, less experienced, and more diverse. But according to a new report, these changes have not affected all types of teachers and schools equally.
The report by Richard Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, and Lisa Merrill of New York University's Research Alliance for New York City Schools, an organization that studies the local education scene, used the Schools and Staffing Survey to analyze changes in the elementary and secondary teaching force from 1987 to 2012. The Schools and Staffing Survey includes information on teachers' backgrounds, qualifications, and work locations. Key findings fall into several categories:
Size of the Teaching Force
The teacher workforce as a whole grew by 46 percent between 1987 and 2012, to 4 million elementary and secondary school teachers. But this growth varies widely depending on what criteria you are looking at. For example, the number of female teachers increased at a higher rate (56 percent) than male teachers (22 percent). The result is that the teaching force is becoming ever more dominated by women.
Brenda Iasevoli on April 13, 2017 7:22 AM
