Data on Teachers Across the Country

This week’s article summary is The Nation's Teaching Force Is Still Mostly White and Female.

The article’s data comes from a federal survey administered every four years to public schools across the country.

For reference, about 90% of students in the U.S. attend public schools, 9% attend parochial (Catholic) schools, and 1% attend independent-private schools (like Trinity).

As you’ll see, the data on public school teachers, while changing a little over the past four years, has remained fairly consistent over time: around 80% female and 80% white.

As a comparison to the article’s data, here’s Trinity’s data for the 2017-18 school year:

• 18% faculty/staff of color
• 21% male faculty/staff
• Average salary (teachers and assistants): $51,314
• Average Age (teachers and assistants): 42

And for independent-private schools nationally:

• 15% faculty/staff of color
• Average salary: $51,418
• No data available on age or male faculty/staff

And for southeastern independent-private schools:

• 10% faculty/staff of color
• Average salary: $46,262
• No data available on age or male faculty/staff

As you’ll see, the data is pretty consistent in all schools throughout the country: public, private, and Trinity.

Joe

Teachers tend to be white, female, and have nearly a decade and a half of experience in the classroom, according to new data from the federal government.

But there are signs that the nation’s teaching force is gradually growing more diverse. It is also more heterogeneous: The nation’s charter school teachers look significantly different from teachers in traditional public schools.

The U.S. Department of Education has been collecting data on schools, teachers, and administrators through its Schools and Staffing Survey every four years since 1987.

Below are some of the highlights of the new findings:

The Teaching Force Is Growing and Getting Slightly More Female:

• The 2015-16 survey estimates that there are 3.8 million public school teachers in the U.S., up from about 3.4 million teachers four years ago.
• About 77% of teachers are women.
• In elementary schools, nearly 90% of teachers are women. In high schools, about 66% are.
• The average age of teachers is 42, down slightly from 43 in 2012.
• The average salary for a teacher these days is $55,100.

The Hispanic Teacher Population Is on the Rise:

• 80% of teachers are white, a decrease from 82% in 2012.
• 9% of teachers are Hispanic, up from 8%.
• About 7% of teachers are black and 2% are Asian. Those percentages have not changed since 2012.

Teachers Feel in Control:

• Much of the controversy around the Common Core State Standards has hinged on claims that their reading and math goals for students are overly prescriptive, and limit teachers’ ability to make instructional decisions on their own. But the data show that teachers still feel at least somewhat in control over what and how they teach. 98% of teachers report that they have control over how they evaluate and grade students, what teaching techniques they use, and how much homework they give.