U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences NCES 2005–094 The Condition of Education 2005 U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences NCES 2005–094 June 2005 John Wirt Project Director National Center for Education Statistics Susan Choy MPR Associates, Inc. Patrick Rooney William Hussar National Center for Education Statistics Stephen Provasnik Gillian Hampden-Thompson Education Statistics Services Institute Production: Barbara Kridl Managing Editor Andrea Livingston Senior Editor MPR Associates, Inc. U.S. Department of Education Margaret Spellings Secretary Institute of Education Sciences Grover J. Whitehurst Director National Center for Education Statistics Grover J. Whitehurst Acting Commissioner The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting, analyzing, and reporting data related to education in the United States and other nations. 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Box 1398 Jessup, MD 20794-1398 or call toll free 1-877-4ED-PUBS Content Contact John Wirt (202) 502-7478 [email protected] or Patrick Rooney (202) 502-7308 [email protected] Commissioner’s Statement Commissioner’s Statement INTRODUCTION and who left the workforce in 1999–2000, and compare these transitions with those in Reliable data are critical in guiding efforts to 1987–88, 1990–91, and 1993–94. The major improve education in America. To provide such fi ndings are as follows: data, the National Center for Education Statis- tics (NCES) each year submits to Congress the At the start of the 1999–2000 school year, mandated report of The Condition of Educa- 17 percent of the teacher workforce were tion. This year’s report presents indicators of new hires at their schools, with the major- important developments and trends in Ameri- ity of new hires being experienced teachers. can education. Recurrent themes underscored Only a relatively small percentage of the by the indicators include participation and workforce—about 4 percent—were fi rst- persistence in education, student performance time teachers that school year. The aver- and other outcomes, the environment for learn- age age of fi rst-time teachers was 29, and ing, and societal support for education. In ad- private schools were more likely to have dition, this year’s volume contains a special fi rst-time teachers than public schools. analysis that describes the teacher workforce and the movement of teachers into and out of At the end of 1999–2000, about 16 percent this workforce. of the teacher workforce “turned over” or did not continue teaching in the same This statement summarizes the main fi ndings school during the 2000–01 school year. of the special analysis and the 40 indicators The turnover rate was larger at the end of that appear in the six following sections. Each 1999–2000 than at the end of 1987–88, indicator is referenced by its number (e.g., 1990–91, or 1993–94. indicator 10) in the volume. About half of teacher turnover can be at- tributed to teachers transferring from one SPECIAL ANALYSIS ON MOBILITY IN THE TEACHER school to another, and the rest is due to WORKFORCE teachers leaving teaching either temporar- Each year teachers enter, leave, and move ily or indefi nitely. within the K–12 teacher workforce in the Most public school teachers who transfer United States. Such movement affects not only move to another public school; only 2 per- the composition of teachers and institutional cent transferred to a private school at the stability of individual schools but also the dem- end of 1999–2000. In contrast, 53 percent ographics and qualifi cations of the teacher of private school teachers who transferred workforce as a whole. Understanding the dy- moved to a public school. namics of such change in the teacher workforce is important for objectively considering such Public school teachers in high-poverty policy issues as teacher shortages, teacher at- schools are twice as likely as their coun- trition, and teacher quality. terparts in low-poverty schools to transfer to another school. This special analysis uses national data on public and private school teachers from the Relative to rates of total turnover, the per- 1999–2000 Schools and Staffing Survey centage of teachers who retired at the end (SASS) and the related 2000–01 Teacher Fol- of the 1999–2000 school year was small: low-up Survey (TFS) to describe the nature only 2 out of 16 percent. of the teacher workforce, look at who joined The Condition of Education 2005 | Page iii Commissioner’s Statement Commissioner’s Statement Continued The percentage of teachers who left teach- growth and increasing enrollment rates help ing and took a job other than elementary explain rising enrollments. Adult education or secondary teaching at the end of 1999– is also increasing due to demographic shifts 2000 was twice as large as that of teachers in the age of the U.S. population, increasing who retired. Teachers who took a job other rates of enrollment, and changing employer than teaching were disproportionate ly requirements for skills. As enrollments have male compared with those who stayed in increased, the cohorts of learners have become teaching. more diverse than ever before, with students who are members of racial/ethnic minorities or The percentage of teachers who left speak a language other than English at home teaching for family reasons, to return to making up an increasing share of the school- school, or for other reasons at the end of age population. 1999–2000 was less than 2 percent. Virtu- ally all teachers who left for family reasons Rising immigration and a 25 percent were female. Teachers who left to return increase in the number of annual births to school tended to be younger than those that began in the mid-1970s and peaked who stayed in teaching. in 1990 have boosted school enrollment. Public elementary and secondary enroll- Not all teachers who leave the teacher ment reached an estimated 48.3 million workforce do so permanently: 4 of the in 2004 and is projected to increase to an 17 percent of teachers who were newly all-time high of 50.0 million in 2014. The hired in 1999–2000 were former teachers West is projected to experience the largest who returned to teach after a break from increase in enrollments of all regions in the teaching. country (indicator 1). Private school teachers are more likely to The number of private school students leave teaching than public school teach- enrolled in kindergarten through grade ers. 12 increased from 1989–90 to 2001–02, though at a slower rate than enrollments Both teachers who left teaching and teachers who transferred at the end of in public schools. Thus the percentage of 1999–2000 reported a lack of planning private school students as a percentage of time, too heavy a workload, too low a total elementary and secondary enroll- salary, and problematic student behavior ment decreased slightly over this period. among their top fi ve sources of dissatisfac- Catholic schools retained the largest en- tion with the school they left. rollment share of private school students, but there was a shift in the distribution of students from Catholic to other religious STUDENT PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION and nonsectarian private schools at both As the U.S. population increases, so does its the elementary and secondary levels during enrollment at all levels of public and private this period (indicator 2). education. At the elementary and secondary About 1.1 million, or 2.2 percent of levels, growth is due largely to the increase all students, were homeschooled in the in the size of the school-age population. At United States in the spring of 2003, an in- the postsecondary level, both population crease from 850,000, or 1.7 percent of all Page iv | The Condition of Education 2005 Commissioner’s Statement Commissioner’s Statement Continued students, in 1999. The majority of home- During this period, the growth in enroll- schooled students received all of their edu- ment at 4-year institutions is expected cation at home, but some attended school to be greater than at 2-year institutions up to 25 hours per week (indicator 3).