Index: Education Data

Teacher Data

Page Contents

09/16/05: Characteristics of Public School Teachers' Professional Development Activities 08/05/05: Elementary/Secondary School Teaching Among Recent College Graduates 07/16/05: NCES Releases Two New Publications about Teachers

09/16/05: Characteristics of Public School Teachers' Professional Development Activities

Characteristics of Public School Teachers' Professional Development Activities: 1999-2000

Using data from the 1999ˆ2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), 'Characteristics of Public School Teachers' Professional Development Activities: 1999-2000,' shows how prevalent various features of professional development activities were among public school teachers.

During the 1999ˆ2000 school year, teachers were asked about their professional development activities during the previous 12 months. Some 59 percent of public school teachers participated in professional development focused on content in the subject matter they taught and 73 percent participated in professional development focused on methods of teaching. A majority of teachers reported receiving eight or fewer hours of professional development in either subject matter content or teaching methods. In terms of the format of professional development activities, 95 percent of teachers attended a workshop, conference, or other training session in the previous year, compared with 42 percent who participated in mentoring, peer observation, or coaching. Seventy-four percent of teachers participated in regularly scheduled collaboration with other teachers on issues of instruction. SASS asked school principals to report on how important various influences were on the determination of teacher professional development activities. More than half of public school principals reported a school improvement plan or state or local academic standards as very important influences on determining the content of teacher professional development activities; 26 percent of principals called teacher preferences a very important influence.

To download, view and print the report as a pdf file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005030

08/05/05: Elementary/Secondary School Teaching Among Recent College Graduates

Elementary/Secondary School Teaching Among Recent College Graduates: 1994 and 2001

This new NCES report, 'Elementary/Secondary School Teaching Among Recent College Graduates: 1994 and 2001 ,' discusses teaching in elementary and secondary schools, preparing to teach at the elementary/secondary level, and considering teaching among 1999-2000 college graduates as of 2001 (i.e., within about a year of completing the bachelor�s degree). It is based on data from the 2000/01 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:2000/01), a spring 2001 follow-up of bachelor�s degree recipients from the 1999-2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:2000). The report examines whether graduates who differed in demographic characteristics (gender and race/ethnicity) and undergraduate academic characteristics (types of institutions attended, college entrance examination scores, undergraduate grade point averages, and major fields of study) also differed in terms of teaching and teaching-related behaviors as of 2001. The report also compares teaching and teaching-related behaviors of the 1999-2000 cohort as of 2001 with those of the 1992-93 cohort as of 1994. The analyses indicate that 12 percent of graduates had taught in an elementary/secondary school in the year following graduation, and that teaching was more common among women, among graduates who received their degrees from public and from non-doctorate-granting institutions, and among graduates with higher cumulative undergraduate GPAs but lower college entrance examination scores. The proportion of graduates who had taught within a year of receiving a bachelor�s degree increased slightly, from 10 to 12 percent, between graduates who received their degrees in 1992-93 and 1999-2000, respectively.

To download, view and print the report as a pdf file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005161

07/16/05: NCES Releases Two New Publications about Teachers

NCES Releases Two New Publications about Teachers

Using 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey data file and the Teacher Follow-up Survey, 'Private School Teacher Turnover and Teacher Perceptions of School Organizational Characteristics' looks at the private school sector to investigate teacher-perceived school organizational characteristics and relationships between these characteristics and teacher turnover in Catholic, other religious, and nonsectarian private schools. According to principal reports, 19 percent of Catholic school teachers, 23 percent of other religious school teachers, and 21 percent of nonsectarian school teachers changed schools or left the teaching profession between the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 school years. Private school teachers who were reported to have left their schools (movers and leavers) were more likely than stayers to report relatively low levels of administrative support, satisfaction with salary, student discipline, control over classroom policies, and input in school policies.

To download, view and print the report as a pdf file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005061

'Qualifications of Public Secondary School Biology Teachers, 1999-2000' describes the qualifications of public middle school and high school biology teachers in terms of the subject matter of their certifications and postsecondary majors and minors. Data are drawn from the 1999ˆ2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). At the middle and high school level, 52 percent of biology students had a teacher with both certification in biology and a postsecondary major or minor in biology; 16 percent of biology students had a teacher with neither a certification nor a postsecondary major or minor in biology. Of those with a teacher lacking a certification or major or minor in biology, 40 percent of students had a teacher with a major or minor in another natural science. However, in schools with more than 50 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, 10 percent of biology students who had a teacher lacking certification or major or minor in biology had a teacher with a major or minor in another natural science. In those schools, 53 percent of biology students of teachers lacking a certification or major or minor in biology had a teacher with a major or minor in elementary education.

To download, view and print the report as a pdf file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2005081