(NCES 96-899) Ordering information
The following excerpt from Out of the Lecture Hall and Into the Classroom: 1992-93 College Graduates and Elementary/Secondary School Teaching consists of an essay on Undergraduate Academic Experiences. A full copy of this statistical analysis report is available in portable document format (Adobe Acrobat PDF). You need the Acrobat Reader software to view these files.
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In the early 1980s, two concerns about elementary and secondary school teachers drew the attention of policy makers and the public at large: the supply of teachers, particularly whether the United States would experience a shortage of teachers; and the academic ability and qualifications of those who became teachers. Some warned that fewer talented college graduates were entering or remaining in teaching than in previous generations, and that in the face of shortages schools would be forced to hire less qualified teachers in order to fill classrooms. Others were less concerned with a shortage of teachers than with teacher qualifications, particularly in light of school reform efforts. Did teachers have the knowledge and skills necessary to teach the material reformers demanded in the ways that reformers wanted?
These concerns have raised questions and contributed to debate regarding teacher preparation, licensure, and the conditions of teaching. Should requirements for entry into teacher education programs, such as test scores or grade point averages, be increased? What should potential teachers study in teacher education programs? Should certification requirements for new teachers demand more rigorous courses, particularly in science and mathematics, or include professional examinations such as the National Teacher Examination (NTE)? Would increased teacher salaries lead those with stronger academic qualifications to choose teaching? Would mechanisms for differentiating teachers according to their expertise encourage teachers to remain in the profession?
In addition to concerns about teacher supply and quality, educators, policy makers, and the public have also been concerned for some time about the growing discrepancy between the proportions of minority school children and minority teachers. The importance of increasing the proportion of teachers who are of minority background has been argued from a number of vantage points. Many assert that minority children will be more motivated to succeed in school if they see minority adults-teachers-who have succeeded in school and earned positions of responsibility.
Beyond the call for minority role models, others have suggested that minority teachers are more likely to teach in ways that promote the achievement of minority students. Because minority teachers have participated in minority groups' unique cultures, these authors argue, they are more likely than white teachers both to understand the norms and styles of communication of minority children and to structure their classrooms and lessons in ways that are congruent with minority cultures. Whether practiced by minority or majority teachers, culturally relevant pedagogy, as it is termed, has been found to be more successful with minority children than traditional classroom routines. Therefore, increasing the proportion of teachers who are likely to practice it is expected to improve minority students' achievement.
Thus, attracting college graduates with strong academic skills and preparation, particularly those of minority racial-ethnic backgrounds, into teaching and retaining them in the profession are important policy concerns, and the 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond study (B&B:93) offers an important opportunity to begin to study these issues both now and into the 21st century. The data collected in 1994 (B&B:93/94), the first wave of B&B:93 data collection, permit analysis of new college graduates' participation in teacher preparation and in teaching. In the future, B&B:93 data will allow researchers to compare those who entered teaching immediately after graduating from college with those who enter later, determine when and why teachers leave the profession, and study patterns of reentry into teaching.
Thus far, B&B:93/94 data indicate that patterns of early participation in teaching among subgroups of 1992-93 college graduates were similar to those of previous cohorts. As the essay that follows demonstrates, women and white graduates were more likely than men and minority graduates both to have taken any of several steps toward teaching and to have expected to teach in the future. Although graduates with college entrance examination scores in the top quartile were less likely than other college graduates to take steps toward teaching, graduates with higher GPAs were more likely to enter the teacher pipeline. Further analysis of the B&B:93 data indicate that this apparent discrepancy may be explained by differences in course-taking patterns: graduates more inclined to teach were more likely to have taken education courses, in which most students earned higher grades, and less likely to have taken courses in advanced mathematics or calculus, in which most students earned lower grades.
After describing the teacher pipeline, through which college graduates enter and exit teaching at various points in time, the essay focuses on 1992-93 college graduates who were first-time entrants into the teacher pipeline. Its first section examines the rate of entry into and progress through the teacher pipeline among 1992-93 college graduates of varying demographic characteristics, asking "Who took steps toward a teaching career?" In the second section the academic experiences of those who taught, only prepared to teach, or were only considering teaching are compared with those of other recent graduates, asking questions such as "How did those more inclined to teach compare academically with those less so inclined?"
The essay concludes by looking at 1992-93 graduates' expectations for teaching in the future. In particular, the essay discusses the relationship between new teachers' experiences in the classroom and their plans to continue teaching in the near and long terms. Additional data regarding teaching among the class of 1992-93 are presented in the table compendium following the essay.
Unlike professions that require years of technical training, college graduates may become elementary or secondary teachers or leave teaching for other occupations with relative ease. Some students decide that they want to teach before they enter college or while they are undergraduates, and therefore prepare for teaching while in college by fulfilling the education course and student teaching requirements necessary for certification to teach in their state. Although education remains the most popular undergraduate major among new teachers, an increasing number of college students who prepare to teach major in an academic discipline and fulfill the education course and student teaching requirements for certification in addition to the degree requirements of their undergraduate major.
Graduates who prepared to teach must then consider whether to teach immediately following graduation. Some do choose to teach immediately, while others wait to gain other job experience or obtain further education, often a master's degree, before teaching. Still others decide that teaching is not what they want to do and enter other occupations. Also, those who do teach may choose to leave after as little as 1 year.
In contrast with those who prepared to teach, most undergraduates are either uninterested in teaching or less certain that they would choose teaching as a long-term career. Some college graduates who do not prepare to teach pursue teaching positions in private schools, which often do not require certification for employment as teachers. Others obtain emergency or temporary teaching certificates in order to teach in public schools for a year or two, usually while taking the course work necessary to obtain regular certification. Moreover, in the last decade or so alternative certification programs have been designed to make the transition into teaching even easier for college graduates who did not prepare to teach as undergraduates.
Thus, the supply of educators that staff the nation's classrooms depends upon decisions regarding teaching as an occupation that college students and graduates make not only while undergraduates but throughout the course of their adult lives.
B&B:93 will examine, in this report and in subsequent analyses, the class of 1992-93 as they enter, leave, and reenter the teaching profession in the years following their college graduation. Although the majority of 1992-93 graduates were first-time bachelor's degree recipients and were too young to have taught before receiving their 1992-93 degrees, others may have prepared to teach over the course of earning an earlier bachelor's degree or taught previously with or without certification. These graduates had, at the time they received their degrees, already entered the teacher pipeline and had varying experiences of it at different points of time. So as not to confound decades-old experiences of teaching or teacher preparation with contemporary experiences, it was important to be able to distinguish new from previous entrants.
Consequently, the first step was to identify those 1992-93 bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before completing the 1992-93 degree or who had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 bachelor's degree. Overall, of those who received bachelor's degrees in 1992-93, only about 3 percent had taught before obtaining their 1992-93 degrees or had been certified 1 year or more before receiving these degrees (figure 1). Given the small size of the sample representing these graduates, it was not possible to study these graduates separately from the others, and therefore they were excluded from the study.
The remaining 97 percent of graduates were considered eligible
to enter the teacher pipeline, that is, to take some step toward
entering the teaching profession, and these graduates make up
the population discussed in this report. One year after receiving
the baccalaureate, graduates could have entered the pipeline in
one of three ways:
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Follow up (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
As figure 1 also illustrates, by 1994 approximately one-quarter of pipeline-eligible 1992-93 graduates had entered the teacher pipeline. Of those who had entered, 30 percent had done so by teaching in that year (teachers), 17 percent by preparing to teach but not teaching (prepared only), and 53 percent by reporting in 1994 that they were only considering teaching (considering). The remaining three-quarters of the graduating class did not report that they were considering teaching, had prepared to teach, or had taught, and therefore for the purposes of this analysis are considered outside the teacher pipeline.
Analyses of data to be collected in the future will study the rates at which each group of pipeline-eligible graduates enters the teacher pipeline and the pattern of entry, departure, and reentry within each group, recognizing that those who were not considering teaching in 1994 may enter at a later date. However, because these graduates were not considering teaching in 1994, this analysis excludes them from the teacher pipeline and distinguishes among the three pipeline groups in order to make comparisons among groups who in 1994 were more or less inclined to teach. Thus, the remainder of this essay discusses the demographic and academic characteristics of these three groups of graduates, comparing them with each other and with those who had not entered the pipeline.
Historically, most teachers have been women and/or from white, non-Hispanic backgrounds, and discussion has centered around whether these limitations on the demographic makeup of teachers constitute a problem, and, if so, how to rectify it. The racial-ethnic makeup of the teaching pool in particular has often been the subject of analysis and debate in the past, and a discussion of race-ethnicity is therefore central to this section of the report.
Data from multiple sources confirm many authors' claims that the disparity between the proportions of students and teachers who are of minority background is increasing. The Elementary and Secondary School Civil Rights Survey, the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), and U.S. Department of Education data cited by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) indicate that the proportion of U.S. school children who are of minority background has increased in recent years. The SASS data are the most recent of these, and they show that approximately 32 percent of children in the nation's schools were of minority racial or ethnic background in 1993-94. According to a time series analysis of Civil Rights Surveys, the percentage of the nation's students who were of minority background increased 8 percentage points between 1976 and 1990.
At the same time, the SASS data, NCES's Recent College Graduates Study (RCG), and data on teacher education enrollments collected by AACTE all indicate that the proportions of practicing teachers, newly qualified teachers, and would-be teachers who are of minority backgrounds are less than half that of minority schoolchildren. Moreover, whereas the proportion of minority children has increased, the proportion of minority teachers has been notably stable. Surveys conducted by the National Education Association between 1971 and 1991 indicate that the proportion of teachers who were white declined by only 1.5 percent, from 88.3 percent to 86.8 percent, during this time period. SASS and AACTE data also indicate that although the proportions of minority teachers and education students have increased since the late 1980s, that increase remains slight (about 1 percent) and that the proportions of minority teachers and education students hover around 13 percent.
Thus the questions of why and when some groups of college students choose to teach while others do not has become increasingly important to those interested in achieving a diverse teaching staff. Although small sample sizes prevent some apparent differences from being statistically significant, in general, the data discussed below indicate that Asian/Pacific Islander and black, non-Hispanic graduates were less inclined to teach than were white, non-Hispanic or Hispanic graduates. Also, continuing historical trends, women were more likely than men to be attracted to teaching.
Differences by gender and race-ethnicity are apparent when one examines 1992-93 college graduates' first point of entry into a teaching career. For example, Asians and Pacific Islanders were significantly less likely than other racial-ethnic groups to be in the teacher pipeline (table 1). Ten percent of Asian/Pacific Islander graduates, compared with 27-34 percent of other graduates, were at least considering teaching in 1994. The gender difference was equally striking: whereas 1 in 3 women eligible to enter the teacher pipeline had entered it, 1 in 5 eligible men had done so.
While black, non-Hispanic graduates were no less likely than any other racial-ethnic group to enter the teacher pipeline, they were more apt to enter it by only considering teaching than by preparing to teach or teaching. To illustrate, 74 percent of black, non-Hispanic graduates in the pipeline were only considering teaching, significantly more than their Hispanic (54 percent) and white, non-Hispanic (50 percent) peers (table 1 and figure 2). Furthermore, black, non-Hispanic graduates in the pipeline prepared to teach half as often as their Hispanic or white, non-Hispanic peers (17 percent versus 35-43 percent) (table 2).
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Percent Of pipeline entrants
entered
teacher Considering Prepared
pipeline[2] only only Taught
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Total 26.1 52.8 17.1 30.1
Gender
Male 19.8 63.0 13.4 23.6
Female 31.7 47.2 19.1 33.7
Race-ethnicity
Minority 24.4 65.5 8.3 26.1
American Indian,
Alaskan Native 35.4 - - -
Asian,
Pacific Islander 9.6 59.6 20.9 19.5
Black, non-Hispanic 33.4 74.2 5.6 20.2
Hispanic 27.5 53.8 8.2 38.0
White, non-Hispanic 26.5 50.3 18.8 31.0
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- Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
[1] Excludes those who either taught in elementary or secondary schools before receiving the 1992-93 bachelor's degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 bachelor's degree.
[2] Graduates were defined as having entered the teacher pipeline if they had first taught since receiving the 1992-93 bachelor's degree, prepared to teach during or since the 1992-93 degree, or were considering teaching at the time of the B&B:93/94 interview.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Follow up (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
In contrast, the rate at which graduates in the pipeline applied for teaching positions, the rate at which those who applied for teaching positions received offers, and the rate at which those who received offers accepted them did not vary with their racial-ethnic backgrounds (table 2). Thus, although both Asians or Pacific Islanders and black, non-Hispanics were less likely to teach, the points at which these groups opted out of teaching differed. Asians and Pacific Islanders were less likely to be in the teacher pipeline in the first place. Black, non-Hispanic graduates were no less likely than members of other racial-ethnic groups to consider teaching as an occupation, but were less likely to pursue it by preparing to teach or by teaching in the year following college graduation.
Gender differences in preparing to teach, applying for teaching positions, and teaching were consistent with teaching's history as a female-dominated profession. Forty-seven percent of women in the pipeline prepared to teach, compared with 28 percent of men (table 2), and 1 in 3 women in the pipeline actually taught, whereas about 1 in 4 men did so (table 1). As was the case for race-ethnicity, there were no significant differences between men and women in the percentage who received teaching job offers or the percentage who accepted them.
*Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
NOTE: The sample size for American Indian/Native Alaskan respondents was too small for reliable estimates. Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Follow up (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of Of those
applicants, offered,
Percent Percent percent percent
prepared applied for offered a accepted
to teaching teaching teaching
teach[1] position[2] position[2] position[2]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 40.1 46.7 72.0 90.0
Gender
Male 28.3 35.5 71.9 88.0
Female 46.5 52.8 72.0 90.8
Race-ethnicity
Minority 25.3 41.6 74.8 84.2
American Indian,
Alaskan Native - - - -
Asian,
Pacific Islander 32.0 29.8 - -
Black, non-Hispanic 17.1 38.0 71.5 77.7
Hispanic 35.0 50.2 79.3 89.2
White, non-Hispanic 42.9 47.8 71.5 90.9
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- Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
[1] Includes those who prepared to teach regardless of whether they had taught. Does not include those who taught but did not prepare to teach.
[2] Includes applications for positions as teacher aides and substitute teachers. Because these positions were not counted as "teaching" in the pipeline variable, respondents who were offered and accepted these positions were not categorized as having taught in the pipeline variable.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
As discussed above, who became a teacher-or was even considering
teaching-varied according to several demographic characteristics.
Not surprisingly then, the sector and level of the schools in
which 1992-93 college graduates taught also varied with graduates'
race-ethnicity and gender. Overall, about 84 percent of 1992-93
graduates who taught worked in public schools, and the balance
worked in private schools (table 3), figures that are comparable
to the distribution of teachers nationally in 1993-94. Minority
graduates were more likely than white graduates to teach in public
schools. Two-thirds of women who taught worked in elementary schools,
compared with two-fifths of men. Similarly, one-quarter of women
taught in secondary schools, whereas over half of men who taught
worked in secondary schools.
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Sector of school Level of school
Public Private Elementary Secondary Combined
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 84.3 15.7 59.6 34.1 6.3
Race-ethnicity
Minority 92.4 7.6 69.8 28.6 1.6
American Indian,
Alaskan Native - - - - -
Asian,
Pacific Islander - - - - -
Black, non-Hispanic* - - - - -
Hispanic 91.2 8.8 74.3 25.7 0
White, non-Hispanic 83.3 16.7 57.9 35.2 6.9
Gender
Male 86.4 13.6 40.8 55.4 3.7
Female 83.5 16.5 66.0 26.1 7.3
----------------------------------------------------------------------
-Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
*Although 33 percent of black, non-Hispanic graduates entered the pipeline, only 20 percent taught, so tables that include only teachers have too few black, non-Hispanics to report estimates.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
New teachers exit the teacher pipeline at various times and for various reasons, including pursuing further education or changing careers altogether. The longitudinal nature of B&B:93 will allow tracking of these graduates' moves in and out of the teaching profession, but in the meantime, their expectations provide an early indicator of their commitment to teaching as a profession.
In general, new teachers' expectations for teaching in the future followed patterns similar to those observed regarding their entrance into teaching in the year after receiving their bachelor's degrees. For example, about 62 percent of black, non-Hispanic new teachers expected to be teaching in 2 years, whereas 78 percent of Hispanic teachers and 76 percent of white, non-Hispanic new teachers had this expectation (table 4). Likewise, when asked about their plans regarding teaching in the long term, 25 percent of black, non-Hispanic graduates in the pipeline responded that they expected to be teaching, compared with 45 percent of their white, non-Hispanic peers. Similarly, among nonteachers in the teacher pipeline, Asian/Pacific Islanders and black, non-Hispanics were less likely than white, non-Hispanics to expect to teach in the long term.
Differences between men's and women's expectations for teaching in the future were also consistent with those found with respect to entering the pipeline and teaching. Whereas about half of the women in the teacher pipeline expected to be teaching in 2 years or in the long term, about 30 percent of men expected to be teaching at either of these points in time. Among new teachers, 81 percent of women expected to be teaching in 2 years, compared with 62 percent of men. Women were also more likely than men to expect to teach in the long term (69 percent compared with 52 percent).
Given these expectations, it appears that among this cohort of
college graduates, the historical trends in minority and female
participation in teaching are not likely to change. Analyses of
future B&B:93 data will indicate just how accurate these new
graduates' expectations for the future were, and whether graduates
who begin teaching at a later point have similar demographic characteristics
to those who began teaching within one year of their degree completion.
Let us now turn from the question of who entered the teacher pipeline
to how those who did enter compared with those who did not in
terms of their undergraduate academic experiences.
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Expects Expects
to be teaching in 2 years to be teaching in long term
Non- Non-
Total Teachers teachers Total Teachers teachers
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 44.8 75.5 30.9 42.9 63.3 33.8
Gender
Male 30.2 61.5 20.0 28.7 51.7 21.5
Female 52.8 80.9 37.8 50.8 67.8 41.7
Race-ethnicity
Minority 38.0 70.1 26.3 31.4 48.3 25.5
American Indian,
Native Alaskan - - - - - -
Asian,
Pacific Islander 24.5 - 15.4 25.6 - 17.5
Black,
non-Hispanic 32.2 61.8 24.2 24.6 45.7 19.3
Hispanic 53.0 77.9 37.5 44.3 48.2 42.0
White,
non-Hispanic 46.1 76.2 31.9 45.1 65.4 35.6
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Although the academic achievement and ability of teachers have been questioned for well over 100 years, the early 1980s occasioned a renewed interest in the topic. In the last decade or so, this issue has been studied from several vantage points. Studies have compared the achievement test scores and grade point averages of college students who were interested in teaching with those of other students, education majors with noneducation majors, teachers with nonteachers, and those who continued to teach with those who left the profession. The findings have been fairly consistent: college students interested in teaching, teacher education students, teachers, and those who remain in teaching tend to have somewhat lower scores on standardized tests-including the ACT or SAT, the NTE, and the High School and Beyond (HS&B) achievement tests-than their counterparts who were less inclined toward teaching. On the other hand, studies that employ high school or college grade point averages as the measure of achievement consistently report that those more inclined toward teaching achieve at levels equal to or higher than those less inclined.
In addition to possible shortages of teachers with high academic achievement, policymakers and researchers have been concerned in particular about the potential for a shortage of teachers who have studied high-level mathematics and science. Because college graduates with degrees in mathematics, computer science, and the natural sciences have greater earning power in private enterprise than they do as schoolteachers, it is believed, these graduates are less likely to be interested in teaching (especially as a long-term career), to prepare to teach, to enter teaching, or to remain in teaching for an extended period of time.
As the data presented in the remainder of this section indicate, earlier findings regarding the academic achievement of those who were considering teaching, had prepared to teach, or had taught were not contradicted by B&B:93/94 data. At several points along the teacher pipeline, those more inclined toward teaching tended to have lower college entrance examination scores and higher GPAs than did those less inclined toward teaching. The data also indicate that this apparent discrepancy in findings may be accounted for, at least in part, by differences in course taking: those who taught, only prepared to teach, or were only considering teaching were more likely than other graduates to have taken education courses, less likely to have taken advanced mathematics and calculus courses, and tended to take fewer courses in science or engineering. Because grades in education courses tended to be higher than those in advanced mathematics, calculus, science, and engineering courses, the mix of courses taken by those inclined to teach tended to result in higher GPAs than the mix taken by those who were not so inclined.
This section explicates these findings by comparing 1992-93 graduates who took various steps toward teaching, and who taught in different types of schools, on several aspects of their undergraduate academic careers: their major fields of study, the types of postsecondary institutions in which they began postsecondary education and completed their bachelor's degrees, their entrance examination scores, their grade point averages, the number of credits they earned in various subject areas, and the grades associated with those credits.
Although a useful indicator of the propensity to teach, majoring
in education was quite distinct from preparing to teach. Education
majors were far more likely than graduates who majored in other
fields to enter the teacher pipeline (figure 3 and table 5). However,
1 year after graduation a significant proportion-nearly one quarter-of
graduates who majored in education had neither prepared to teach
nor taught and were not even considering teaching (table 5). In
addition, significant proportions of graduates in other fields-about
one-third of humanities majors and one-fifth of other liberal
arts majors-were considering teaching in 1994, even if they had
neither prepared nor taught.
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Percent Pipeline entrants
entered
teacher Considering Prepared
pipeline[2] only only Taught
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 26.1 52.8 17.1 30.1
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management 13.6 86.0 4.1 9.9
Education 77.1 13.0 32.5 54.5
Humanities 33.9 65.1 12.1 22.8
Mathematics,
computer science,
natural sciences 20.4 67.7 9.2 23.1
Social sciences 22.9 73.0 11.5 15.5
Other 16.9 75.3 10.2 14.5
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[1] Excludes those who either taught in elementary or secondary schools before receiving the 1992-93 bachelor's degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 bachelor's degree.
[2] Graduates were defined as having entered the teacher pipeline if they had first taught since receiving the 1992-93 bachelor's degree, prepared to teach during or since the 1992-93 degree, or were considering teaching at the time of the B&B:93/94 interview.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Once in the teacher pipeline, just over half of education majors had taught and another one-third had only prepared to teach (table 5). In contrast, no more than 23 percent of graduates in other majors had taught and no more than 12 percent had only prepared to teach. Given these differences, when comparing education majors with graduates who majored in other fields it is important to keep in mind both that many education majors either had not entered the pipeline or were only considering teaching and that a number of those who majored in other fields had either taught or prepared to teach by 1994.
*Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
In general, new teachers began their postsecondary careers in and graduated from the same types of postsecondary institutions as other graduates. Most graduates first attended a 4-year institution after high school: 55 percent began in public 4-year institutions, 28 percent in private 4-year institutions, and 17 percent in less-than-4-year institutions. These proportions did not vary with graduates' interest in teaching, and varied little with their undergraduate fields of study (table 6).
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First postsecondary institution
attended after high school
Less than Public, Private,
4-year 4-year 4-year
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 17.3 54.8 27.9
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline 16.8 55.5 27.8
In teacher pipeline 18.8 53.0 28.3
Nonteachers 18.1 52.3 29.6
Considering only 17.0 51.9 31.1
Prepared only 21.4 53.6 25.0
Taught 20.6 54.5 24.8
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management 19.4 54.7 26.0
Education 19.6 56.2 24.2
Humanities 16.0 45.3 38.8
Mathematics,
computer science,
natural sciences 14.4 57.1 28.5
Social sciences 14.0 54.1 31.9
Other 20.0 58.1 21.9
Teachers
Sector of school at which taught
Public 23.0 57.7 19.2
Private 9.8 46.2 43.9
Expects to be teaching in 2 years
Yes 21.1 57.3 21.6
No 19.2 46.3 34.5
Expects to be teaching in long term
Yes 20.3 58.3 21.4
No 20.2 49.1 30.8
-------------------------------------------------------------------
* Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding. Breakdowns may not average to totals due to item nonresponse.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Among teachers, however, the type of institution in which they began college was associated with both the sector of schools in which they taught and their plans to teach in the future. For instance, whereas more than one-fifth of new graduates who taught in public schools first attended less-than-4-year institutions, about one-tenth of their classmates who taught in private schools did. Similarly, private school teachers were more likely than public school teachers to have begun in private 4-year institutions (44 percent versus 19 percent). In addition, new teachers who planned to teach in the future (both in 2 years and in the long term) were less likely than those who did not expect to remain in the classroom to have begun their postsecondary careers in private 4-year institutions.
Unlike the first postsecondary institution attended after high school, the type of institution from which graduates received their degrees did vary slightly with pipeline status. Between 29 and 38 percent of graduates who had only prepared to teach or had taught received their degrees from public nondoctorate-granting institutions, compared with 21 percent of graduates who were not in the teacher pipeline (table 7).
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Private Private
Public Public not-for-profit not-for-profit
nondoctorate- doctorate- nondoctorate- doctorate-
granting granting granting granting Other[2]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 22.9 42.5 17.8 13.4 3.5
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher
pipeline, 20.7 44.3 17.2 13.8 3.9
In teacher pipeline 28.9 37.3 19.3 12.2 2.3
Nonteachers 29.0 35.9 19.7 13.2 2.2
Considering only 26.2 37.3 20.4 13.9 2.2
Prepared only 37.7 31.6 17.5 11.2 2.0
Taught 29.1 41.5 17.1 10.1 2.3
Teachers
Sector of school at which taught
Public 32.5 43.2 13.9 7.7 2.7
Private 20.5 33.5 30.9 15.1 0
Expects to be teaching in 2 years
Yes 33.2 41.7 16.2 7.1 1.8
No 16.1 41.8 18.9 19.2 4.1
Expects to be teaching in long term
Yes 32.5 42.9 15.9 6.9 1.9
No 21.4 40.9 19.8 14.6 3.4
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[1] Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
[2] Includes graduates of private, for-profit institutions and institutions of unknown type (i.e., 1992-93 bachelor's degree recipients who were sampled from an institution other than the degree-granting one).
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding. Breakdowns may not average to totals due to item nonresponse.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Also, in contrast to their classmates who were in the teacher pipeline, those who were not in the pipeline were more likely to have graduated from public doctorate-granting institutions. These differences are hardly surprising, given that public nondoctorate-granting institutions often began as normal schools or teachers' colleges and are more likely than other types of institutions to offer teacher preparation programs.
As with the first institution attended, however, the most consistent differences were observed between groups of teachers. One-third of public school teachers graduated from public nondoctorate-granting institutions, compared with one-fifth of private school teachers. At the same time private school teachers were more likely to have graduated from private not-for-profit nondoctorate-granting institutions. Again, new teachers who expected to teach in the future differed from short-term teachers: those who expected to be teaching in 2 years and in the long term were more likely to have graduated from nondoctorate-granting public institutions and less likely to have graduated from doctorate-granting private institutions.
Thus, to some degree those in the teacher pipeline attended different types of institutions from those outside the pipeline. More consistent differences in the types of institutions attended occurred among teachers, however. Those who expected to teach in the future and those who taught in public schools more often attended public institutions, particularly public nondoctorate-granting 4-year institutions. It appears, therefore, that those more committed to teaching were more likely to attend institutions that prepared large numbers of teachers.
Those graduates who were more inclined to teach were consistently less likely than graduates who were less inclined to be in the top quartile of entrance exam scores and often were more likely to be in the bottom quartile. For example, although one-quarter of those not in the teacher pipeline had college entrance exam scores in the top quartile, about one-fifth of those who taught had scores in the top quartile (figure 4 and table 8). Similarly, those who majored in education were less likely than liberal arts majors (those who majored in mathematics, computer science, or the natural sciences; the social sciences; or the humanities) to have scored in the top quartile among B&B:93 graduates.
Among 1992-93 graduates who taught, the kinds of schools in which they taught and the level at which they taught were also related to their college entrance exam scores. Compared with those who taught in public schools (17 percent), nearly twice as many of those who taught in private schools (33 percent) scored in the top quartile of B&B graduates (table 8). In addition, new teachers who taught in secondary schools were more likely than their peers in elementary schools to have scored in the top quartile (29 percent compared with 12 percent). Secondary teachers in the class of 1992-93 scored in the top quartile at the same rate as their peers who were not in the teacher pipeline.
Finally, whether they had taught or not, graduates in the pipeline who expected to be teaching in 2 years were less likely to have scores in the top quartile than were those who did not expect to be teaching in 2 years. And among new teachers, those who planned to continue teaching in the future were more likely than those who did not to be in the bottom quartile. Thus, at each step toward a long-term career in teaching, those who were more inclined to teach scored less well than those less inclined.
*Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
NOTE: Self-reported entrance examination scores were available for 65-70 percent of new bachelor's degree recipients. There were no differences in the proportion of graduates with examination scores by pipeline status.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Of those with test scores
Test scores Top Middle Bottom
available quartile half quartile
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 69.1 25.3 51.9 22.9
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline 69.4 26.4 51.6 22.0
In teacher pipeline 68.5 22.1 52.6 25.3
Nonteachers 67.8 23.5 51.8 24.7
Considering only 68.7 25.2 51.4 23.4
Prepared only 64.5 17.7 53.4 28.9
Taught 69.9 18.4 55.5 26.2
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management 66.1 19.1 54.7 26.2
Education 70.6 15.7 54.6 29.7
Humanities 69.8 32.7 49.4 17.9
Mathematics,
computer science,
natural sciences 76.0 38.1 48.3 13.6
Social sciences 70.3 26.4 52.9 20.7
Other 64.1 18.3 51.7 30.1
Teachers
Sector of school at which taught
Public 68.0 16.6 55.2 28.2
Private 82.6 32.1 48.4 19.5
Level of school at which taught
Elementary 67.2 11.7 56.8 31.5
Secondary 74.7 28.6 49.7 21.7
Combined 76.2 29.2 59.0 11.8
Graduates in teacher pipeline
Expects to be teaching in 2 years
Teachers
Yes 68.7 14.0 56.5 29.5
No 74.6 30.9 52.9 16.3
Nonteachers
Yes 62.3 15.8 55.6 28.7
No 70.1 26.7 50.6 22.7
Expects to be teaching in long term
Teachers
Yes 68.8 16.2 53.8 30.0
No 75.7 22.5 58.8 18.7
Nonteachers
Yes 63.8 16.5 55.7 27.7
No 70.2 26.4 50.3 23.3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Comparison of undergraduate grade point averages (GPAs) is more complicated than comparison of test scores. Unlike entrance examination scores, where the metric is normed on a national sample, course grades are distributed relative to students in particular classes taught by individual faculty in various institutions. Because grades are not subject to uniform standards across faculty, fields of study, or institutions, comparing them can be problematic. Furthermore, this variation is compounded by differences in the combinations of courses taken by students in different institutions and different fields of study. Therefore, when comparing the GPAs of various groups of students it is important to take into account other variables that are related to GPA that also vary consistently among those groups, such as their fields of study, the courses they took, and their achievement in those courses. Although multivariate techniques provide the best methods of accounting for the influence of other variables, such analyses are beyond the scope of this report. Therefore, in order to examine differences among 1992-93 graduates at various points along the teacher pipeline as accurately as possible, this essay includes information regarding those important covariates.
Cumulative GPA did vary by location in the teacher pipeline. Teachers and those who had only prepared to teach had higher cumulative GPAs than did both those who had not entered the pipeline and those who were only considering teaching (table 9). In addition, with the exception of humanities majors, education majors had higher cumulative GPAs than their peers in the other undergraduate major categories. However, there were no differences among teachers' GPAs by the sector or level of their schools or by their expectations for teaching in the future.
A similar pattern emerges from graduates' GPAs in their major fields of study. Those who taught and those who only prepared to teach had GPAs in their major ranging from 3.44 to 3.48, in contrast to the major GPAs of those who were not in the pipeline or who were only considering teaching, whose major GPAs ranged from 3.26 to 3.29 (figure 5 and table 10). As observed with cumulative GPAs, education majors tended to have higher GPAs in their major field than did their classmates in other fields, with the exception of the humanities.
Because education majors had higher GPAs in their majors than students in some other majors, one might suspect, as others have suggested, that GPAs are a flawed measure of achievement and that this flaw accounts for the contradictory findings on entrance examination scores and GPAs, that is, that those inclined to teach had both lower entrance exam scores and higher GPAs than other graduates. Specifically, one might argue that teachers and those who only prepared to teach had higher GPAs not because they achieved more academically but because the courses they took in college were less rigorous than those taken by other college graduates.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cumulative undergraduate GPA
Average Less 3.75
cumulative than 2.25- 2.75- 3.25- or
GPA 2.25 2.74 3.24 3.74 higher
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 3.17 2.4 13.6 41.3 30.0 12.8
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline
3.16 2.5 13.9 42.0 29.3 12.4
In teacher pipeline 3.19 2.0 12.8 39.3 32.1 13.9
Nonteachers 3.17 2.4 14.7 38.8 31.4 12.7
Considering only 3.12 3.1 17.4 39.0 29.7 10.9
Prepared only 3.31 0.4 6.2 38.3 36.8 18.3
Taught 3.26 1.0 8.4 40.0 33.6 16.9
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management
3.15 2.7 14.7 40.5 29.4 12.7
Education 3.24 1.1 10.4 39.3 33.6 15.6
Humanities 3.24 2.2 10.3 37.8 34.3 15.4
Mathematics,
computer science,
natural sciences 3.13 3.0 16.6 40.8 29.6 10.1
Social sciences 3.16 2.6 14.4 40.1 29.8 13.2
Other 3.16 2.2 11.7 46.7 27.7 11.7
Teachers
Sector of school at which taught
Public 3.27 0.7 8.4 39.0 34.5 17.4
Private 3.29 0.9 8.0 40.0 28.5 22.4
Level of school at which taught
Elementary 3.28 0.4 7.3 41.7 32.4 18.2
Secondary 3.26 0.7 9.9 35.9 37.9 15.6
Combined 3.25 2.3 9.4 39.4 26.2 22.7
Expects to be teaching in 2 years
Teachers
Yes 3.27 1.1 7.0 40.7 36.2 15.1
No 3.26 0.4 13.1 37.1 26.5 23.0
Expects to be teaching in long term
Teachers
Yes 3.27 0.9 7.6 38.0 37.4 16.1
No 3.25 0.4 10.0 42.9 28.8 17.9
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
*Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
For example, when one looks at the undergraduate majors of graduates in different locations in the pipeline, one finds that undergraduate major may well be related to the GPA differences between those more inclined to teach and those less inclined. As noted above, majoring in education was not synonymous with preparing to teach or teaching, but it was related. Sixty-four percent of those who only prepared to teach had majored in education (table 11). Three-quarters of elementary school teachers and about half of secondary teachers majored in education, while many secondary level teachers majored in the arts and sciences: 11 percent in the humanities, 11 percent in the natural sciences, 10 percent in mathematics or computer science, and 9 percent in the social sciences. Moreover, teachers who planned to teach in the future were especially likely to have majored in education-about 70 percent did.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average GPA in undergraduate major
GPA in Less 3.75
undergraduate than 2.25- 2.75- 3.25- or
major 2.25 2.74 3.24 3.74 higher
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 3.31 1.6 6.8 40.9 27.5 23.3
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline
3.29 1.7 6.9 42.4 26.6 22.4
In teacher pipeline 3.35 1.4 6.4 36.6 29.9 25.7
Nonteachers 3.31 1.5 7.7 38.1 29.3 23.3
Considering only 3.26 1.9 9.5 41.3 27.9 19.5
Prepared only 3.48 0.4 2.2 28.4 33.9 35.0
Taught 3.44 0.9 3.4 32.6 31.0 32.0
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management
3.26 1.5 9.0 42.6 26.2 20.7
Education 3.42 1.1 3.1 32.8 31.6 31.3
Humanities 3.40 1.5 5.1 32.9 29.4 31.1
Mathematics,
computer science,
natural sciences 3.25 2.6 8.2 44.4 25.8 19.0
Social sciences 3.33 1.2 6.3 39.6 28.1 24.8
Other 3.29 1.7 5.6 44.6 27.6 20.5
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Thus, because those more inclined to teach were more likely to major in education and education majors tended to have both higher GPAs and lower scores on the SAT or ACT, undergraduate major may account for some of the discrepancy between entrance examination scores and grades. However, given the diversity in majors among graduates in the pipeline, it is necessary to look further at the courses they took and the grades they earned in those courses.
The B&B:93/94 data collection included not only the telephone interview of 1992-93 graduates, but also respondents' transcripts from the degree-granting institution. For most students, these transcripts reflect the courses credited toward the 1992-93 bachelor's degree, but for students who transferred to the degree granting-institutions from other institutions, these transcripts may not be complete records of their undergraduate course-taking experience.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mathematics, Business Health,
Social Natural computer and vocational,
Humanities/2 sciences sciences science Engineering Education management technical Other
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 10.0 15.4 8.9 4.1 6.6 11.4 25.4 8.8 9.4
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline
9.0 16.1 8.9 4.1 8.0 3.5 29.7 10.4 10.2
In teacher pipeline
12.9 13.5 8.8 3.9 2.6 33.7 13.2 4.3 7.1
Nonteachers 14.1 16.2 9.6 3.8 3.4 22.1 16.8 4.9 9.1
Considering only
15.8 18.5 11.3 4.0 4.3 8.4 21.3 6.0 10.3
Prepared only 7.9 8.9 4.3 3.2 0.6 64.1 3.1 1.4 5.4
Taught 9.7 6.9 7.1 4.0 0.6 61.8 4.3 3.1 2.4
Teachers
Level of school at which taught
Elementary 8.1 3.6 4.6 1.1 0 75.6 3.6 1.8 1.7
Secondary 10.5 7.9 11.4 9.9 1.5 47.0 8.1 1.8 1.9
Combined 16.4 6.7 11.9 6.7 0 54.5 0 3.8 0
Expects to be teaching in 2 years
Yes 8.9 3.4 5.5 4.6 0.3 71.8 3.0 1.4 1.1
No 10.8 16.9 12.4 2.5 1.6 33.1 8.3 8.5 5.8
Expects to be teaching in long term
Yes 8.9 4.3 5.7 3.6 0.6 70.0 3.4 1.6 1.8
No 10.8 11.4 9.9 4.8 0.8 47.3 5.7 5.9 3.5
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
[2] Includes literature, foreign languages, and fine and performing arts; for more detail see appendix A.
NOTE: Details may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding. Breakdowns may not average to totals due to item nonresponse.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Between 34 and 38 percent of graduates either a) reported having begun postsecondary education at an institution other than the degree-granting institution or b) had records of courses taken at other institutions on their transcripts from the degree-granting institutions. Therefore, the estimates of courses taken, credits earned, and GPAs in the fields presented below must be read with some caution. Nevertheless, they can be used to determine whether there were systematic differences in course taking among groups of graduates.
The proportion of graduates whose transcripts indicated that they had taken at least one precollegiate mathematics course while in college was positively associated with the propensity to teach. Fifteen percent of graduates in the teacher pipeline had taken at least one precollegiate mathematics course, compared with 12 percent of their classmates who were not in the teacher pipeline (table 12). Differences were also apparent by undergraduate major: 18 percent of education majors had taken a precollegiate mathematics course, compared with 9 percent of mathematics/computer science/natural science majors, and 11 percent among both humanities and social science majors. Public school teachers were more likely than private school teachers to have taken a precollegiate mathematics course. Among those who received credit for precollegiate mathematics, no differences were observed in the number of credits received or in the grade point averages in these courses.
Course taking in remedial English was similar only in that education majors were more likely than social science or humanities majors to have taken at least one course (13 percent of education majors compared with 7 percent of both social science and humanities majors) (table 12). Although there were no differences in the number of credits earned in remedial English courses, teachers who earned credit in remedial English earned slightly higher grades in those courses than graduates who were not in the teacher pipeline.
To the extent that they received credit and higher grades for these courses than their classmates received for other courses, those who took remedial courses may have increased their overall GPAs relative to those of their classmates despite lower achievement levels in mathematics or English. However, given the data discussed above, remedial course taking does not entirely explain the discrepancy between findings on entrance examination scores and GPAs. There was only a 3 percent difference between pipeline and nonpipeline graduates in the proportion who had taken precollegiate mathematics, no difference in the proportion who had taken remedial English, and no differences between teachers and their classmates outside the pipeline. However, those who majored in education were more likely than those who majored in other fields to take remedial courses in both mathematics and English.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Precollegiate mathematics Remedial English
Average Average
Percent number Percent number
with of with of
course credits/3 GPA/3 course credits/3 GPA/3
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 12.5 3.9 2.77 8.7 3.5 3.13
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline
11.7 3.8 2.75 8.1 3.5 3.10
In teacher pipeline
14.9 4.1 2.79 10.3 3.3 3.21
Nonteachers 14.3 4.0 2.84 9.8 3.4 3.14
Considering only
12.7 4.0 2.84 9.7 3.3 3.14
Prepared only 19.4 3.9 2.84 10.2 3.8 3.15
Taught 16.8 4.2 2.70 11.9 3.2 3.35
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management
13.2 3.8 2.91 7.8 3.7 3.05
Education 17.9 4.1 2.77 12.5 3.3 3.29
Humanities 10.7 3.8 2.62 6.5 3.3 3.05
Mathematics,
computer science,
natural sciences 8.5 4.1 2.82 8.5 3.6 3.19
Social sciences 11.3 3.5 2.64 7.3 3.6 3.05
Other 14.8 4.0 2.70 10.2 3.2 3.13
Teachers
Sector of school at which taught
Public 18.5 4.2 2.66 11.6 3.5 3.39
Private 8.7 - - 12.8 - -
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
[1] Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
[2] Transcripts were collected from degree-granting institutions only and may not include postsecondary credits earned at other institutions. See appendix B for details on transcript data.
[3] Average credits/GPA for those with some credit in each field.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Were those inclined to teach more or less likely to have earned credit in advanced mathematics or calculus? As table 13 illustrates, about one-fifth of those in the pipeline had earned advanced mathematics or calculus credit, compared with about one-third of those not in the pipeline.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Advanced math
or calculus Science or engineering
Average Average
Percent number Percent number
earned of earned of
credit credits/3 GPA/3 credit credits/3 GPA/3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 31.0 7.3 2.68 75.5 18.3 2.67
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline 34.5 7.0 2.69 75.1 19.8 2.76
In teacher pipeline 21.2 8.4 2.62 76.6 14.1 2.69
Nonteachers 23.5 8.0 2.63 78.1 15.2 2.67
Considering only 26.0 7.9 2.58 77.1 16.8 2.65
Prepared only 15.9 8.4 2.84 81.3 10.4 2.72
Taught 16.7 10.0 2.61 76.4 11.6 2.75
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management 35.8 4.3 2.66 64.0 7.1 2.79
Education 15.5 6.2 2.70 77.5 9.5 2.66
Humanities 16.4 5.0 2.58 68.3 8.9 2.69
Mathematics, computer
science, natural sciences 65.0 10.8 2.77 90.6 46.0 2.88
Social sciences 21.7 5.6 2.52 76.8 8.6 2.66
Other 14.3 5.2 2.52 77.0 14.8 2.65
Teachers
Sector of school at which taught
Public 17.6 10.4 2.70 75.9 11.9 2.75
Private 15.7 - - 71.5 11.0 2.82
Level of school at which taught
Elementary 12.5 7.7 2.76 74.5 10.7 2.75
Secondary 26.5 12.8 2.73 76.8 14.0 2.87
Combined 16.8 - - 69.3 11.3 2.88
Main field taught
General elementary 8.0 - - 75.6 9.0 2.73
English, reading 7.7 - - 71.2 8.5 2.66
Mathematics, computer 52.4 18.2 2.94 78.4 10.1 2.86
science
Natural sciences 23.3 7.3 2.52 82.3 24.8 2.84
Social studies 9.9 - - 82.9 - -
Bilingual, ESL, foreign 21.0 - - 67.6 6.6 2.89
languages
Fine or performing arts 0.9 - - 67.2 6.9 2.75
Vocational education 15.4 - - 72.0 9.6 2.55
Special education 7.6 - - 73.3 8.7 2.68
Other 16.2 - - 80.3 12.3 2.57
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
[1] Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
[2] Transcripts were collected from degree-granting institutions only and may not include postsecondary credits earned at other institutions. See appendix B for details on transcript data.
[3] Average credits/GPA for those with some credit in each field.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
However, secondary school teachers were no less likely than those not in the pipeline to have earned credit in these fields. This appears to be due to course taking among mathematics, computer science, and natural science teachers: 52 percent of mathematics/computer science teachers had taken these courses, as had 23 percent of their colleagues in the natural sciences. Education majors were less likely than business and mathematics/computer science/natural science majors to have earned credit in advanced mathematics or calculus.
When teachers took courses in these subjects, they tended to earn more credits than their classmates who were not in the teacher pipeline. Teachers earned about 10 credits in advanced mathematics or calculus, compared with 7 credits among those who were not in the pipeline. Grades earned in these courses did not vary with teaching status, and education majors earned about the same grades as their classmates in other majors.
Unlike advanced mathematics or calculus, the proportion of graduates who earned credit in science or engineering did not vary with teaching status. About three-quarters of graduates earned credit in these fields regardless of teaching status (table 13). Those who taught did tend to earn fewer credits (12 on average) than either those outside the pipeline (20 credits) or those who were only considering teaching (17 credits). However, those in the pipeline tended to earn about the same grades in science and engineering courses as those not in the pipeline.
Although education majors were less likely than those who majored in mathematics, computer science, or the natural sciences to have earned credit in science and engineering, 78 percent of education majors did earn these credits. Moreover, education majors earned no fewer credits in science or engineering than social science or humanities majors and more than business majors. Education majors did earn lower grades in science and engineering courses than mathematics, computer science, or natural science majors, but about the same grades as their classmates in other majors.
Course taking in the humanities and social sciences among graduates who taught, only prepared to teach, or were only considering teaching also differed from that of their counterparts outside the teaching pipeline. Although the proportion of graduates who earned any credit in either the humanities or social sciences did not vary with teaching status or undergraduate major, differences were observed in the number of credits earned by those inside and outside the teacher pipeline and in the grades they received. Those who were only considering teaching earned about 2.8 more credits in the humanities than those outside the pipeline, although no other differences were observed by pipeline status (table 14). Education majors earned about 11 fewer humanities credits than humanities majors, but about 7 more than both business and management majors and mathematics, computer science, and natural sciences majors. Graduates' grades in humanities courses did not vary with their major fields of study or with their teaching status.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Humanities Social sciences Education
Average Average Average
Percent number Percent number Percent number
earned of earned of earned of
credit credits/3 GPA/3 credit credits/3 GPA/3 credit credits/3 GPA/3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total 87.9 18.1 3.06 89.0 23.4 2.96 26.4 18.0 3.41
Status in teacher pipeline
Not in teacher pipeline
87.5 17.6 3.06 88.5 23.6 2.97 16.6 6.1 3.38
In teacher pipeline
88.8 19.5 3.06 90.3 22.9 2.91 54.0 28.3 3.44
Nonteachers 90.7 19.8 3.03 91.9 24.4 2.92 43.6 21.3 3.37
Considering only
91.3 20.4 3.03 91.8 25.3 2.91 26.9 7.4 3.21
Prepared only
88.8 18.1 3.04 91.9 21.4 2.96 94.9 33.5 3.51
Taught 88.4 18.6 3.12 90.6 19.6 2.90 80.4 37.0 3.51
Baccalaureate degree major
Business and management
85.6 14.2 3.04 87.8 19.9 2.90 11.2 4.9 3.47
Education 89.3 21.0 3.06 91.3 20.1 2.85 80.9 36.9 3.46
Humanities 92.6 32.6 3.14 87.4 21.2 2.98 27.1 10.5 3.43
Mathematics,
computer science,
natural sciences
89.2 14.1 3.13 89.5 16.6 3.08 17.2 9.9 3.39
Social sciences 90.1 20.0 2.99 95.7 44.8 3.04 28.1 7.3 3.29
Other 84.5 15.7 3.00 84.4 19.2 2.88 20.6 6.7 3.38
Teachers
Sector of school at which taught
Public 87.2 17.3 3.13 90.3 19.1 2.90 84.4 37.9 3.54
Private 84.2 23.4 3.18 83.8 19.8 2.92 66.8 36.3 3.51
Level of school at which taught
Elementary 86.8 17.4 3.12 88.7 18.6 2.89 87.9 42.9 3.53
Secondary 87.7 18.8 3.23 91.6 21.0 3.00 77.6 27.6 3.54
Combined 83.2 20.3 3.19 83.7 19.4 3.02 75.0 34.7 3.57
Main field taught
General elementary
87.2 16.8 3.05 89.9 21.2 2.86 90.2 43.7 3.51
English, reading 92.1 27.9 3.17 88.7 17.0 2.90 88.0 36.6 3.58
Mathematics, computer
82.3 15.6 3.22 83.7 15.9 2.95 73.2 32.1 3.56
science
Natural sciences 90.9 14.4 3.15 93.4 17.5 2.94 83.5 35.8 3.57
Social studies 87.8 17.5 3.28 91.1 46.0 3.35 83.3 23.6 3.65
Bilingual, ESL,
foreign languages 82.3 41.8 3.33 92.4 17.3 3.02 65.0 26.0 3.52
Fine or performing arts
93.6 19.7 3.09 84.9 13.0 2.83 76.3 20.3 3.43
Vocational education
88.8 10.4 2.93 99.2 16.7 2.74 58.2 31.5 3.46
Special education 87.1 16.4 3.08 89.7 18.3 2.81 88.2 49.0 3.46
Other 87.3 17.5 3.04 87.3 20.8 2.86 70.2 33.7 3.44
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
[1] Excludes bachelor's degree recipients who had taught before receiving the 1992-93 degree or had been certified to teach 1 year or more before receiving the 1992-93 degree.
[2] Transcripts were collected from degree-granting institutions only and may not include postsecondary credits earned at other institutions. See appendix B for details on transcript data.
[3] Average credits/GPA for those with some credit in each field.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
In the social sciences, graduates outside the pipeline earned about 4 more credits than those who taught, but because the other two groups within the pipeline earned more credits than those who taught, overall there was no difference between those inside and those outside the pipeline. Education majors earned about 23 fewer social science credits than social sciences majors, but about 3 credits more than mathematics, computer science, and natural sciences majors. Education majors earned slightly lower grades in social sciences courses than did their classmates who majored in mathematics, computer science, and the natural sciences; the social sciences; and the humanities.
Not surprisingly, those inclined to teach were far more likely to have taken education courses, have taken more of them, and earn higher grades in them than those less inclined to teach. For example, 54 percent of graduates in the pipeline had earned at least one credit in education, compared with 17 percent of graduates not in the pipeline. Ninety-five percent of those who only prepared to teach and 80 percent of those who taught had earned credit in education, compared with 27 percent of those who were only considering teaching. In addition, public school teachers were more likely than private school teachers to have earned credit in education courses.
Similarly, graduates who were more likely to have earned credit in education courses also tended to earn more credits. Those in the pipeline earned an average of 28 credits, compared with 6 among those not in the pipeline. Those who taught or only prepared to teach earned an average of 34 to 37 credits, compared with 6 to 7 credits among those who were not in the pipeline at all or who were only considering teaching. Although public school teachers earned no more credits than private school teachers, elementary school teachers earned an average of 43 credits, compared with 28 credits among secondary school teachers. In addition, grades in education courses varied with teaching status to some degree. Those who taught or only prepared to teach earned higher grades in education courses than those who were not in the pipeline or who were only considering teaching. Grades did not vary with the types of schools in which teachers taught.
Thus it appears that graduates' undergraduate academic experiences varied with their inclinations to teach in several ways. Graduates more inclined to teach were more likely than graduates who were less inclined to receive their degrees from public, nondoctorate-granting institutions, which often prepare large numbers of teachers. Also, graduates in the teacher pipeline were less likely than those not in the pipeline to have college entrance examination scores in the top quartile, but tended to have higher GPAs.
Graduates in the teacher pipeline may have tended to have lower entrance examination scores and higher GPAs than their classmates who were not in the teacher pipeline because of differences in the mix of courses they took. Compared with graduates not inclined to teach, those leaning toward teaching were more likely to have taken precollegiate mathematics and education courses, less likely to have taken advanced mathematics and calculus courses, and tended to have earned fewer credits in science and engineering. Overall, students tended to earn higher grades in education courses than in these fields, the humanities, or the social sciences (tables 12-14). Therefore, students who took proportionally more courses in education would tend to have higher GPAs than those who took relatively more courses in these other fields. Thus the mix of courses taken by graduates in various locations in the teacher pipeline may well explain the observed variation in their cumulative and major GPAs.
The role that differences in undergraduate academic achievement or other experiences, however, play in the quality of teachers' instruction is unknown. For example, although elementary school teachers' experiences tended to differ from their nonteaching peers', these teachers also teach more subjects at less sophisticated levels than secondary school teachers. Therefore the differences between their undergraduate academic experiences and those of other college graduates may reflect different needs for professional training. Further studies beyond the scope of this database are needed to examine the relationship between teachers' achievement and course taking in college on the one hand and their abilities to teach children at various levels on the other.
In addition, a number of efforts to establish standards and assessments for quality instructional practice among elementary and secondary school teachers are underway. The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) are all engaged in projects to develop standards for high quality instructional practice, assessments for determining which teachers have mastered these standards at various grade levels and in various subject areas, and performance standards for teacher education programs. These efforts may well provide standards and assessments that will allow direct evaluation of teachers' knowledge and practice, and will therefore offer means of improving both professional preparation and practice. Such assessments, for example, may offer teacher educators insight into the most effective balance of undergraduate subject matter and pedagogical courses for preparing elementary and secondary school teachers. They may also provide analyses such as those presented in this report with information that could guide interpretation of the differences in undergraduate preparation observed in the B&B:93 data.
In addition to their racial-ethnic backgrounds, gender, and academic experiences, other factors are undoubtedly related to the retention of teachers in the profession. This section examines one of these factors: new teachers' early professional experiences.
In the B&B:93/94 interview, graduates who were new teachers were asked several questions about their most recent teaching experience, and their responses may be linked to their plans to continue or leave teaching. Are difficult assignments early in one's teaching career associated with an early exit from the profession? Do schools that can offer particular types of assistance to new teachers make a difference in their future expectations? And, finally, can teacher induction programs help to maintain new teachers' interest in teaching?
First, in the 1994 B&B interview new teachers were asked whether their students or classes were more difficult than others in their school. This question both serves as a subjective measure of whether these teachers were given more difficult assignments than more experienced teachers, and allows analysis of the relationship between the difficulty of teaching and new teachers' plans to remain in the profession. About 14 percent of new teachers felt that their students or classes were more difficult than those of other teachers in their schools (figure 6). Of these, three out of four expected to be teaching in 2 years, about the same proportion as that found among new teachers who did not consider their assignments more difficult than those of their peers (table 15). Although it appears that those who did not feel that their assignments were more difficult were more likely to expect to be teaching in the long term than those who did (65 percent compared with 54 percent), this difference is not statistically significant.
In addition to reporting the relative difficulty of their teaching assignments, the new teachers were asked to report whether their schools were effective in helping new teachers with discipline, instructional methods, curriculum, and adjusting to the school environment. These data serve as a measure of the conditions under which new teachers worked and, again, allow assessment of the relationship between their early teaching experiences and their future expectations. New teachers tended to report that their schools had helped them on all of these issues. For example, 78 percent of new teachers felt that their schools were helpful with discipline, and 85 percent said their schools helped new teachers adjust to the school environment (figure 6).
New teachers' expectations for teaching in the future were sometimes, but not always, linked to their schools' effectiveness at assisting new teachers. In the case of discipline, for example, 79 percent of those who taught in schools that provided assistance expected to be teaching in 2 years, compared with 67 percent of those who did not perceive this support (table 15). Moreover, 67 percent of those whose schools were effective in helping with discipline expected to be teaching long term, compared with 53 percent of those who did not teach in such schools. These findings are consistent with earlier research and conventional wisdom that discipline and classroom management are crucial issues in the first year of teaching.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
New teachers who reported that their schools were effective at
helping with issues other than discipline were as likely as those
who were not in such schools to plan to teach in the future. There
was one exception: those who reported that their schools helped
new teachers adjust to their school environments were more likely
than those who did not to expect to teach long term. This suggests
that receiving support in the intervention areas discussed above
may not have a large effect on new teachers' expected persistence
in the teacher pipeline.
Table 15-Of 1992-93 bachelor's degree recipients who were new teachers, percentage who planned to be teaching in 2 years and in the long term, by selected teaching-related characteristics: 1994
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Expects Expects
to be teaching in 2 years to be teaching in long term
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Total 75.5 63.3
Participated in induction program
Yes 80.4 67.9
No 72.1 59.8
Classes or students more difficult than
others in school
Yes 78.3 54.3
No 75.7 65.0
School helped with discipline
Yes 79.4 66.8
No 66.8 53.5
School helped with instructional methods
Yes 78.0 64.8
No 68.5 57.5
School helped with curriculum
Yes 76.9 64.5
No 74.2 59.7
School helped with environment
Yes 77.4 65.3
No 72.2 55.0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Too few cases for a reliable estimate.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Another form of institutional support for new teachers is the teacher induction program. Based on the idea that new teachers who are provided with a professional support system will be more capable of adjusting to their environment, performing their job competently, enjoying their work, and therefore more likely to continue teaching, an increasing number of school districts and private schools offer induction programs for new teachers. These programs typically assign a new teacher to a mentor or master teacher who can assist them as questions or difficulties arise, but often include workshops or seminars that allow new teachers to share their experiences with each other as well as with their mentors.
Among the 1992-93 graduates who were new teachers, nearly half
had participated in a teacher induction program (figure 6). Eighty
percent of those who had participated expected to be teaching
in 2 years, compared with 72 percent of those who had not participated
(figure 7 and table 15). Similarly, while 68 percent of induction
program participants expected to be teaching in the long term,
60 percent of nonparticipants had this expectation.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for
Education Statistics, 1993 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal
Study First Followup (B&B:93/94), Data Analysis System.
Thus, the B&B:93/94 survey provides some evidence that teacher induction programs may aid in retaining teachers in the work force in the short term. Among both new teachers who were induction program participants and those who were nonparticipants, however, significantly more expected to be teaching in 2 years than in the long term. Thus, the retention effect of the induction programs may not be enough to counteract the tendency of new teachers to make long-term plans outside of teaching. On the other hand, it is important to note that the amount of support provided by teacher induction programs varies with the content, length, and structure of the program. For example, while some schools may offer formal mentorships combined with workshops, other programs may consist of an introduction to more experienced teachers in the school and encouragement to call if problems arise. Thus, the overall effects of teacher induction programs on new teachers' future expectations may be masked by variability in the programs themselves. In any case, whether those who do not plan to continue teaching do, in fact, drop out of the teacher pipeline will be examined using subsequent waves of data collection.
The data presented in this report indicate that 1992-93 college graduates who entered the teacher pipeline differed in both demographic and academic terms from their classmates who were not in the pipeline. At several points along the pipeline, women and white graduates were more inclined toward teaching than men and minority graduates, as has been observed historically. Compared with those not in the pipeline, those in the pipeline were less likely to have college entrance examination scores in the top quartile, tended to have higher GPAs, and were more likely to have graduated from public nondoctorate-granting institutions. Graduates in the pipeline also tended to take a different mix of courses than their peers outside the pipeline did. Pipeline graduates were more likely to take both precollegiate mathematics and education courses, less likely to take advanced mathematics or calculus courses, and tended to take fewer science or engineering courses. These differences in course taking may explain, in part, the observed differences in GPAs, because students tended to earn higher grades in education courses than in other disciplines.
Differences between those in the pipeline and those outside the pipeline, however, sometimes overshadowed differences among types of teachers. About 60 percent of the new teachers in the class of 1992-93 taught in elementary schools, compared with 34 percent in secondary schools. On several of the characteristics examined-including gender, college entrance examination scores, cumulative or major GPAs, and credits earned in advanced mathematics or calculus-secondary school teachers did not differ from their classmates who had not entered the teacher pipeline. In addition, secondary school teachers tended to take fewer education courses than their elementary school colleagues. Thus differences between teachers and those outside the pipeline often represented differences between elementary school teachers and those outside the pipeline.
Some have suggested that differences in academic characteristics and experiences between those inclined to teach and those not so inclined may decrease the quality of instruction in elementary and secondary schools. These authors have further suggested that these differences are compounded when teachers with higher academic achievement leave the profession at higher rates than those with lower achievement levels. Future B&B:93 data collections will allow examination of both teachers' departure from the profession and others' entry into the profession as the class of 1992-93 matures. Analysts will therefore be able to assess the degree to which differences between the teachers and nonteachers among this college cohort become greater, remain the same, or decrease as graduates move in and out of teaching.
Nevertheless, the import of these differences remains unclear
without criteria against which one might judge the adequacy of
teachers' academic preparation for their work with children. Further
research, such as that being carried out by INTASC, NBPTS, and
NCATE, must determine what teachers at various grade levels and
in various disciplines need to know in order to instruct their
students effectively. Given empirically based criteria for teacher
knowledge, B&B:93 data on the undergraduate and graduate education
of teachers will allow those interested in elementary and secondary
education to evaluate teachers' postsecondary education and performance,
and then make informed decisions regarding university education
and teacher professional development.
