Declining Enrollments in Teacher Education Programs Part III: Who Wants to Be a Teacher? Why? Underlying Causes of Declining Enrollments in Teacher Education Programs by Hansol Woo

Who wants to be a teacher? Why? I would like to answer these questions focusing on high school students who are directly related to the enrollments in teacher education programs. First, we should understand the pipeline to the teaching profession in order to recruit candidates in teacher education programs. Second, most prior studies heavily focused on either college students already enrolled in teacher education programs or on novice teachers who just started their teaching jobs (Park & Byun, 2015). Third, the questions and answers are associated with not only the quantity of the potential supply of students in teacher education programs (e.g., the enrollment number) but also the quality of such supply (e.g., high-performing candidates). Therefore, I can discuss the underlying causes of declining enrollments in teacher education programs by examining which 15-year-old students want to be a teacher and the reasons why. I additionally compare teacher policies between the United States and other nations because the comparative perspective can provide information about “what should be done” and “what can be done” in the United States based on actual policy implementation abroad. Then, the relevant evidence in other countries will inform future directions of the U.S. teacher policies.

There is little research on high-school students’ career expectation towards the teaching profession, especially in the United States, except for a couple of cross-national studies using the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2006. PISA is a triennial survey of 15-year-old students around the world, focusing on students’ academic achievement in mathematics, reading, and science: PISA 2006 is the most recent data that provides information on occupational expectations of students. There are two major cross-national studies using this PISA 2006 data. First, Park and Byun (2015) investigated the relationship between students’ expectations of being a teacher at age 30 and the national contexts of the teaching profession, employing a two-level logit model. The authors targeted 37,570 high-performing students in the 23 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. They found that teachers’ economic status (e.g., salary) and social status (e.g., whether teachers have a bachelor’s degree and are fully certified) are significantly related to high-achieving students’ expectation of becoming a teacher. Second, Borgonovi, and Guerriero (2018) analyzed what motivates high school students to want to be teachers, targeting not only high-achievers but also middle- and low-achieving students. The authors used three-level hierarchical generalized linear models to analyze cross-national data from the PISA 2006. This study showed that teachers’ working conditions, salaries, and societal evaluations about desirable job characteristics (e.g., respect, responsibility) are associated with teaching career expectations of students regardless of their academic achievement. In summary, both cross-national studies verified that high school students are motivated to teach when teachers get higher salaries, respect, and better working conditions. Based on the results, both studies also suggest improving the socio-economic status of teachers to attract more students to the teaching profession.

These findings from the two empirical studies are in line with prior studies targeting college students or beginning teachers in the United States. First, economic incentives could play an important role in attracting college students to the teaching profession (Guarino, Santibanez, & Daley, 2006; Manski 1987). For instance, an earlier study in the U.S. reported that the predicted wage of teachers is positively related to whether the U.S. college graduate chooses to teach (Manski, 1987). Elferset al. (2008) also showed that a competitive salary could improve the attractiveness of the teaching profession, compared to a career in the engineering sector. Second, societal evaluations shape not only individual students’ occupational choices but also their attitude towards different careers (Roe & Ester, 1999). This is because social status can affect the attractiveness of different occupations and the value system of students regarding occupational choices. Third, as Han et al. (2018) pointed out, working conditions matter; a number of student-teachers consider class size, workload (e.g., the number of annual working hours), a likelihood of working in disruptive classrooms, and availability of support staff is one of the significant factors of beginning teacher attrition (Guarino, Santibanez, & Daley, 2006; Luekens, Lyter, & Fox, 2004).

How does the teaching profession fare in the United States? First, the economic status of U.S. teachers is relatively low. In 2017, U.S. teachers were paid 18.7% less than similar professionals, and the wage gap between U.S. teachers and comparable professionals has grown over time (Allegretto & Mishel, 2018). For these reasons, U.S. teacher unions have started to drastically address this issue in recent years. This year, more than 30,000 Los Angeles teachers, in the nation’s second-largest school district, went on strike for six school days to secure better working conditions and pay. Numerous articles address the issue that teachers are more likely to work a second job due to their low salary (Startz, March 23, 2018). For instance, approximately 45,000 teachers in the U.S. are using Airbnb to supplement their regular income (Wong, Aug 17, 2018). Uber has also held initiatives targeting school teachers in some cities to encourage teachers to consider being an Uber driver as their second job. Furthermore, in 2018, U.S. teachers quit jobs at the highest rate on record since the Labor Department began collecting such data in 2011 (Hackman & Morath, Dec 28, 2018). The data shows that teachers quit their jobs at a rate of 83 per 10,000 a month on average in the last year. Given today’s low unemployment rate, some teachers have resorted to looking for more profitable jobs and others quit because they are frustrated by little financial and administrative support from their communities.

 “… high school students are motivated to teach when teachers get higher salaries, respect, and better working conditions”

Second, the social status of U.S. teachers is relatively low. Traditionally, many consider the teaching profession in the United States to be less prestigious than other professions including law, medicine, and engineering (Ingersoll & Merrill, 2011). The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) 2013 – an international large-scale survey aiming to provide valid, timely and comparable information about teacher working conditions and school learning environments – reported that only 34% of U.S. teachers believe that U.S. society values the teaching profession (OECD, 2014). Interestingly, the U.S. average respect ranking for a teacher is, however, slightly above the worldwide average. The Varkey Foundation has recently released the Global Teacher Status Index 2018 (Dolton, Marcenaro-Gutierrez, Vries, & She, 2018), reporting how respected teachers are in 35 countries around the world. The findings reveal that U.S. teachers were rated 11th highest out of the 35 countries. Moreover, approximately 40% of parents in the U.S. probably or definitively would encourage their children to become a teacher; this percentage ranked fifth highest among the 35 countries.

Third, in terms of U.S. teachers’ working conditions, they are assigned to teach longer hours than other countries. Results from TALIS 2013 (OECD, 2014) showed that teachers in the United States work 45 hours a week, including 27 hours of teaching per week. This workload far exceeds the average of 38 work hours and 19 teaching hours across TALIS countries. As a result, U.S. teachers spend a small amount of time on lesson planning and professional development activities, causing the lower quality of teaching (Akiba & LeTendre, 2009). Furthermore, it is a common occurrence in U.S schools, especially in low-income areas, that teachers are providing instruction in a field outside of their degree or certification (Akiba, LeTendre, & Scribner, 2007). Specifically, 29.7% of U.S. math teachers do not have a major in mathematics or mathematics education; 36.3% of mathematics teachers are out-of-field teachers in low-SES schools; and 24.3% of out-of-field teachers in high-SES schools. These working conditions have a negative influence on teachers’ motivation and commitment. At the same time, low-SES students lose out on rigorous education in STEM fields due to the current shortages of qualified teachers in “high-needs” subject areas.

In conclusion, the salary, societal standing, and work environment of the teaching profession are crucial when it comes to high school students’ expectations to become teachers. The current socio-economic status and working conditions of U.S. teachers, however, would negatively affect the attraction of young students to teacher education programs. Even if other policies (e.g., reforming teacher education curriculum and recruitment systems) entice students into enrolling in teacher preparation programs, entering and remaining in the teaching profession is also dependent upon the status and working conditions of school teachers. Therefore, increasing teacher salaries, supporting teachers to participate in professional development activities, and reforming teachers’ working conditions are essential to secure more promising candidates in teacher education programs.

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This is the third and final installment of our Declining Enrollments in Teacher Education Programs Series. The first is Challenges and Promising Possibilities for Reversing the Trend by Logan Rutten and Azaria Cunningham and the second is Grow Your Own Initiative: A Journey on the Urban Teacher Pipeline by Azaria Cunningham. We invite you to join our conversation by commenting below, engaging us on AJE’s social media platforms, or submitting an essay of your own. 

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Hansol Woo is a Ph.D. student in the dual title Educational Leadership Program and Comparative International Education at Pennsylvania State University. Previously, he received a Masters of Education in Educational Administration at Seoul National University, he was a research associate at Korean Educational Development Institute (KEDI). In addition, Hansol worked as associate manager in charge of training programs for school leaders at National Academy for Educational Administrators (NAEA) in South Korea. His current research interests include teacher quality and policy in international context, and teacher professional development with technological innovation.

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References

Allegretto, S. & Mishel, L. (2018). The teacher pay penalty has hit: a new high Trends in the teacher wage and compensation gaps through 2017. Economic Policy Institute.

Akiba, M., & LeTendre, G. K. (2009). Improving teacher quality: The U.S. teaching force in global context. New York: Teachers College Press.

Akiba, M., LeTendre, G. K., & Scribner, J. P. (2007). Teacher quality, opportunity gap, and national achievement in 46 countries.Educational Researcher, 36(7), 369–387.

Allegretto, S. & Mishel, L. (2018). The teacher pay penalty has hit: a new high Trends in the teacher wage and compensation gaps through 2017. Economic Policy Institute.Dolton, P., Marcenaro-Gutierrez, O., Vries, R. D., & She, Po. (2018). Global teacher status index 2018. London, England: Varkey Foundation.

Elfers, A. M., Plecki, M. L., John, E., & Wedel, R. (2008). Undergraduates’ views of K-12 teaching as a career choice. Retrieved from: https://education.uw.edu/sites/default/files/profiles/documents/plecki/Elfers%20et%20al%202008%20undergrads.pdf

Guarino, C. M., Santibanez, L., & Daley, G. (2006). Teacher recruitment and retention: A review of the recent empirical literature.Review of Educational Research, 76(2), 173–208.

Hackman, M. & Morath, E. (2018, December 28). Teachers quit jobs at highest rate on record. Retrieved from: https://www.wsj.com/articles/teachers-quit-jobs-at-highest-rate-on-record-11545993052?fbclid=IwAR0nB9IgxdiFB4f0_oVemmyE5nZ0tpcGZMdT3AMsOGLPbuNqdolKJiYmFAs

Han, S. W., Borgonovi, F., & Guerriero, S. (2018). What motivates high school students to want to be teachers? The role of salary, working conditions, and societal evaluations about occupations in a comparative perspective. American Educational Research Journal, 55(1), 3–39. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831217729875

Ingersoll, Ri., & Merrill, E. (2011). The status of teaching as a profession. In Schools and Society: A Sociological Approach to Education, 4th ed., ed. Ballantine, J. and Spade, J. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Luekens, M., Lyter, D., & Fox, E. (2004). Teacher attrition and mobility: Results from the Teacher Follow-up Survey, 2000–01. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2004/2004301.pdf

OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2014). TALIS 2013 Results: an international perspective on teaching and leraning. Paris: OECD Publishing.

Park, H., & Byun, S.Y. (2015). Why some countries attract more high-ability young students to teaching: Cross-national comparisons of students’ expectation of becoming a teacher. Comparative Education Review, 59(3), 523–549.

Roe, R. A., & Ester, P. (1999). Values and work: Empirical findings and theoretical perspective. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 48(1), 1–21.Startz, D. (2018, March 23). Why are teachers more likely than others to work second jobs?Retrieved from: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2018/03/23/why-are-teachers-more-likely-than-others-to-work-second-jobs/

Wong, A. (2018, August 17). Low pay has teachers flocking to the sharing economy: One in 10 Airbnb hosts in the U.S. is a teacher, a new report shows. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/08/teachers-in-the-sharing-economy/567772/