Teachers' feelings of preparedness
Teachers in the 2000 survey reported the extent to which they felt prepared for the overall demands of their teaching assignments and for eight specific classroom activities. The survey data indicate that:
- Sixty-one percent of public school teachers felt very well prepared to meet the overall demands of their teaching assignments. Thirty-five percent felt moderately well prepared, and 4 percent felt somewhat well prepared.
- Teachers most often reported feeling very well prepared to maintain order and discipline in the classroom (71 percent). They were less likely to report feeling very well prepared to implement new methods of teaching (45 percent), implement state or district curriculum (44 percent), use student performance assessment (37 percent), address the needs of students from diverse cultural backgrounds (32 percent), and integrate educational technology into the grade or subject taught (27 percent).
- Among teachers who taught students with special needs, relatively few felt very well prepared to address those students' needs. Twenty-seven percent of teachers indicated that they felt very well prepared to address the needs of students with limited English proficiency, and 32 percent of the teachers who taught students with disabilities felt very well prepared to address those students' needs.
- The extent to which teachers felt very well prepared for most classroom activities varied with the amount of time spent in recent professional development in those activities. With two exceptions (classroom management and state or district curriculum and performance standards), teachers who spent over 8 hours in professional development on the activity were more likely than those who spent 1 to 8 hours or those who did not participate at all to indicate that they felt very well prepared for that activity.
- For three collaborative activities related to teaching–regularly scheduled collaboration with other teachers, networking with teachers outside the school, and mentoring another teacher in a formal relationship–teachers who participated in the activity were more likely than those who did not participate to report feeling very well prepared for the overall demands of their classroom assignments.
- There were approximately 47.2 million prekindergarten through grade 12 students in the nation’s public elementary and secondary schools in fall 2000, compared with 46.9 million in fall 1999. Student membership has increased by 1.5 million since fall 1996 (table 1).
- Public school students were taught by an estimated 3.0 million teachers in school year 2000—01 (table 2).
- The student membership and teacher count data show a pupil/teacher ratio of 16.0 for grades prekindergarten through 12 for public schools in school year 2000—01 (table 7).
- An estimated 2.5 million public school students graduated from high school in the 1999—2000 school year. In the 2000—01 school year, 2.5 million students are expected to graduate from high school (table 3).
- Revenues for public elementary and secondary education in fiscal year (FY) 2000 are estimated to be $364.0 billion, and they are expected to rise to approximately $384.7 billion in FY 2001 (table 4).
- Current expenditures for public elementary and secondary education for FY 2001 are estimated to be $333.8 billion, an increase of 4.6 percent over the FY 2000 estimate of $319.2 billion. The per pupil expenditure is anticipated to be $7,079 per student in membership for the 2000—01 school year (table 5 and table 7).
- The average salary of a U.S. public school teacher for the school year 2000-01 was $43,335 - with more than 30 states below the average. The highest ranking states in teacher pay were New Jersey, Connecticut, and California. The lowest were Mississippi, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
- The average per-pupil expenditure for the 2000-01 school year was $7,161 with 29 states below the average. The highest ranking states were the District of Columbia, New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. The lowest were Arizona, Utah, and North Dakota.
Student, teacher, and classroom characteristics
Across most industrialized nations, the range of student/teacher ratios is wide at both the elementary and secondary levels. The United States has a higher-than-average student/teacher ratio than the other G-7 countries.
Schools in the United States allocated as much or more instructional time than most other countries in terms of overall hours of education, minutes of subject instruction in mathematics and science per week, and frequency of lessons.
The United States had a greater incidence of child poverty than its G-7 counterparts. One-fifth of all U.S. children lived in poverty after the effects of government taxes and transfers in 1991 were taken into account, compared with just over 13 percent in Canada, about 10 percent in the United Kingdom, and less than 7 percent in France.
The majority of elementary and secondary school teachers in the United States and in most other G-7 nations are female. However, in Germany and Japan, approximately three-quarters of secondary school teachers are male. While it takes 15 to 17 years of education to become a teacher in most nations, Germany and Japan maintain more extensive mentoring and training systems for new teachers than the United States.
The estimates in this publication are key statistics reported during the 2000—01 school year. They include the number of students in membership, teachers, and high school graduates for public elementary and secondary schools, and total revenues and expenditures for the operation of public elementary and secondary schools. Highlights of these statistics include the following:
Washington, D.C. - America's teachers did not reap the rewards of increased investment in public education during the 1990s, according to a report released today by the National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest professional employee organization. To read the full report, visit http://www.nea.org/publiced/edstats/rankings/02rankings.pdf.
Teachers' salaries increased by 3 percent during the decade spanning from 1991-2001 when adjusted for inflation. This increase works out to an average annual rate of 0.3 percent a year, according to NEA's report Rankings and Estimates 2000-2001. During this same period, school revenue receipts, total expenditures, and per-pupil expenditures increased significantly.
Other facts in Rankings and Estimates:
SCHOOLS:
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICTS: 14,891
TOTAL NUMBER OF K-12 SCHOOLS: 118,464
Elementary: 81,812
Secondary: 26,205
Combined Schools: 10,447
TOTAL NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: 91,062
Elementary: 65,189
Secondary: 23, 718
Combined: 2,155
TOTAL NUMBER OF CHARTER SCHOOLS: 2,357
TOTAL NUMBER OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS: 27,402
Elementary: 16,623
Secondary: 2,487
Combined: 8,292
TOTAL NUMBER OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS: 8,144 Elementary: 6,923
Secondary: 1,221
Combined: N/A
ENROLLMENT:
TOTAL K-12: 51,610,806
Elementary: 36,168,631
Secondary: 13,989,239
Combined: 1,452,937
TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 46,534,678
Elementary: 33,343,787
Secondary: 13,190,900
TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 579,880
TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 5,076,119
Elementary: 2,824,844
Secondary: 798,339
Combined: 1,452,937
TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENT: 2,500,416 Elementary: 1,877,236 Secondary: 623,180
TEACHERS:
TOTAL: 3,284,000 Elementary: 2,014,000 Secondary: 1,270,000
TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 2,887,000 Elementary: 1,733,000 Secondary: 1,154,000
TOTAL CHARTER SCHOOL TEACHERS: 36,019
TOTAL PRIVATE SCHOOL TEACHERS: 397,000 Elementary: 281,000 Secondary: 116,000
TOTAL CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS: 144,642 Elementary: 97,692 Secondary: 40,226 Combined: 6,724
STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO:
PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO
Elementary: 17.6:1
Secondary: 14.1:1
CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO: 16:1
PRIVATE SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO
Elementary: 16.4:1
Secondary: 11.5:1
CATHOLIC SCHOOL STUDENT-TEACHER RATIO
Elementary: 18.7:1
Secondary: 15:1
Combined: 11.2:1
EXPENDITURES:
TOTAL PUBLIC SCHOOL EXPENDITURES: $334.3 billion
Current Expenditures: $285.5 billion
Instruction: $176.5 billion
Student Services: $96.5 million
Food Services: $11.7 billion
Enterprise Operations: $776.4 million
Capital Outlay: $36.2 billion
Interest on School Debt: $7.8 billion
Other Current Expenditures: $4.8 billion
AVERAGE PUBLIC SCHOOL PER PUPIL EXPENDITURE: $6,662
AVERAGE PRIVATE SCHOOL TUITION: $3,116
Elementary: $2,138
Secondary: $4,578
Combined: $4,266
AVERAGE CATHOLIC SCHOOL TUITION: $2,178
Elementary: $1,628
Secondary: $3,643
Combined: $4,153
SALARIES AND WAGES:
PUBLIC SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS:
District Superintendent: $112,158
Associate Superintendent: $97,251
Assistant Superintendent: $88,913
PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPALS:
High School: $79,839
Middle School/Junior High: $77,382
Elementary School: $72,587
PUBLIC SCHOOL ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS:
High School: $60,999
Middle School/Junior High: $63,706
Elementary School: $59,080
PUBLIC SCHOOL PROFESSIONAL PERSONNEL:
Counselor: $48,195
Librarian: $46,732
School Nurse: $35,540
AVERAGE TEACHER BASE SALARY:
Public School: $41,820
Private School: $33,220
Catholic School: $21,898
PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT STAFF SALARIES:
Clerk/Office Positions:
Secretaries/Stenographer: $28,540
Accounting Payroll: $24,560
Clerk/Typist: $23,200
SCHOOL BUILDING LEVEL:
Secretary/Stenographer: $22,650
Library Clerks: $16,980
HOURLY WAGE RATES:
Teacher Aides:
Instructional: $10.00
Specialized:
Custodians: $11.35
Cafeteria Workers: $9.02
School Bus Driver¹s: $12.48
PERCENTAGE OF SCHOOL EMPLOYEES BY CATEGORY:
Teachers: 52.2 percent
Aides: 10.8 percent
School Staff: 7.9 percent
Support Staff: 4.4 percent
Other Staff: 20.2 percent
FUNDING:
TOTAL FUNDING OF PUBLIC EDUCATION: $325,976,011,000
Federal: $22.2 billion (6.8% of total)
State: $157.6 billion (48.4% of total)
Local: $137.8 billion (42.3% of total)
Private: $8.3 billion (2.6% of total)
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