By Lauren Musu-Gillette and Tom Snyder
Teachers play the primary role in the delivery of elementary and secondary instruction. About half of all public school staff were teachers and an additional 12 percent of staff were instructional aides in 2012. NCES collects a wide range of information related to teaching and teachers. One topic of high interest to current and potential teachers, as well as school officials, is the average salary for teachers. In fact, some of the most frequently visited tables on the Digest of Education Statistics webpage are those tables that present data on teachers’ salaries.
Data on teacher compensation and salaries are available from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), collected by NCES. Salary data from this survey can be presented by teachers’ characteristics, such as sex, race/ethnicity, and years of full-time teaching experience. For example, in 2011-12 the average base salary for full-time teachers was $53,070. In addition, about 42 percent of full time teachers received supplemental pay for activities such as coaching, student activity sponsorship, or teaching evening classes, with an average value of $2,530. Some teachers had additional earnings from bonuses and summer employment.
Teachers with more years of experience or higher levels of education received higher salaries on average. For teachers with one year or less of full-time teaching experience, the base salary for full-time teachers in 2011-12 was $40,540 compared to $64,820 for teachers with 30 or more years of experience. Data are also presented on base salary by highest degree earned. Teachers with a master’s degree and 30 to 34 years of experience had an average salary of $69,420 compared to an average of $58,510 for those teachers with a bachelor’s degree and the same amount of experience. Overall, teachers with a bachelor’s degree or a master’s degree earned less in 2011-12 than in 1990-91, after adjusting for inflation. Average salaries are also available by state for teachers with a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree, or a master’s degree as their highest degree.
More recent information using estimated salaries show salary trends over a longer time period for teachers at both the state and national level in current and constant dollars. For example, the estimated average teacher salary at the national level in constant 2012-13 dollars was $39,329 in 1959-60, $57,152 in 1989-90, and $56,383 in 2012-13.
By Sarah Grady
NCES collects a lot of data from students, teachers, principals, school districts, and state education agencies, but a few of our data collections directly survey members of the American public using residence as a first point of contact. Why? Some information about education in the U.S. cannot be collected efficiently by starting with schools or other institutions. Instead, contacting people directly at home is the best way to understand certain education-related topics.
The 2012 National Household Education Survey (NHES) included two survey components:
- The Early Childhood Program Participation (ECPP) survey, mailed to parents of children ages birth to age 6 and not yet enrolled in kindergarten
- The Parent and Family Involvement in Education (PFI) survey, mailed to parents of students in kindergarten through grade 12
The ECPP survey provides information about children from the perspective of their parents and includes questions about:
- Factors that influence choices of childcare arrangements
- Characteristics of childcare providers and cost of care
- Participation in home activities such as reading, telling stories, and singing songs
The items on this survey provide a wealth of information about how America’s children are learning and growing at home as well as the characteristics of the children who are in different types of care arrangements, including having multiple care arrangements.
NCES’s administrative data collections like EDFacts tell us a great deal about the sizes and types of schools in the U.S., while surveys like The National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) and the School Survey on Crime and Safety (SSOCS) tell us about school policies, school climate, and teacher attitudes and experiences. But NHES is the source for information about students’ and families’ experiences with schooling, irrespective of school affiliation. Parents with students attending all types of schools in the U.S.—public, private, charter schools, schools that were chosen rather than assigned by the school district, even parents who educate their children at home rather than send them to a school—respond to the survey and answer questions about topics such as:
In 2016, NHES will field the Adult Training and Education Survey (ATES), which will provide data about adults’ educational and work credentials, including professional certifications and licenses. This survey meets an important need for more information about where and how adults acquire the skills they need for work. The ATES will start with a random sample of U.S. adults rather than a sample of postsecondary institutions, which enables NCES to collect information about a broader array of credentials than could be collected by reaching students through postsecondary institutions. In short, NHES data allow us to understand how the American public is experiencing education so that we can better respond to the changing education needs of our people—be they young children, K-12 students, or adults.
By Grace Kena
In February 2014, President Obama launched My Brother’s Keeper. This effort was designed to promote opportunity for and to unlock the full potential of the nation’s young people, including boys and young men of color, with help from government agencies, community leaders, private philanthropies, and businesses. As part of this initiative, federal agencies were asked to improve the accessibility of data that highlight both the challenges and the accomplishments of young people in progressing through the education system and entering the labor force. These statistics provide a composite view of recent trends for males and females across a variety of key dimensions.
Academic performance gaps in learning behaviors, knowledge, and skills, among children in various racial/ethnic groups are found as early as infancy,[1] preschool, and kindergarten[2]. In addition, children from lower-income families tend to have poorer educational outcomes than their peers from more well- off families, and relatively high percentages of males and females of color live in poverty. The latest data show that among 12th graders, the average reading and mathematics assessment scores for Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native 12th-graders were lower than the average scores for their peers. In addition, the percentage of Hispanic 18- to 24-year-olds who had not completed high school was higher than the average percentage. The percentages of Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native young men in this age group who were enrolled in college were also lower than the average, and the percentages of Black and Hispanic young men ages 25–29 who had earned a bachelor’s or higher degree were lower than the average for young men in this age group.
On the other hand, young people are making progress in education. For example, average mathematics scores increased between 2005 and 2013 for all male students as well as for Black and Hispanic students overall. The percentage of males ages 18–24 who had not completed high school decreased from 2000 to 2014 for most racial/ethnic groups, and the decreases for Black and Hispanic young men were among the largest. In addition, the percentages of Black and Hispanic young men in this age group who were enrolled in college increased from 2000 to 2013.
Percentage of male 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in 2- and 4-year colleges, by race/ethnicity: 2000 and 2013
! Interpret data with caution. The coefficient of variation (CV) for this estimate is between 30 and 50 percent.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2013.
More education data from the My Brother’s Keeper initiative can be found in the feature in The Condition of Education 2015, and on the My Brother’s Keeper data site. Information on changes to existing programs and the creation of new public-private partnerships designed to meet the needs of young people are available on the White House site. You can also learn more about the findings from the video below:
This blog was originally posted on June 24, 2015 and was updated on August 6, 2015
By Lauren Musu-Gillette
Obtaining higher education can be an important step towards better occupational and economic outcomes. Lower levels of educational attainment are associated with higher unemployment rates and lower earnings. Although an increasing number of students have enrolled in postsecondary institutions over the last several decades, there are still differences in the characteristics of students who complete various levels of postsecondary education.
One particularly important issue to explore is differences in educational attainment by socioeconomic status (SES) to investigate the opportunities for social mobility that education can provide. Recently, NCES published a spotlight indicator on this topic to be included in the annual Condition of Education report. The report uses data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002), which surveyed students at different points during their secondary and postsecondary years. Students were first surveyed in 2002 when they were sophomores in high school. Then, their highest level of education was assessed ten years later, in 2012.
Percentage distribution of highest level of educational attainment of spring 2002 high school sophomores in 2012, by socioeconomic status (SES)
1 Includes education at any type of postsecondary institution, but with no earned postsecondary credential.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). See Digest of Education Statistics 2014, table 104.91.
Several key findings highlight differences in educational attainment by SES. For example:
- Seven percent of low-SES students had not completed high school by 2012, greater than the percentages of middle- and high-SES students who had not completed high school by 2012;
- By 2012, Fourteen percent of low-SES students who were high school sophomores in 2002 had earned a bachelor’s or higher degree, smaller than 29 percent of middle-SES students and 60 percent of high-SES students who earned a bachelor’s or higher degree; and
- Compared to high-SES students, smaller percentages of low- and middle-SES students who performed in the highest quartile of math achievement during their sophomore year of high school went on to complete a bachelor’s degree by 2012.
Percentage of spring 2002 high school sophomores who earned a bachelor's degree or higher by 2012, by socioeconomic status (SES) and mathematics achievement quartile in 2002
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). See Digest of Education Statistics 2014, table 104.91.
The following video describes additional findings from the report:
By Elise Christopher and Lauren Musu-Gillette
Researchers, educators, and policy makers are interested in knowing what makes students ready for college and careers, and the Department of Education has identified college and career readiness as a priority. In 2011, the Department announced that it would allow for Elementary/Secondary Education Act (ESEA) flexibility for states that developed plans for reforms in certain key areas of education, including college and career readiness. In order to investigate what factors may be associated with college and career outcomes, several important questions arise. For example:
- How do students’ high school experiences relate to whether or not they have to enroll in remedial courses in college?
- How do these same experiences relate to whether or not they successfully complete college?
- What high school and college experiences are associated with successful career choices?
Questions like these are best answered with longitudinal surveys, which track the paths of students as they transition from school to college and the work force. The longitudinal surveys conducted by NCES contain a wide variety of survey components that enable researchers to address policy-related topics across disciplines. Such longitudinal data can be expensive and time consuming to collect, particularly if they are nationally representative with sufficient sample sizes to analyze barriers faced by disadvantaged young adults. Building a sound statistical foundation for these important analyses is one of the key contributions NCES makes when producing datasets such as the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002) for the education and research community.
ELS:2002 began by collecting data from a nationally representative cohort of students who were in the 10th grade in 2002. Follow up surveys were collected from these same students in 2004, 2006, and 2012. Some students enrolled in postsecondary institutions after high school, while others entered the workforce. ELS:2002 can be used to examine the educational and occupational paths of students over time, as well as the different factors that are associated with those paths.
ELS:2002 collected a wide variety of information including students’ school experiences and activities, plans for the future, family circumstances, and beliefs about themselves. Many variables in the ELS:2002 dataset are available to the public with no restrictions. The data are easily accessible for individuals who may be interested in examining how a variety of different backgrounds and experiences may affect students’ college and career readiness. Some variables are not in the public datasets to ensure that identities of survey respondents are protected, but are available to researchers who apply for a restricted use license.
Use of datasets such as ELS:2002 can assist researchers, educators and policy makers in answering important questions about how to prepare our students for college and careers. For more information on accessing and using ELS:2002 data, please refer to information about available data, see our detailed selection of users manuals, or email the ELS:2002 staff.