Archived: The Educational System in the United States: Case Study Findings

Table 1—Characteristics of teachers in U.S. public schools compared to
case study teachers
U.S.
All Teachers
Case Study
Teachers
Sex
Male
27.1
30.0
Female
72.9
70.0
Race/Ethnicity
White non-Hispanic
86.5
66.7
Black non-Hispanic
7.4
26.7
Hispanic
4.2
3.3
Other
1.9
3.3
SOURCE: 
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, 1995c.
Educational background. 
Of the teachers interviewed for this project, half had
bachelor’s degrees and half had earned advanced (masters) degrees. One teacher
explained that he was ‘‘ABD,’’ that is, he had completed all the coursework nec-
essary to receive a doctoral degree, but had not completed the dissertation. Most
had attended a 4-year college or university and graduated with a degree and a
teaching certificate. A few (10 percent) had become certified after graduation. The
majority (71 percent) received their undergraduate degrees (BA. or BS.) at state
universities, and more than four-fifths of those earning advanced degrees had done
so at state universities.
Mirroring national trends, the lower grades in the Case Study schools were staffed
largely by women. All of the elementary and middle school teachers interviewed
were female, and two-thirds were European American. On the other hand, math
and science teaching has traditionally been the domain of men at the secondary
level, and the Case Study also captures this prevalence. Fully three-fourths of the

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secondary teachers interviewed were male. As for racial and ethnic composition
59 percent of the secondary teachers were European American, 25 percent Afri-
can-American, and 8 percent each Latino and Asian American. All of the secondary
teachers had taught for at least 3 years, and the majority (67 percent) had ad-
vanced degrees.
Teaching experience. 
Table 2 shows that most U.S. teachers have been teaching
10 or more years. The teachers interviewed for the Case Study included both new
and very experienced teachers, although as table 2 also illustrates, over half had
more than 10 years of teaching experience.