Unless teachers receive the respect given to other professions, their status will remain in question. 

If we want to understand what kind of profession teaching is, we must first establish that teaching is, in fact, a profession. To many educators (and the parents whose children they teach), teaching clearly is a profession whose requirements should confer the kind of elevated status afforded to doctors and lawyers. However, those who are not embedded in the daily reality of schools may wonder whether teaching warrants that status. For many Americans, the question of whether teaching is a profession simply hasn’t been settled yet (or at least not fully settled).

To help bring more clarity to this issue, we’ve reviewed the specific features of work life that are typically associated with professions, and we’ve compared them with the conditions of teaching in public schools, especially as they are perceived by those who are doing the work and are, therefore, most aware of both what the work entails and how they are treated. To do this, we examined data from the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey and the 2015-16 National Teacher and Principal Survey from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2011-12, 2015-16), and we conducted several analyses that helped to contrast these, as part of a larger series of reports examining teacher shortages and teacher labor markets across the country (García & Weiss, 2019a-e).

The theory and the realities of teachers’ work

A number of recent publications have reviewed the features of professions, assessed how they apply to teaching, and provided a frame for the pillars of teacher professionalism (e.g., Abbott, 2014; Ingersoll & Collins, 2018; Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2019). According to the theory on models of professionalism they review, professionals or members of other fields are afforded full professional status after obtaining the required training, initial practice, and credentialing. Further, members are expected to pursue ongoing education to keep their knowledge and credentials up-to-date, stay abreast of changes in the field, and access new career opportunities. Their judgment tends to be highly valued inside and outside the profession, giving them a strong voice in debates about how the field should grow and adapt to changing realities. Additionally, professions provide ample opportunities for discussion and collaboration among their members, which further increases the field’s internal and external reputation and prestige. Other key defining features of professions would be the ability to control who is and is not a member, the existence of strict and homogeneous requirements to obtain a license, the development of a strong and reliable knowledge base to support consistent practice, and the ability to define and enforce a code of ethics (Abbott, 2014). Together, these qualities give members of a profession a sense of belonging, opportunities to advance their knowledge, and the ability to shape their own standards of practice and career development, as well as a respected status.

In theory, all of these features could apply to education, in which case teaching would satisfy the criteria typically used to define professions. However, the reality is that some of these features are not found (or only rarely found) in the actual practice of teaching in the United States, as evidenced by the data described below on some of such teachers’ working conditions, occupational prestige, and opportunities to shape their field (for research on these lines, see Ingersoll & Collins, 2018). Unfortunately, the data we use do not allow us to examine all aspects of teachers’ work and how they compare to other professions. Complementary sources and more research would be useful to ascertain whether and to what extent teaching differs from other professions on the unreported criteria. However, based on the information we were able to examine, teaching, as practiced, does not currently meet the requirements of a profession.

Preparation and support

Teaching does have credentialing and preparation requirements that most teachers meet, but significant numbers lack at least some of the credentials associated with being effective teachers. As of the 2015-16 school year, 8.8% of K-12 teachers in the country were not fully certified, 31.5% of teachers did not have an educational background in their subject of main assignment, and 17.1% did not take the traditional route into teaching. These shares either increased or stayed constant (i.e., showed no improvement) between the 2011-12 and 2015-16 school years (NCES 2011-12, 2015-16; García & Weiss, 2019a).

Teaching does have credentialing and preparation requirements that most teachers meet, but significant numbers lack at least some of the credentials associated with being effective teachers.

Although the characteristics of the teaching preparation programs and certificates granted vary across traditional and alternative programs, and the requirements for accessing a teaching certificate or license vary significantly across states, exploration of Title II data from the U.S. Department of Education (2017a and 2017b) indicates that the number of states requiring content-specific bachelor’s degrees for initial teaching credentials decreased between 2008-09 and 2015-16, and the share of initial teaching certificates requiring a content-specific bachelor’s degree for middle school also decreased (García & Weiss, 2019b). Once in the classroom, when teachers are asked about how prepared they are to handle several specific classroom activities in their first year, between 66% and 90% said that they were not (specific responses varied by activity), which would suggest that stronger preparation in the schools of education and more adequate training during the first year can be helpful (García & Weiss, 2019e; NCES, 2015-16).

Data on the prevalence and usefulness of continuous supports, particularly those provided for early career teachers, show room for improvement (García & Weiss, 2019e). Between 72.7% and 79.9% of teachers participate in mentoring and induction programs during their first years; however, almost half of teachers only rarely or occasionally work with mentors, and more than a third think their mentors are of little help.

A similarly mixed picture emerges regarding professional development opportunities available after the first few years. Although there is no established benchmark for what an optimal set of professional development activities looks like, there is no question that it is important to help teachers continually work to stay up-to-date in their field and do their jobs better. The data show that large shares of teachers of all experience levels access certain types of professional development, such as workshops or training sessions (91.9%) or activities focused on the subjects that teachers teach (85.1%). But when it comes to the types of professional development that research shows are most effective — such as university courses related to teaching, presenting at workshops, or making observational visits to other schools (see Darling-Hammond, Burns, et al., 2017; Darling-Hammond, Hyler, et al., 2017; Kraft, Blazar, & Hogan, 2018; OECD, 2019) — only about one-fourth or fewer teachers participate, and low shares of teachers find the activities they do access to be “very useful” (NCES, 2011-12, 2015-16).

In addition, important resources that would increase the opportunities for teachers to study, reflect on, and prepare their practice are largely unavailable. Novice teachers would benefit from a reduced teaching schedule, help from teachers’ aides, and time away from the classroom to receive new-teacher supports or assistance, but these are unavailable to large shares of new teachers (García & Weiss, 2019e). Only 37.1% of first-year teachers are released from classroom instruction to participate in support activities for new or beginning teachers, and only 26.9% are assigned teachers’ aides to help them enhance their classroom management and provide more one-on-one attention for students. Among all teachers, only 50.9% have been given release time from teaching to participate in professional development, 28.2% are reimbursed for conferences or workshop fees, 27.3% receive a stipend for professional development outside regular work hours, and 9.4% receive full or partial reimbursement of college tuition (NCES, 2011-12, 2015-16).

Respect for teachers’ voices and influence

Professionals’ judgment is valued and sought by those outside the profession, but data suggest that this is not necessarily true of teaching. When it comes to the prestige assigned to teaching, the general public expresses mixed opinions: While Americans tend to give high ratings to their local public schools and have positive memories about their own teachers’ influence on their lives, 54% of those surveyed in the 2018 PDK poll said they would not like their child to become a teacher (a record high since the question was initially asked in 1969).

When it comes to the prestige assigned to teaching, the general public expresses mixed opinions.

The status of teaching within schools is also pretty grim. Teachers tend to report that they do not have nurturing relationships with colleagues and administrators and that they have little say over the policies of their schools and practices in their classrooms, suggesting that a lack of professional respect casts a shadow over the school’s culture itself (García & Weiss, 2019e). Less than half of teachers strongly agree that their administration’s behavior is supportive and encouraging (49.6%) or that there is a great deal of cooperative effort among staff members (38.4%) (NCES, 2015-16). In addition, more than two-thirds of teachers report that they have less than a great deal of influence over what they teach in the classroom (71.3%) or what instructional materials they use (74.5%) (NCES, 2015-16). And just 11.1% of teachers say they have a great deal of influence over the content of their in-service professional development programs, despite their desire to play a more direct role in determining the nature and content of the professional development they receive (Ingersoll & Collins, 2018; NCES, 2015-16; OECD, 2016, 2019; Quint, 2011; Schwartz, 2019; Warner-Griffin, Cunningham, & Noel, 2018).

Compensation and work environment

A comparison of teacher compensation and working environments with those of non-teachers reveals an apparent disregard for the work teachers do. After accounting for education, experience, and other factors known to affect earnings, teachers’ weekly wages in 2018 were 21.4% lower than their nonteaching peers, a gap that more than tripled between 1996 and 2018 (Allegretto & Mishel, 2019). As a likely consequence, a high and growing share of teachers supplement their earnings by moonlighting during the school year: In the 2015-16 school year, 59% of teachers took on additional paid work either in the school system or outside of it — up from 55.6% in 2011-12 (NCES, 2011-12, 2015-16; García & Weiss 2019c).

In addition, teachers’ working environments are fraught with challenges that undermine their effectiveness, as well as threats to their emotional well-being and physical safety. Teachers express concern that significant numbers of students come to school unprepared to learn (reported by 27.3% of teachers) and many of their parents struggle to be involved in their education (as reported by 21.5% of teachers), conditions that are largely by-products of larger societal forces such as rising poverty, segregation, and insufficient public investments. And 21.8% of teachers report that they have been threatened at work, while 12.4% say they have been physically attacked by a student at their current school (García & Weiss, 2019d; NCES, 2015-16).

Reconciling reality with theory

About 50 million students participate in our public K-12 school system (NCES, 2018). As a society, we should find it saddening that those in charge of helping children reach their full potential are denied the status and support associated with professions. It is no surprise that many parts of the country now struggle with high rates of teacher turnover, consuming economic resources that could be better deployed elsewhere, while others struggle to fill vacancies at all, as growing numbers of veteran teachers leave the field and potential teachers choose not to enter. All of these dynamics have negative consequences not only for teachers’ effectiveness and morale, but for students’ ability to learn (Carroll, 2007; Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2017; Jackson & Bruegmann, 2009; Kraft & Papay, 2014; Ladd & Sorensen, 2016; Learning Policy Institute, 2017; Ronfeldt, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2013).

To address these challenges, our lawmakers and educational leaders must make it a priority to afford teachers the kinds of resources and opportunities that are commensurate with the nature and importance of their work — but that few teachers currently receive. In recent years, the  appeal of teaching as a career has only diminished. To fashion it into a true profession, as it should be, will require a societal and political commitment to give teachers the preparation and support, the respect and influence, and the compensation and working conditions they need to fulfill their important mission as educators of all our future professionals.

References

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Allegretto, S. & Mishel, L. (2019, April). The teacher weekly wage penalty hit 21.4 percent in 2018, a record high: Trends in the teacher wage and compensation penalties through 2018. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute & Berkeley, CA: Center on Wage & Employment Dynamics.

Carroll, T.G. (2007). The high cost of teacher turnover (Policy Brief). Arlington, VA: National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.

Carver-Thomas, D. & Darling-Hammond, L. (2017, August). Teacher turnover: Why it matters and what we can do about it. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.

Darling-Hammond, L., Burns, D., Campbell, C., Goodwin, A.L., Hammerness, K., Low, E.L., . . . & Zeichner, K. (2017). Empowered educators: How high-performing systems shape teaching quality around the world. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Darling-Hammond, L., Hyler, M.E., Gardner, M., Espinoza, D. (2017, May). Effective teacher professional development. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute.

García, E. & Weiss, E. (2019a, March). The teacher shortage is real, large and growing, and worse than we thought: The first report in ‘The perfect storm in the teacher labor market’ series. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

García, E. & Weiss, E. (2019b, April). U.S. schools struggle to hire and retain teachers: The second report in ‘The perfect storm in the teacher labor market’ series. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

García, E. & Weiss, E. (2019c, May). Low relative pay and high incidence of moonlighting play a role in the teacher shortage, particularly in high-poverty schools: The third report in ‘The perfect storm in the teacher labor market’ series. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

García, E. & Weiss, E. (2019d, May). Challenging working environments (‘school climates’), especially in high-poverty schools, play a role in the teacher shortage: The fourth report in ‘The perfect storm in the teacher labor market’ series. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

García, E. & Weiss, E. (2019e, July). The role of early career supports, continuous professional development, and learning communities in the teacher shortage: The fifth report in ‘The perfect storm in the teacher labor market’ series. Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute.

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Warner-Griffin, C., Cunningham, B.C., & Noel, A. (2018, March). Public school teacher autonomy, satisfaction, job security, and Commitment: 1999–2000 and 2011–12 (Stats in Brief no. 2018-103). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Statistics.

Note: The authors acknowledge the contributions from Lora Engdahl, Economic Policy Institute’s publications director.