How many teachers are there?
August 29, 2009 pm31 3:24 pm
In the US, as of five years ago, 6.2 million.
I ran into an old page, a summary of some census findings.
Overall, 83% white. 8% Black. 5% Hispanic (any country of origin). 3% Asian. One half of one per cent Alaskan Native or Pacific Islander.
It’s still women’s work: 71% female. And the lower the grade level, the smaller the proportion of men.
| level | women | men | % female |
| PreK/K | 430k | 8k | 98% |
| elementary/middle | 2.45M | 0.65M | 79% |
| secondary | 460k | 310k | 59% |
| post-secondary | 500k | 600k | 46% |
| special ed | 150k | 25k | 87% |
| other | 375k | 185k | 67% |
(lot’s of rounding and back-calculating – jd)
JD2718 
I bet that if you looked at middle school and up math and science teachers, you’d find that that is where the men are. Just anecdotally, my son has had more male teachers since middle school than female teachers.
What’s that last line, ‘level’ mean?
“Level ” was shorthand for “typo” – I’ve corrected it, thanks. (it now says “other”)
And had I looked directly at the census data, the first thing I would have checked for was exactly what you suggest. Once we hit middle school, and especially in high school, I suspect the content areas have very different proportions of men and women. Even within… physics probably has a higher proportion of men than biology…
JD, I know it’s confusing, but mathmom isn’t me. I write the blog Math Mama Writes, but I think my comments all say Sue (could be I’m mathmama somewhere, I’m not sure…).
Someone else confused me with another math mama type. He told me the teachers in his area (Michigan) loved my presentations. Only I haven’t done a presentation in Michigan since 2001, and probably none for teachers even then. Reflected glory…
Sue
Richmond, CA
Sue,
yes, I know the difference. Different blogs, different e-mails, styles, etc.
I just responded to the two of you on separate lines, rather than write two separate responses (and start that indenting thing, which I have mixed feelings about)
Jonathan
how many teacher in the school
My class was doing a project and we stumbled upon your site. Could you provide me with your sources. Especially if they are up to date. We are attempting to find out number of teachers (much like you have) by country. Can you offer any help?