ResearchEducation & Skills, Employment
7 Key Facts About Male Teachers
Summary
The share of male teachers in public K-12 education is shrinking, as shown in our previous brief on “Missing Misters”. Here we dive deeper using survey data from the National Center for Education Statistics to examine changes in the share of male teachers by school level, finding the most dramatic declines at the secondary level. We also describe gender differences in subject teaching areas (men now comprise a minority of CTE teachers) and the routes men and women take into and out of the teaching profession (men are more likely to choose teaching as a second career).
Key takeaways
- The share of male teachers in secondary schools has dropped from 48% to 36% since 1987.
- In 1987 men accounted for 75% of career and technical education teachers: by 2020 this share had dropped to just 45%.
- Just one in four undergraduate education degrees are awarded to men.
- Men are 11 percentage points more likely than women to be ‘career switchers’ into teaching (25% v. 14%).
- Nine out of 10 male teachers are satisfied with their job, as are female teachers.
- Men leaving teaching are most likely headed for another career, while women leave for personal reasons, including care responsibilities.
- Male teachers are three times more likely than their female peers to switch into a leadership role (60% v. 19%).
Overall, the share of male teachers in public schools (both elementary and secondary) has declined from 30% in 1987 to 23% in 2022. In elementary schools (pre-kindergarten to 6th grade) the male share has always been low, and has dropped further, from 14% to 11%. In secondary schools (7th to 12th grade) the share is higher but has fallen more significantly, from 48% to 36%.
DATA NOTE
Our data on the state of male teachers comes principally from three sources:
(1) The National Teacher and Principal Survey (and its progenitor the Schools and Staffing Survey) is a nationally representative survey of teachers and principals conducted periodically from 1987 to 2020 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The most recent NTPS in 2020-2021 sampled 9,900 public schools and 68,000 teachers and 3,000 private schools and 8,000 teachers. These surveys were used to understand the share of male teachers in various grades and subjects as well as their prior work and levels of satisfaction.
(2) The NCES’ Baccalaureate and Beyond longitudinal study ran from 2008 to 2018 and tracked a nationally representative cohort of college graduates for ten years following their college graduation in 2008. The initial sample was approximately 19,000 students. We used this to track the career trajectory of a single cohort of teachers over time.
While these analyses are meant to be nationally representative, the sample size for particular cuts of data may be relatively small and corroboration from other surveys and studies would be beneficial. Analyses with large standard errors have been noted.
(3) The NCES’ Digest of Education Statistics also provides tabular data on a range of education topics including bachelor’s degree attainment by field of study and degree completion rates.
The share of male teachers has declined across all of the seven main subject areas at the secondary level. The biggest drop has been in career technical education (CTE), from 75% in 1987 to 45% in 2020.¹ Men now make up the majority of secondary teachers in just two subjects: Health/Physical Education and Social Studies.
The traditional path into teaching typically involves earning an undergraduate education degree, followed by licensure and a teaching job. Men are less likely than women to take each of these steps towards a career in the classroom.
We examine gender gaps at four key points in the teacher pipeline, using longitudinal data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond 2008/18 study²:
- Going to college: Almost all teaching positions require a 4-year degree. In 2004, only 40% of men enrolled in a four-year college immediately after high school, compared to 49% of women. (This gap has widened over time—by 2022 only 38% of men enrolled in a 4-year college compared to 51% of women). Completion rates for men also lag, with only 33% of men and 42% of women in the 2004 cohort completing their degrees within four years.
- Getting an education degree: Among college graduates, three times as many women as men earned an education degree. This gap should be seen in light of a general decline in the attainment of undergraduate education degrees. In 2008-09, 21,000 (21%) of 102,000 education degrees were awarded to men. By 2023, the overall number dropped to 89,000, with just 15,000 (17%) going to men.
- Entering Teaching: Overall, only 47% of men who graduated with an education bachelor’s in 2008 were working as a regular teacher in 2009, compared to 54% of their female peers. By 2012, the gender gap had closed, with 63% of both men and women with education degrees having entered the profession. The reason for this difference in timing is unclear but may involve a combination of personal preferences—men in particular may be more sensitive to pay and opportunity costs—and differences in demand by teaching subject.³
- Staying in teaching: Once in the profession, male teachers are at least as likely to remain as female teachers. Sixty percent of men who went straight into teaching from college are still in the profession ten years later, compared to 54% of women.
Male teachers are more likely than female teachers to take a non-traditional pathway into the classroom. One in four male teachers (25%) say they enter teaching from another occupation outside of the education field, compared to 14% of female teachers. Consequently, 26% of men have alternative teaching certifications, versus 18% of women.⁴ These can include programs like Teach For America, teacher residencies, online programs, or certain types of grow-your-own (GYO) programs run by local school districts or universities—which aim to “expedite the transition of nonteachers to a teaching career.”
The good news is that both men and women in the teaching profession report high levels of job satisfaction (note that the data is from 2020-21). Nine out of ten teachers are satisfied with their positions, and three in four say that “teaching is worth it.” Satisfaction with pay is lower, but perhaps surprisingly is slightly higher among male teachers (54%) than female teachers (48%).
DATA NOTEFrom the National Teacher and Principal Survey 2020-21:
- Q7-7q. Agree or disagree – generally satisfied being a teacher at this school by Level of students taught by teacher (elementary/secondary) and Q9-1. Gender. Sum of Strongly agree and somewhat agree
- Q7-9a. Agree or disagree – teaching not worth it by Level of students taught by teacher (elementary/secondary) and Q9-1. Gender. Sum of Strongly disagree and somewhat disagree
- Q7-7b. Agree or disagree – satisfied with salary by Level of students taught by teacher (elementary/secondary) and Q9-1. Gender. Sum of Strongly agree and somewhat agree
Over a third (35%) of the men who leave teaching do so either for another career or to get more education, compared to 13% of female leavers. Women leaving teaching are much more likely than men to say this is for personal reasons, almost certainly including caring responsibilities (34% v. 9%).
Male teachers who leave their current position are three times more likely to do so for a leadership role than female teachers who are changing roles (60% v. 19%). A third of female teachers switching roles (33%) are opting to become academic specialists within the school: almost no men take this route.
DATA NOTEFrom the Baccalaureate and Beyond 2008/18:
- “Type of position held in education after leaving teaching position”, as of B&B:08/18 interview by Gender.
- Reasons left teaching, as of B&B:08/18 interview: Main reason left teaching by Gender.
From NCES: “Respondents whose main reason for leaving teaching was they left the classroom but remained in education and were in either of two groups who left teaching: 1) respondents who taught as a regular classroom teacher between the 2007–08 bachelor’s degree completion and the B&B:08/12 interview and were not a regular classroom teacher between the B&B:08/12 interview and B&B:08/18 interview, or 2) respondents who taught as a regular classroom teacher between the B&B:08/12 interview and B&B:08/18 interview and were not a regular classroom teacher at the time of the B&B:08/18 interview.”
Conclusion
Men are increasingly underrepresented in teaching, as our previous work shows. This analysis of the male teacher pipeline is necessarily broad and low-resolution, and corroboration with other data sources would be valuable. Still, it suggests that the most promising opportunities may lie earlier in the process. With fewer men following traditional pathways and more entering as career switchers, addressing barriers and promoting alternative routes into teaching could help attract more men to the profession.
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- ¹ While career and technical education (CTE) is traditionally seen as a male-dominated curriculum of shop and construction courses, the decline of manufacturing and the growth in healthcare, hospitality, and other service industries in the broader economy has shifted the composition of CTE courses. This change, described in a report on CTE by Nat Malkus at the American Enterprise Institute, may account for some of the decline in male CTE teachers. For more on CTE and its benefits, especially for boys, see our policy brief, “How CTE can help close the gender gap in education.”
- ² This follows a similar effort by scholars at the Brown Center for Education Policy at Brookings to examine the racial diversity of the teaching workforce.
- ³ See page 24 of this 2016 report by the Learning Policy Institute that notes “High rates of delayed entry are evident in some fields such as physical education and elementary education, but a recent study using national data found that almost all newly prepared mathematics and science teachers entered teaching within a year of graduating.”
- ⁴ Not shown in figure, but based on author’s analysis of National Teacher and Principals Survey (Public Teachers, 2020-21).
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