Data Spotlight: Where do men get their education degrees?

Only 23% of K-12 educators are men, a share that has been declining for decades. Having more male teachers around could be beneficial for some boys’ experiences in school, and a meaningful role for those men who decide to teach.

While alternative pathways into teaching are expanding, traditional programs at colleges and universities—often culminating in a bachelor’s or master’s degree in education—are still much more common. But nationally, only 17% of bachelor’s degrees and 21% of master’s degrees in education go to men. Encouraging more men into these programs could be one way to increase the share of male teachers and understanding the differences in male share across institutions may shed some light on what attracts them.

In figure 1, we show the male share of education degrees at institutions across the United States. To filter out small outliers, we only include institutions that either awarded 50 or more education bachelor’s degrees, or 100 or more education master’s degrees in 2023. This accounts for around 80% of all degrees awarded nationally at both levels.

As you can see from figure 1, most institutions have a minority of male degree-earners, though there is some slight variation at both the bachelor’s and master’s level.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Additionally, figure 3 ranks the 50 institutions awarding the largest number of master’s degrees in education (master’s programs are the dominant degree in the field). Schools are ordered by the share of education degrees going to male graduates. The top institution is the University of the People, a tuition-free online college based in Pasadena, followed closely by the University of Louisville. Both have male shares above 40%. Among the remaining schools, 25 report male shares between 20% and 30%, while the remainder fall between 12% and 20%.

Figure 3

For more information on men in higher ed, please visit our past research on the subject:

• Degrees of Difference: a high-level view of male enrollment and achievement in college.
• Male stagnation in doctoral programs: highlighting male trends in programs like medical and law schools, as well as PhD programs.
• Major changes: showing how men and women have changed their majors of choice over the past fifty years.
• Men in higher education: A national data tool: a tool to study institution-level outcomes for male students across the country, from admissions and enrollment to graduation and earnings.