Teachers and Teaching - Teachers And Students

The chart above shows the number of teachers, the number of students and the pupil-teacher ratio for public elementary and secondary schools from 1870-2010. Data for 2000 are estimated. Data for 2005 to 2010 are projections. The fluctuation in the number of teachers mirrors the fluctuation in the number of students. When the number of students increases, the number of teachers increases. From 1936 to 1946, however, enrollment was decreasing, but the number of teachers remained steady. This pattern is seen again from 1975 to 1985. Why doesn't the number of teachers decline when student enrollment declines? Protests from the teachers' unions, parents, and students discourage the practice. When teachers are laid off, it is usually due to budget constraints within the individual districts.

The decline in the pupil-teacher ratio suggests that the number of teachers has increased at a greater rate than the number of students. Pupil-teacher ratios have been steadily dropping since the early 1900s. With the pupil-teacher ratio dropping to a projected 14.8 students per teacher in 2010 (down about 20 students since the 1870s), why is there an effort by the government and school districts to decrease class size?

The pupil-teacher ratio is an average taken by dividing the number of enrolled students by the number of teachers. If all schools and classrooms were equal, all teachers would have had 16 students per classroom in 2000. However, not all schools and classrooms are equal. Some classrooms have fewer students; some have more. In practice, the average public school class size in 1996¹ was 24 — well above the ideal of 17 that some states are striving for. A later panel will have a more in-depth discussion of class size.

The next two panels will discuss the characteristics of teachers in the United States.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Digest of Education Statistics, 2001. U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. Projections of Education Statistics to 2011. Joan M. Haas. "Hundreds of teachers face layoffs." Online. Available: http://www.weac.org/BARGAIN/2001-02/march02/layoffs.htm. May 2, 2002. U.S. Department of Education. Local Success Stories: Reducing Class Size, November 1999. Online. Available: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/ClassSize/localsuccess.html. April 29, 2002.