The Core Knowledge Blog

Men accounted for less than one-fourth of all elementary school teachers in 2006–a forty-year low–according to statistics released recently by the National Education Association (NEA).  The highest percentage of male teachers can be found in Kansas and Oregon, where about one-third of teachers boast a Y chromosome (hey, it’s the Core Knowledge blog), while fewer than one in five Mississippi and Arkansas teachers are men. 

“We’re experiencing a significant male-teacher shortage,” Reg Weaver, president of the NEA tells Edutopia.  “Teachers in elementary school typically don’t make as much money as teachers in high school do,” Weaver says. “More than 50 percent of male teachers are at the high school level.”

Edutopia sites research conducted by MenTeach, a nonprofit organization that promotes the recruitment of male teachers, suggesting that low status and as well as pay deter males from entering education. “If you started paying teachers $150,000 per year, you’d see a lot of guys going into the field,” admits Bryan Nelson, founder of MenTeach, stating the obvious.  You’d see a lot more guys going into any field that paid $150K. 

Amazing statistic cited by Edutopia: There are 150 participants in program called  Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models), which provides tuition assistance and leadership training to male African American students pursuing education degrees at South Carolina’s Clemson University.  “When they start working, they will double the number of black men teaching in the state’s elementary schools,” the magazine notes.