National Study Finds Teachers Highly Educated but Poorly Paid
Those who can, teach. That's the message of a new report issued by Education
Testing Service (ETS), which confirms that teachers have literacy skills
comparable to professions that pay much higher salaries -- including physicians,
lawyers, and engineers.
The report analyses the literacy and numeracy skills of America's teachers.
The study looked at three different measures of literacy using the National
Adult Literacy Survey. Among the most significant findings:
- Teachers scored significantly higher than the general population in
literacy skills -- on average 58 points higher on a 500-point scale.
- Teachers with a four-year degree score slightly higher than all other
adults with a four-year degree.
- Teachers with a graduate degree score the same as all other adults
with a graduate degree.
The report confirms that teachers have literacy skills comparable to
professions that pay much higher salaries, including physicians, lawyers,
and engineers. Teachers have higher literary skills, on average, than
many managers, administrators, and real estate professionals.
The study looked at three kinds of literacy: prose literacy, or understanding
and using information from texts, such as newspaper articles; document
literacy, or understanding and using information from materials, such
as maps, tables, and graphs; and quantitative literacy, understanding
and using numerical information, such as figuring out a tip or determining
interest rates from an advertisement.
More than one-half of teachers scored at the highest two levels (of five
in the range). About 84% scored within the highest three levels. Only
about 15% scored at Level 2, and about 1% at Level 1.
The report also highlights the sharp discrepancy between the compensation
provided teachers and other professionals. Teachers scoring at Level 5
on the prose scale earned an average of $574 a week, compared to $796
a week for other college graduates. The difference for teachers who scored
at Level 5 on the quantitative scale was even greater, $618 a week, compared
to $947 a week.
The ETS report concludes, "We employ teachers for pay that is well
below the market rate for their levels of prose, document, and quantitative
problem solving. With the impending shortage of teachers and apparent
competitiveness of their skills, we need to give more attention to what
we pay them, and to recognize the many options these capable people have
in the American marketplace."
"The report turns conventional wisdom on its head and provides the
first objective evidence of what we have known all along," said NEA
Vice President Reg Weaver.
The study is available online at http://www.ets.org/research/pic.
Posted March 26, 1999