20% of Teachers Quit Profession Within 3 Years, Study Shows

About one out of five teachers leave the profession within three years of entering the classroom, and they are likelier to have entered college with higher test scores than those who keep teaching, according to a new analysis of federal survey data.

That nationwide pattern in teacher turnover suggests that “the best and brightest” abandon the classroom much faster, the trade publication Education Week concluded in its annual report on education, this year titled, “Who Should Teach?”

Among teachers who graduated from college in 1993, those who had left the field by 1997 were about twice as likely to have scored in the top 25% nationally on the Scholastic Assessment Test or American College Testing program than those who were still teaching, the study found in its review of Education Department surveys.

Dissatisfaction with working conditions, student misbehavior and relatively low salaries were the most common reasons that teachers bailed out.

Such departures undermine a national effort to upgrade teacher quality--shown in other studies to be an important factor in student achievement--and exacerbate teacher shortages in urban areas and some academic specialties.

Despite the shortages, which are projected to worsen in the next decade, the gap between teacher salaries and those of other professionals has been growing, the study found in analyzing census data.

From 1994 to 1998, the salaries of teachers with master’s degrees increased by less than $200 a year, after adjusting for inflation, compared to $17,505 for the four-year period for other workers with the same level of education. About half the nation’s teachers have master’s degrees.

Even though unionized teachers generally get raises based on seniority, the study found that the salary gap also widens the longer someone stays in the profession. Teachers in their 20s earn almost $8,000 a year less than other college graduates the same age, but teachers in their late 40s get paid about $24,000 less than their college-educated age mates.

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Growing Disparity

The earnings gap between teachers and other college graduates grew substantially during the late 1990s. By 1998, older teachers with graduate degrees earned an average of about $32,500 less than similarly educated people in other fields.

Gap between teachers and other degree-holders:

Nonteachers

Master’s degree holders: $72,385

Bachelor’s degree holders: $47,737

Teachers

Master’s degree holders: $42,156

Bachelor’s degree holders: $29,731

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The earnings gap by age, 1998:

Nonteachers

22-to-28-year-olds with only a bachelor’s degree: $29,984

44-to-50-year-olds with only a master’s degree: $75,824

Bachelor’s degree holders: $47,737

Teachers

22-to-28-year-olds with only a bachelor’s degree: $21,792

44-to-50-year-olds with only a master’s degree: $43,313

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Top-paying states for teachers holding at least bachelor’s degree:

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Rank State Salary 1. Michigan $44,209 2. Pennsylvania $40,898 3. Indiana $40,478 4. Wisconsin $40,092 5. Connecticut $39,268 6. New York $38,476 7. New Jersey $37,989 8. Minnesota $37,221 9. Washington $36,509 10. Rhode Island $36,930 31. California $32,930 U.S. Average $35,048

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Note: All figures are represented in 1998 dollars to control for inflation.

Source: Education Week analysis of U.S. Census Bureau’s 1992-99 data.