The percentage-and overall number-of high school students reporting an interest in teaching has steadily declined since 2010, according to The Condition of Future Educators 2014.
This ACT report compares data on the self-reported career interests of nearly 1.85 million 2014 US high school graduates who took the ACT® test, compared to those who took the ACT in the previous four years.
Key findings include:
- Only 5% (89,192 students) of students tested in 2014 said they intended to pursue a career as an educator-either as a teacher, counselor, or administrator-compared to 7% of graduates (106,478 students) in 2010 who planned to pursue an education major.
- The percentages of future teachers who met the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks in math, science, and reading remained lower than those of the population of national test takers, as was the case in 2010.
- Diversity continues to be lacking among future educators. Among ACT-tested graduates who planned to pursue an education major, 72% were white, compared to 56% of all tested graduates.
Of course, these data are self-reported in surveys and may not end up coming to fruition, but certainly they represent a cause for concern.
To read the report, visit www.act.org/futureeducators.
