Teacher Education and Development Study in Mathematics - IEA

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PART 1: SALARY RELATIVITIES 21 2. Teacher Salaries Relative to Salaries in Mathematics-Oriented Occupations Conceptual framework, methodology, and data for the comparisons of teacher salaries with salaries in other occupations Conceptual framework We assume that the lifetime earnings associated with various professional-level occupations have a significant influence on occupational choice. But lifetime earnings are not the only factor influencing choice. Individuals choose occupations because they are drawn to the type of work associated with the occupation, and because they have the abilities that it requires. Often, these abilities are affirmed or even discovered in school, with teachers and other adult role-models influencing choices made by adolescents. Cultural factors, such as gender stereotyping, also push (or even force, through discrimination) individuals to enter certain types of work and not others. Moreover, opportunities for work vary across countries, so occupational choice is not equal everywhere in the world, even for university graduates. The choice of teaching as a profession is, as with other occupations, influenced by earnings and the aforementioned factors. Teaching mathematics in middle and secondary schools should require significant mathematics skills. In most societies, this level of mathematical ability is not likely to be widely available in the labor force. In many countries, teaching mathematics in Grades 7 to 12 requires a university degree with at least a minor in mathematics and often a university degree in mathematics. Thus, we assume that those who choose to go into mathematics teaching want to become teachers but at some time probably considered other professions where they could apply their mathematics skills. These professions could include a science-based one, the social sciences, or accountancy. Individuals with mathematics qualifications might also consider medicine and the law, but these professions are not so obviously tied to mathematics skills. Thus, we postulate that when individuals with mathematics skills consider teaching as a profession, they (implicitly or explicitly) weigh that decision against the attraction of other mathematics-intensive professions. Our basic hypothesis is that the greater the difference in economic returns between these other occupations and teaching, the less likely it is that teaching will attract individuals with high levels of mathematics competence. However, we also consider another hypothesis associated with the premise that when differences in salaries between teaching and the other professions are small, teaching has other economic attractions, such as job security and (usually) quite good pension plans—features that are not as likely to characterize other jobs. Our hypothesis is that, under such circumstances, many individuals with high levels of mathematics skills will be induced to enter teaching (whether at the primary, middle, or secondary school level) and will stay teaching once there. Evidence of a relationship between the relative salaries of teachers and the quality of teaching is not easy to find. In the United States, the subject has been one of considerable controversy. One study there (Allegretto, Corcoran, & Mishel, 2004) estimated the
22 TEACHER PAY AND STUDENT MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT relative pay of teachers by summarizing the literature on the relationship between teacher quality and relative wages. The authors concluded: Existing evidence on the relationship between teacher pay and teacher quality is divided. In the short run, pay increases do not appear to have noticeable effects on the quality of candidates entering the teaching profession. Over the long run, however, trends in relative teacher pay seem to coincide with trends in teacher quality. (p. 6) Another study (Corcoran, Evans, & Schwab, 2002) combined data from four longitudinal surveys of high school graduates that covered the years 1957 to 1992, to examine whether the propensity for talented women to enter teaching had changed over time. Corcoran et al. found that although “the quality of the average new female teacher” fell only slightly over the period, the likelihood of a female from the top of her high school class eventually entering teaching fell “dramatically from 1964 to 1992— by our estimation, from almost 20% to under 4%” (p. 2). 1 The decline was associated with a corresponding increase in the percentage of teachers associated with the seventh decile of high school test scores. The percentage of teachers associated with the first to sixth deciles remained fairly constant at 35%. Thus, the percentage of A-level students declined and the percentage of B-level students increased, with all this occurring before the sharp decline in teachers’ relative wages in the mid and late 1990s. By implication, then, the difference in earnings between teachers and other mathematicsintensive professionals provides one estimate of how much a society is willing to pay to try to purchase higher quality mathematics teaching in school. As we have already stressed, in most countries, teachers of different subjects are not paid different wages, so it may not be possible to increase just the pay of mathematics teachers to induce a more skilled individual to choose teaching. This issue is outside the scope of this study, but is nonetheless one we need to take account of when considering our estimates of the total cost for society of attracting potentially good mathematics teachers into teaching. 2 Methodology We constructed age-earnings curves for men and women in mathematics-intensive occupations and in teaching by level of their education (first university degree, Master’s degree), so that we could determine how (mathematics) teachers fare compared to their “competing professionals” in each of the countries we studied. We decided it was important to separate the analysis by gender (see Corcoran et al., 2002, discussed above) because the labor markets for men and women in most countries differ, as do salary structures. For 16 of the 20 countries we studied, we were able to estimate age-earnings profiles for two different years, one in the 1990s and the other either in 2000 or beyond. These profiles allowed us to observe possible changes in relative earnings in recent years and to determine whether the trends could be confirmed at different points in time. 1 The key to the study by Corcoran and colleagues is that, in the period they analyze, the labor market for women— who constitute about 75% of the K–12 teaching force in the United States—changed radically. Before 1965, the public school system was almost a monopsonist (single buyer) in hiring university-educated women. Only nursing was a serious competitor. Since that time, job opportunities for female university graduates in other, previously almost exclusively male, professions have greatly increased. Given the trend in relative teacher salaries, this situation means greater difficulty attracting high-achieving female high school graduates into teaching, especially as a long-term career. 2 As we show, some countries, in paying sufficiently high relative salaries to teachers, face a surplus and have sharply reduced the number of teachers being trained in teacher-education institutions and universities. Chinese Taipei is one such case.
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