Ingersoll, Richard
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Professor of Education and Sociology
Introduction
Richard M. Ingersoll, a former high school teacher, is Professor of Education and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. His area of expertise is America’s elementary and secondary teaching force. His research and writing focus on teaching as a job, teachers as employees, and schools as workplaces.
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Publication Is There Really a Shortage of Mathematics and Science Teachers?(2006-01-31) Ingersoll, RichardPublication The Demographic Transformation of the Teaching Force in the United States(2021-05-14) Ingersoll, Richard; Merrill, Elizabeth; Stuckey, Daniel; Collins, Gregory; Brandon, HarrisonThis article summarizes the results of an exploratory research project that investigated what demographic trends and changes have, or have not, occurred in the elementary and secondary teaching force in the U.S. over the past three decades, from 1987 to 2018. Our main data source was the Schools and Staffing Survey and its successor, the National Teacher Principal Survey, collectively the largest and most comprehensive source of data on teachers available in the U.S. These surveys are conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The results show that the teaching force has been, and is, greatly changing; yet, even the most dramatic trends appear to have been little noticed or understood by researchers, policy makers, and the public. This article summarizes seven of the most prominent trends and changes that we found. The U.S. teaching force is: larger; older; less experienced; more female; more diverse, by race/ethnicity; consistent in academic ability; unstable. For each of the trends, we explore two broad questions: 1. What are the reasons for and sources of the trend? 2. What are the implications and consequences of the trend?Publication The Realities of Out-of-Field Teaching(2001-05-01) Ingersoll, Richard MRequiring teachers to teach classes for which they have not been trained or educated harms teachers and students.Publication Out-of-Field Teaching, Educational Inequality, and the Organization of Schools: An Exploratory Analysis(2002-01-01) Ingersoll, RichardContemporary educational theory holds that one of the pivotal causes of inadequate student achievement, especially in disadvantaged schools, is the inability of schools to adequately staff classrooms with qualified teachers. Deficits in the quantity of teachers produced and in the quality of preparation prospective teachers receive have long been singled out as primary explanations for underqualified teaching. In this study, I hypothesize that the manner in which schools are organized and in which teachers are utilized can account for as much of the problem of underqualified teaching as do inadequacies in teacher training or the supply of teachers. This analysis specifically focuses on a little recognized source of underqualified teaching—the problem of out-of-field teaching—teachers being assigned by school administrators to teach subjects that do not match their training or education. I use data from the Schools and Staffing Survey—a large, comprehensive, nationally representative survey of teachers conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The results show that while most teachers, even in disadvantaged schools, hold basic qualifications, a significant proportion of these qualified teachers, especially in disadvantaged schools, are assigned to teach classes out of their fields. Data also show that out-of-field teaching is not primarily due to school hiring difficulties resulting from teacher shortages. In contrast, the analysis shows that a number of aspects of the administration and organization of schools are significantly related to out-of-field teaching. For example, school district regulations concerning minimal education requirements for new hires, the quality of principal leadership, the strategies schools use to cope with teacher recruitment and hiring, and average school class sizes all have an independent association with the extent of out-of-field teaching in schools, after controlling for other factors.Publication The Status of Teaching as a Profession(2018-01-01) Ingersoll, Richard; Collins, Gregory JPublication Understanding Supply and Demand Among Mathematics and Science Teachers(2006-01-01) Ingersoll, RichardFew educational problems have received more attention in recent years than the failure to ensure that elementary and secondary classrooms are staffed with qualified teachers. Severe teacher shortages, education researchers and policy makers have told us, are confronting our elementary and secondary schools. At the root of these problems, we are told, is a dramatic increase in the demand for new teachers resulting primarily from two converging demographic trends - increasing student enrollments and increasing teacher turnover due to a graying teaching force. Shortfalls of teachers, the argument continues, are forcing many school systems to resort to lowering standards to fill teaching openings, inevitably resulting in high levels of underqualified teachers and lower school performance.Publication A Researcher Encounters The Policy Realm: A Personal Tale(2008-01-01) Ingersoll, RichardThe failure to ensure that all of our nation's classrooms are staffed with qualified teachers is one of the most widely discussed, but least understood, problems facing our elementary and secondary schools. In recent years, dozens of reports and reform initiatives have sought to solve this problem. Unfortunately, the array of recent efforts do not address some of its key causes.Publication Is the Supply of Mathematics and Science Teachers Sufficient?(2010-09-01) Ingersoll, Richard; Perda, David AThis study seeks to empirically ground the debate over mathematics/science teacher shortages, and evaluate the extent to which there is, or is not, a sufficient supply of teachers in these fields. Our analyses of nationally representative data from multiple sources show that mathematics and science are the most difficult-to-staff fields, but the factors behind these problems are complex. There are multiple sources of new teachers; those with education degrees are a minor source compared to those with degrees in mathematics and science, and the reserve pool. Over the past two decades, graduation requirements, student course taking, and teacher retirements have all increased for mathematics and science, yet the new supply has more than kept pace. However, when preretirement teacher attrition is factored in, there is a much tighter balance between supply and demand. Unlike fields such as English, for mathematics/science there is not a large cushion of new supply relative to losses—resulting in staffing problems in schools with higher turnover.Publication Why So Many Underqualified High School Teachers?(1998-11-04) Ingersoll, RichardPublication The Impact of Induction and Mentoring Programs for Beginning Teachers: A Critical Review of the Research(2011-06-01) Ingersoll, Richard; Strong, MichaelThis review critically examines 15 empirical studies, conducted since the mid 1980s, on the effects of support, guidance, and orientation programs— collectively known as induction — for beginning teachers. Most of the studies reviewed provide empirical support for the claim that support and assistance for beginning teachers have a positive impact on three sets of outcomes: teacher commitment and retention, teacher classroom instructional practices, and student achievement. Of the studies on commitment and retention, most showed that beginning teachers who participated in some kind of induction had higher job satisfaction, commitment, or retention. For classroom instructional practices, the majority of studies reviewed showed that beginning teachers who participated in some kind of induction performed better at various aspects of teaching, such as keeping students on task, developing workable lesson plans, using effective student questioning practices, adjusting classroom activities to meet students’ interests, maintaining a positive classroom atmosphere, and demonstrating successful classroom management. For student achievement, almost all of the studies showed that students of beginning teachers who participated in some kind of induction had higher scores, or gains, on academic achievement tests. There were, however, exceptions to this overall pattern – in particular a large randomized controlled trial of induction in a sample of large, urban, low-income schools — which found significant positive effects on student achievement, but no effects on either teacher retention or teachers’ classroom practices. Our review closes by attempting to reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings and also by identifying gaps in the research base, and relevant questions that have not been addressed and warrant further research.