[MenTeach: This is an interesting site that offers summary information about the states and universities with the highest percentage of men in education programs.]
Traditionally, most teachers and teacher education students have been women. However, an increasing number of male college students are enrolling in teacher education classes and choosing education as a major. Some teacher education departments are now seeing graduating classes where men are actually the majority.
Percentages of Male Teachers in the States
The National Education Association (NEA) has another rating system of interest to men entering teacher education programs. NEA’s report Rankings of the States 2012 and Estimates of School Statistics 2013, indicates that, in 2012, nearly one-fourth of the teachers in U.S. public schools were men.
According to the report, the states with the highest percentage of male teachers included Kansas with 33.1%, Oregon with 30.9%, Vermont with 30.2%, and Alaska with 30%. The states that had the lowest percentage of male teachers were Virginia with 17.5%, Mississippi with 17.9%, and Louisiana and South Carolina with 18.4% each.
Trends We Found
Interestingly, our two school lists indicated that men are more likely to major in education and related undergraduate teacher preparation programs when they are enrolled in a state college. There are some interesting regional trends as well. For example, Midwestern schools dominate the results of our highest numbers of male education graduates list, with Illinois and Indiana having multiple schools on this list with a significant number of male graduates.
For our list of highest percentage of male education graduates, southern universities dominate taking seven of ten spots on our list; Virginia alone has three institutions represented. Yet southern states have the lowest percentages of male teachers – Virginia with the lowest percentage of all states. Perhaps the south will catch up with the states with the highest percentages sooner than later!
On both lists, nearly every geographical region of the United States has at least one institution included in our rankings, but west coast universities are notably absent.Link here to see the reports and percentages.