Five years into teaching high school math, Tonya Clarke glimpsed the career path she would have taken if she had only known it existed: actuarial scientist, a profession that relies on a deep understanding of statistics to assess risk and figure out how to minimize it.
Median pay is upward of $106,000, and you don鈥檛 have to help run active-shooter drills.
As a college student in the 1990s, Clarke, now the coordinator of K-12 mathematics for the Clayton County school district in suburban Atlanta, wasn鈥檛 sure what to do with her bachelor鈥檚 in mathematics. She didn鈥檛 get much direction from advisers, even though her transcript full of coding classes could have pointed to computer programming or engineering.
At the time, those fields were even whiter and more male-dominated than they are today. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think anyone that I was seeking guidance from saw that for me,鈥� said Clarke, a Black woman.
Instead, when her mother reminded her how much she had loved tutoring in an after-school program and asked why she didn鈥檛 become a teacher, Clarke took her advice. By the time she stumbled on actuarial science鈥攊ronically, while researching careers that relied on math to engage her students鈥擟larke had two children and a mortgage on a brand-new house. She wasn鈥檛 about to stop working and go back to school, even for a profession that could lead to greater fulfillment and higher pay.
For nearly a century, public schools have operated on the backs of the Tonya Clarkes of the world. Intelligent, hardworking, creative women who take on a demanding job known for its low pay, narrow advancement opportunities, and bureaucratic headaches, in part because their options were limited.
To be sure, many women love working with children, have a genuine passion for the subject they鈥檙e teaching, or both, like Clarke. But if someone had pointed the way to another path for their talents and passions, they may have made a different choice.
This story is part of a special project called Big Ideas in which EdWeek reporters ask hard questions about K-12 education鈥檚 biggest challenges and offer insights based on their extensive coverage and expertise.
It鈥檚 a positive development that these days, a 20-something woman with a facility for math would be far more likely to hear about a career like actuarial science than Clarke was. But how many Tonya Clarkes are entering the classroom now, as doors for all sorts of professions open ever wider for women, just as demands on teachers spiral to a point that feels unsustainable, even for the most dedicated?
It鈥檚 hard to imagine a profession with a more vital mission. But when it comes to other important aspects of a job鈥攑ay, working conditions, opportunities for advancement鈥攕chool districts are still operating largely as if the labor market for women hasn鈥檛 changed in the last half century.
Becoming a teacher became an option for women around the mid-19th century. But for years afterward, female teachers would often have to resign if they got married or became pregnant.
It wasn鈥檛 until the middle of the 20th century, in fact, that those conditions changed. 鈥淭he career opened up so women could actually make a lifetime commitment to teaching,鈥� said Susan Moore Johnson, a professor of education at Harvard University. 鈥淣ursing and teaching, those were the two professions鈥� that a college-educated woman could choose, 鈥渁nd it鈥檚 not incidental that they are caring professions.鈥�
Even though women now have access to many other lines of work鈥攍aw, medicine, the vice presidency鈥攖he teaching profession remains roughly three quarters female, while the upper echelons of school districts remain majority male.
It鈥檚 worth noting that women have made progress in the principalship鈥攎ore than half of principals are now women, which is more reflective of the population at large. But fewer than a third of superintendents are female.
In many respects, the profession is still conceived in much the way it was over a century ago, said Julia Rafal-Baer, the founder of Women Leading Ed, a national network of women education leaders, and a former special education teacher and current member of the National Assessment Governing Board. Back then, school districts wanted both 鈥渆fficiency and oversight over this largely young, single female population鈥� of teachers, she said.
Superintendents were envisioned as 鈥渇atherlike figures鈥� to keep them in line, Rafal-Baer said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more than 150 years later, and what I have come to believe is the system is just doing exactly what it was designed to do,鈥� she said, primarily allowing male superintendents to manage a chiefly female teaching force.
For more than two decades, experts and educators have warned of a coming crisis in K-12 education, when schools can no longer count a steady stream of smart, caring women to do a job with an ever-increasing to-do list.
Ninety percent of teachers and administrators believe that the demands placed on teachers are too high and that is why it has been hard to attract and retain people in the profession, according to a nationally representative EdWeek Research Center survey of 1,301 educators conducted this summer.
What鈥檚 more, educators believe the profession鈥檚 heavily female tilt is a big part of the reason for teachers鈥� low salaries and little public regard. Seventy percent of educators surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center say teachers get paid poorly in part because they are in a female-dominated profession, while 58 percent say that the perception of teaching as women鈥檚 work translates to a lack of public respect.
Forty-two percent say that the female dominance in the profession discourages young people from going into teaching. And while 51 percent see the impact as neutral, only 7 percent say it has a positive impact on recruitment.
Teachers are essentially CEOs of their own mini-corporations, managing as many as 150 employees, including some fairly disgruntled ones. They spend all day on their feet, and then they plan lessons, do bus duty, make restroom passes and bulletin boards, master new technology, grade papers, create reading programs, hold detention, staff the prom, and yes, help run active-shooter drills.
Does any other sector expect workers to shell $750 out of their own pockets a year to get students $5 Starbucks gift cards as a reward for arriving to class on time?
To paraphrase a teacher I interviewed for a story on the inadequacy of many districts鈥� self-care initiatives: Would anyone tell a male construction worker鈥攐r even a male teacher鈥攚ho felt depleted after work to take a hot bath and download a mindfulness app?
The implicit message behind it all: If you have a problem with low pay, a dizzying to-do list, and spending your own money to supplement an inadequate budget, then you must not really care about children.
Would anyone tell a male construction worker鈥攐r even a male teacher鈥攚ho felt depleted after work to take a hot bath and download a mindfulness app?
鈥淚t鈥檚 a little bit of a patriarchal assumption that we hired these people to make the magic happen. And they鈥檙e gonna do whatever it takes to make the magic happen, and [the district doesn鈥檛] have to enhance anything,鈥� said Louise Williamson, a roughly 30-year veteran English teacher in Southern California who has served as a fellow with TeachPlus, a nonprofit dedicated to improving the profession.
In some ways, the pile of expectations on educators feels like a natural extension of a working world where mothers are expected to return to the office just weeks after giving birth and cough up nearly $13,000 a year for child care, while .
To be sure, this crisis has been obvious for some time.
Back in 2000, schools were expected to face a mass retirement of teachers, just as women were being recruited for law school, computer science, engineering and other prestigious professions, according to an Education Week opinion piece Harvard鈥檚 Moore Johnson wrote that year.
To attract bright, ambitious people to the profession in this new environment, districts would need to create more career ladders for teachers, as well as bolster mentorship and other support opportunities for novice educators, she recommended鈥攏early a quarter-century ago. They would also need to boost salaries, offer differentiated pay, and foster a more collaborative working environment.
Most importantly, they would need to give teachers more control over what happens in their schools. 鈥淔ar too many teachers, both new and experienced, find their best efforts routinely compromised by large classes, fragmented schedules, inadequate supplies, nonteaching duties, decrepit buildings, and irrelevant demands for paperwork,鈥� Moore Johnson wrote at the time.
Fast forward a quarter century, and Moore Johnson鈥檚 piece still feels on point. While there have been some improvements in terms of leadership and collaboration in some districts, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the job and certainly not the pay have kept pace with the competition for women who want to be professionals,鈥� Moore Johnson said in a recent interview.
69传媒 don鈥檛 have another two decades to figure this out. Between the 2008-09 and the 2018-19 academic years, the number of people completing a teacher education program declined by almost a third, according to a report released last year by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education. Traditional teacher-preparation programs saw the largest decline鈥�35 percent鈥攂ut alternative programs experienced drops, too, the report found.
As with so many other things, the pandemic poured accelerant on two realities that will make it even harder for school districts to entice the next generation of Clarkes to become teachers.
First, dealing with COVID-19 and its aftermath has made educators鈥� already demanding jobs harder, what with plummeting test scores, as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and mounting mental health problems, particularly among children, not to mention a difficult political climate.
But it also bolstered another trend: remote work.
Until recently, many women might choose a career in education in part because it would allow them more flexibility to raise a family. But, as more businesses offer flexible work options, education may no longer be as attractive an option to working parents鈥攐r anyone who likes the idea of work-life balance.
鈥淭eaching was traditionally a career that women might be drawn to if they really wanted to prioritize family, but it鈥檚 no longer the best option,鈥� said Williamson, the Southern California English teacher. 鈥淚 will tell you every single one of my teaching friends right now is out on LinkedIn, open to offers, trying to figure out the transition out of education.鈥�
Meanwhile, educators like Clarke, a 2023 Education Week Leader To Learn From, are still showing the outsized impact smart women who have spent their careers in education can have on thousands of children. She is heading up a districtwide effort to push students toward deeper numerical thinking. Her work has already helped transform many teachers鈥� mindsets about the power of math.
Williamson is planning her upcoming retirement party. She鈥檚 trying to whittle down the number of former students to include on the guest list because she鈥檚 in touch with so many of them.
Williamson sees people she taught 鈥渙ut in the world鈥攁ctors, professors, artists, city leaders,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat other career do you get that? You get this sense of 鈥榯his community is what it is partly because of me.鈥� Teaching offers something unique and special. It鈥檚 just some of the baggage that comes with it drives people away, and I think it drives people away who would be great.鈥�
