In 1987-88, the typical schoolteacher in rural America was a white woman with about 13 years of experience, according to a survey by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Over all, nearly 7 out of 10 teachers in rural areas that school year were women, according to the survey. The percentage was highest at the elementary level, where 87.2 percent of the public-school, and 90.5 percent of the private-school, teachers were women. In secondary schools, the faculties were about evenly divided between the sexes.
Nearly 93 percent of the teachers were white; in private schools, the figure was about 95 percent, the data show.
The overwhelming majority of teachers in rural schools that year had at least a bachelor’s degree, the data show. Of teachers in private elementary schools, however, 12.4 percent had no degree, and 1.6 percent had only an associate’s degree. The remainder had at least a bachelor’s degree.
The data were obtained during the Schools and Staffing Survey conducted by the nces They include information on more than 12,000 teachers in schools defined by their administrators as being in rural or farming communities or on American Indian reservations.
More information is available from Joyce D. Stern, Programs for the Improvement of Practice, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20208-5651.
