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##  Out-of-Field Teaching. ERIC Digest.                                          

The phenomenon of out-of-field teaching--teachers teaching subjects             for which they have little education or training--has long been a               crucial but relatively unrecognized problem in schools (Robinson,               1985). It is a crucial issue because highly qualified teachers may              in actuality become highly unqualified if they are assigned to teach            subjects for which they have little training or education. And                  unqualified teachers may negatively impact student achievement.                 There has been little national recognition of this problem, however,            because of an absence of accurate data. This situation was remedied             in the 1990s with the release of the Schools and Staffing                       Survey (SASS), a major survey of the nation's elementary and                    secondary schools and teachers conducted by the National Center for             Education Statistics (NCES), the statistical arm of the U.S.                    Department of Education. 
Since the release of SASS, NCES has                  sponsored a number of projects using this survey to profile the                 extent of out-of-field teaching in the U.S. (e.g., Ingersoll, 1995,             1996; Bobbitt and McMillen, 1995; Smerdon, 1999).  This research has            documented that out-of-field teaching is an ongoing problem in a                wide range of schools across the nation. This digest reviews what               the research has shown on the extent and causes of this                         problem. THE EXTENT OF OUT-OF-FIELD TEACHINGEmpirical                     measurement of the extent of under qualified teaching is difficult              because there is surprisingly little consensus on how to define                 a "qualified teacher." Although there is almost universal agreement             that student learning is affected by the qualifications of teachers,            there is much disagreement concerning how much and which types of               education and training teachers ought to receive and which kinds of             credentials states ought to require of new teachers. (For a review              of the research on the relationship between teacher qualifications              and student achievement, see National Commission on Teaching and                America's Future, 1996, 1997). 
As a result, analysts have used a              variety of different measures of out-of-field teaching, each with               strengths and weaknesses and each resulting in different estimates              of the extent of the problem. Some measures focus on whether                    teachers have teaching certificates and others focus on whether                 teachers have undergraduate or graduate degrees in the fields they              teach. Measures of out-of-field teaching also vary according to                 whether they focus on the number of teachers in out-of-field                    placements or the number of students exposed to it, according to                which fields and subjects are examined, and according to which grade            levels are investigated. (For a comparison of different measures,               see Bobbitt and McMillen, 1995; or Ingersoll, 2000.) 
The most                 commonly used measure of out-of-field teaching adopts a minimal                 definition of a qualified teacher. This measure assesses how many of            those teaching core academic subjects (English, social studies,                 math, science) at the secondary level do not have either a major or             a minor in their teaching fields. A college minor, of course, does              not guarantee quality teaching, nor even a qualified teacher. The               assumption underlying this measure is that secondary-level teachers             of academic subjects ought to have, as a minimum prerequisite, at               least a college minor in the subjects they teach. 
The SASS data               show that even using this minimal standard there are high levels of             out-of-field teaching. For example, over one quarter of all                     secondary school students enrolled in math classes are taught by                teachers who do not have at least a college minor in math, math                 education, or related disciplines like engineering or physics. About            one quarter of all secondary school English teachers have neither a             major or minor in English or related subjects such as literature,               communications, speech, journalism, English education, or reading               education. About a fifth of social studies teachers are without at              least a minor in any of the social sciences, public affairs, social             studies education, or history. 
Since the mid-1990s these and other            SASS data on out-of-field teaching have been widely reported and                commented upon in the national media and featured in numerous major             education reports. As a result, the problem of out-of-field teaching            has become a major concern in the realm of educational policy.                  Despite this attention, however, a great deal of misunderstanding               surrounds the problem of out-of-field teaching, especially in regard            to the  crucial question of why so many teachers are teaching                   subjects for which they have little background. THE SOURCES OF                OUT-OF-FIELD TEACHINGMany assume that out-of-field teaching is a            problem of poorly educated teachers and can be remedied by more                 rigorous standards for teacher education and training. Typically,               those subscribing to this view assume that the source of the problem            lies in a lack of academic coursework on the part of teachers that              can be remedied by requiring prospective teachers to complete                   a "real" undergraduate major in an academic discipline or                       speciality. The data show, however, the source of out-of-field                  teaching lies not in the amount of education teachers have, but in a            lack of fit between teachers' fields of training and their teaching             assignments.  Hence, reforms designed to upgrade the training of                teachers will not eliminate out-of-field teaching, if large numbers             of such teachers continue to be miss-assigned by their                          principals. 
A second, and also popular, explanation of the problem            of out-of-field teaching blames teacher shortages. This view holds              that shortfalls in the number of available teachers, caused by a                combination of increasing student enrollments and a "graying"                   teaching force, have led many school systems to resort to lowering              standards to fill teaching openings, the net effect of which is                 out-of-field teaching. The data show, however, there are two                    problems with the shortage explanation for out-of-field teaching.               First, it cannot explain the high levels of out-of-field teaching               that the data indicate exist in fields, such as English and social              studies, that have long been known to have surpluses. Second,                   teacher shortages have been exaggerated (Ingersoll, 1999b). The data            show that in recent years it is only a minority of schools that                 actually have any trouble filling their teaching vacancies with                 qualified candidates. And, moreover, most out-of-field teaching                 takes place in schools that report no difficulties finding qualified            candidates for their openings. For example, less than one tenth of              secondary schools had any difficulty filling their openings for                 English teachers in 1993, but in that same year, a quarter of all               public school English teachers were uncertified in English.                     Likewise, in that year only one sixth of secondary schools reported             problems filling their openings for math teachers, but a third of               all math teachers had neither a major or minor in math. 
Rather                than deficits in the qualifications and quantity of teachers, recent            analyses of the SASS data suggest the source of out-of-field                    teaching lies in the way schools and teachers are managed. The data             show that the allocation of teaching assignments is usually the                 prerogative of school principals, and the latter have an unusual                degree of discretion in staffing decisions. The training of teachers            is subject to an elaborate array of state licensing requirements,               but there is far less regulation of how teachers are utilized once              on the job (Robinson, 1985). In this context, principals may find               that assigning teachers to teach out of their fields is often not               only legal but more convenient, less expensive, and less time                   consuming than the alternatives. For example, rather than find and              hire a new science teacher to teach a newly state-mandated science              curriculum, a principal may find it more convenient to assign a                 couple of English and social studies teachers to each "cover" a                 section or two in science. If a teacher suddenly leaves in the                  middle of a semester, a principal may find it faster and cheaper to             hire a readily available, but not fully qualified, substitute                   teacher, rather than conduct a formal search for a new teacher. The             degree to which a school is faced with problems of recruitment or               retention may shape the extent to which the principal relies on                 these options, but the data show they are available to almost all               schools and used by many. (For a detailed presentation of the data              on the causes of out-of-field teaching, see Ingersoll 1999a,                    2001.) CONCLUSIONTeacher quality has been an important concern            of education reformers and as a result, the issue of out-of-field               teaching has received a lot of attention in recent years. The                   research shows however, that solving this problem requires more than            simply recruiting and training able candidates--the reforms most                often advocated. The data show that solving this problem requires               understanding how teachers are managed once on the                              job. REFERENCESNote: NCES publications can be obtained from:              nces.ed.gov/pubsearch 
Bobbitt, S. & McMillen, M. (1995).                      Qualifications of The Public School Teacher Workforce: 1988-1991.               Washington, DC: National Center for Education                                   Statistics. 
Ingersoll, R. (1995). Teacher Supply, Teacher Quality             and Teacher Turnover. Washington, DC: National Center for Education             Statistics. 
Ingersoll, R. (1996). Out-of-Field Teaching and                   Educational Equality. Washington, DC: National Center for Education             Statistics. 
Ingersoll, R. (1999a). The problem of under qualified             teachers in American secondary schools. Educational Researcher                  28(2),                                                                          26-37. (www.aera.net/pubs/er/arts/28-02/ingsoll01.htm) 
Ingersoll,             R. (1999b). Teacher Turnover, Teacher Shortages and the Organization            of Schools. Center for Study of Teaching and Policy, University of              Washington (www.ctpweb.org) 
Ingersoll, R. (2000). Measuring                   Out-of-Field Teaching. Forthcoming manuscript. 
Ingersoll,                     R. (2001) Teacher Quality and Educational Inequality. Center for                Study of Teaching and Policy, University of Washington. 
Robinson,             V. (1985). Making Do in the Classroom: A Report on the                          Miss-assignment of Teachers. Washington, D.C.: Council for Basic                Education and American Federation of Teachers. 
Smerdon, B. (1999).            Teacher Quality: A Report on the Preparation and Qualifications of              Public School Teachers. Washington, DC: National Center for                     Education Statistics. 
National Commission on Teaching and                     America's Future (1996). What Matters Most: Teaching for America's              Future. New York: National Commission on Teaching and America's                 Future. 
National Commission on Teaching and America's                         Future (1997). Doing What Matters Most: Investing in Quality                    Teaching. New York: National Commission on Teaching and America's               Future. 
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This project has been funded at least in part with            Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of                  Educational Research and Improvement, under contract number                     ED-99-CO-0007. The content of this publication does not necessarily             reflect the views of or policies of the U.S. Department of Education            nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or                        organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.                      **Title:** Out-of-Field Teaching. ERIC Digest.                                          **Document Type:** Information Analyses---ERIC Information Analysis Products (IAPs) (071); Information Analyses---ERIC Digests (Selected) in Full Text (073); **Available From:** ERIC Clearinghouse on Teaching and Teacher Education, American                  Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1307 New York Avenue,            N.W., Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005-4701; Tel: 202-293-2450;r Tel:            800-822-9229 (Toll Free); e-mail: [email protected]. For full text:               http://www.ericsp.org.                                                       **Descriptors:** Elementary Secondary Education,  Misassignment of Teachers, Teacher             Placement, Teacher Qualifications, Teacher Shortage,                            Teaching (Occupation)                                                        **Identifiers:** ERIC Digests,  Out of Field Teacher Assignment                               
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