According to a survey by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program at the University of California at Los Angeles, 6.3 percent of first-year college students say they would probably choose a career as an elementary school teacher, and 4 percent want to teach in a secondary school. These percentages are the highest since the early 1970s and nearly twice what they were at their low point, in 1982.
Several universities report that more students are interested in becoming teachers.
Harvard's Graduate School of Education, for example, has reported a 34 percent increase in applications since 1990. Horst Von Dorpowski, assistant dean in the College of Education at Penn State University also sees signs of progress. Many believe salaries will have to rise if the nation is to replace the thousands of teachers retiring in the next few years, as well as meet the demands for smaller class sizes and rising enrollments. Experts also say the image of teaching is changing. Michael Padilla, director of the School of Teacher Education at the University of Georgia, says enrollment has been pretty flat in recent years except at the master's level and specialist areas, such as reading and English as a second language.