Today s prospective teacher is much more likely to be older.
Almost one third of the people who completed a teacher preparation program in 1998 already held a bachelor s degree. In the past year, more than half of the people admitted to teacher preparation programs came from occupations outside education. More than a third had teacher related experience such as serving as a substitute teacher, teacher s aide, or paraprofessional. Those teacher candidates tended to be older around thirty than the traditional undergraduate interested in becoming a teacher and were more likely to be male. They were also more likely to be members of minority groups.