Percentage of public elementary and secondary school teachers who have regular certification or probationary certification (only requiring fulfillment of a probationary employment period.

Sub-categories

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Headline data

Percent of US public school pre-primary teachers with certification
Year Value
1999 90.07415859
2003 93.547
2007 92.55402794
2011 93.915
2015 93.863
2017 93.45
2020 92.6

Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey; National Teacher and Principal Survey

Geographical Area:

Unit of Measurement:

Footnote:

This table provides metadata for the actual indicator available from United States statistics closest to the corresponding global SDG indicator. Please note that even when the global SDG indicator is fully available from American statistics, this table should be consulted for information on national methodology and other American-specific metadata information.

Indicator

Percentage of public elementary and secondary school teachers who have regular certification or probationary certification (only requiring fulfillment of a probationary employment period.
Organisation

National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey; National Teacher and Principal Survey
Unit of measure

Teacher
Data sources

National Center for Education Statistics, Schools and Staffing Survey; National Teacher and Principal Survey
Data providers

Tom Snyder
Comment and limitations

Coverage of prekindergarten teachers is only partial. Many teachers teach more than one academic level, and included in the tabulation as multiple levels.
Method of computation

Using nationally representative sample of public school teachers, percentage of teachers with regular or probationary certification.
Actual indicator available - description

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) was conducted by NCES seven times between 1987 through 2011. SASS was an integrated study public and private school districts, schools, principals, and teachers designed to provide descriptive data on the context of elementary and secondary education. SASS covered a wide range of topics from teacher demand, teacher and principal characteristics, general conditions in schools, principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of school climate and problems in their schools, teacher compensation, district hiring and retention practices, to basic characteristics of the student population. After 2011–12, NCES redesigned SASS and named it the National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) to reflect the redesigned study’s focus on the teacher and principal labor market and on the state of K-12 school staff. NCES first conducted NTPS in 2015–16 and released data in 2017. Variable name Description of variable pctteachers_prep Percent of public school teachers with certification, preprimary pctteachers_prim Percent of public school teachers with certification, primary pctteachers_lowersec Percent of public school teachers with certification, lower secondary pctteachers_uppersec Percent of public school teachers with certification, upper secondary pctteachers_multiple levels Percent of public school teachers with certification, multiple levels
Date of national source publication

2017-8-15
Periodicity

Data collected every 4 years
Scheduled update by national source

2019
Date metadata updated

2017-10-13
Disaggregation geography

NA
Disaggregation categories

Teacher level of instruction
Time period

1999-2000, 2003-04, 2007-08, 2011-12, and 2015-16

This table provides information on metadata for SDG indicators as defined by the UN Statistical Commission. Complete global metadata is provided by the UN Statistics Division.

Indicator

Indicator 4.c.1: Proportion of teachers with the minimum required qualifications, by education level
Target

Target 4.c: By 2030, substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers, including through international cooperation for teacher training in developing countries, especially least developed countries and small island developing States
Organisation

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCO-UIS)
Definition and concepts

Definition:

The percentage of teachers by level of education taught (pre-primary, primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education) who have received at least the minimum organized pedagogical teacher training pre-service and in-service required for teaching at the relevant level in a given country.

Concepts:

A teacher is trained if they have received at least the minimum organized pedagogical teacher training pre-service and in-service required for teaching at the relevant level in a given country.
Unit of measure

Percent (%)
Data sources

Administrative data from schools and other organized learning centres.
Data providers

Ministries of Education and/or National Statistical Offices.
Comment and limitations

It is important to note that national minimum training requirements can vary widely from one country to the next. This variability between countries lessens the usefulness of global tracking because the indicator would only show the percent reaching national standards, not whether teachers in different countries have similar levels of training. Further work would be required if a common standard for teacher training is to be applied across countries.
Method of computation

The number of teachers in a given level of education who are trained is expressed as a percentage of all teachers in that level of education.

P T T n = T T n T n

where:

PTTn = percentage of trained teachers at level n of education

TTn = trained teachers at level n of education

Tn = total teachers at level n of education

n = 02 (pre-primary), 1 (primary), 2 (lower secondary), 3 (upper secondary) and 23 (secondary)
Metadata update

2024-08-02
International organisations(s) responsible for global monitoring

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UNESCO-UIS)
Related indicators

4.7.1, 12.8.1, 13.3.1.
UN designated tier

2
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