MORE MEN APPLY, BUT MORE WOMEN ARE HIRED

More men than women apply for teaching jobs, but men are less likely to be hired, according to a study by the private National Center for Education Information.

Its study found that men accounted for only 29 percent of public school teachers but 54 percent of applicants, while 78 percent of newly hired teachers were women.

The study also found that men were more likely to be pursuing nonteaching careers when they applied for classroom jobs.

Those least likely to be hired, however, currently were in occupations outside of education, had never taught before, and were male.

C. Emily Feistritzer, director of the research group, said this is partly due to men's attitudes. The study showed men are more in favor of national tests to measure student achievement and more inclined to support the ideas of allowing parents to select their children's schools or of requiring students to perform well at one grade level before being passed on to the next.