The Shortage of Science Teachers

Abstract

Science deserves plaudits for focusing on the crisis in science education resulting from the lack of properly qualified K-12 teachers in the nation's public schools (News Focus Special: Preparing Teachers, 1 June, pp. 1270-1279). Calling attention to efforts in several states to engage research universities will hopefully begin to address the problem. Unfortunately, the supply side of this issue is only one of several critical, interacting elements of a complex sociopolitical system that is typically controlled or redesigned one element at a time. Focusing only on the supply side is a losing strategy. Let me give examples from California, with which I am most familiar. If all the graduates of California's public universities who have majored in math in a given year became credentialed teachers in the state, the numbers would still fall short of the projected demand for math teachers in the decade ahead. A second major problem is teacher retention, particularly in hard-to-staff, low-performing schools where “working conditions” are a major factor and where underprepared teachers are predominantly located ([1][1]). Teacher attrition in the first 1 to 4 years diminishes the importance placed on increasing the number of entrants ([2][2]). The typical explanation for this phenomenon that a teacher would give is that it stems from the loss of professional status in the teaching profession as a consequence of overemphasis on testing and rigid adherence to standards-based instruction. Teachers no longer enjoy the privilege of controlling delivery of curricula and thus acting as professionals, i.e., exercising judgment in the conduct of their classes. ![Figure][3] CREDIT: GETTYIMAGES.COM Finally, teachers with whom I have worked value time above compensation. No university administration expects its faculty to spend the entire day standing in front of a class. Teachers in K-12 need time for collegial activity and professional development to discuss content and pedagogy and, above all, to reduce the sense of isolation that dominates their lives. As an engineering scholar, it is painfully clear to me that the public educational system will never function properly until policy and practice are consonant with a properly designed, controlled, and resourced system. As long as policy-makers continue to tinker with only selected parts of the problem, the “Gathering Storm” will continue to gain energy. If K-12 were an airplane, it never would have taken off. 1. 1.[↵][4] The Status of the Teaching Profession 2005 (The Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning, Santa Cruz, CA, 2005), pp. 82-84. 2. 2.[↵][5] California Postsecondary Education Commission, Winter 2006 Request for Proposals, Retention of Math and Science Teachers, footnote, p. 3. [1]: #ref-1 [2]: #ref-2 [3]: pending:yes [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1. in text [5]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2. in text