That case for increased attention to mathematics and science education has a dual focus: the content of school mathematics and science and the quality of the teaching force. On both issues, the call for change has two dimensions: more and different. More students need more mathematics and science because of the emergence of data-based decision making as a universal skill required in the modern workplace, classroom, court room, legislative cloak room, living room, and voting booth. And as more students take more mathematics and science in legislatively-mandated smaller classes of a expanding population, more qualified teachers are needed at every level. As higher expectations regarding what all students should know and be able to do in mathematics and science are translated into new and different curricula that employ new teaching materials, methods, and technologies, a different kind of teacher is required. Over two million new — and different — teachers will be needed as three-quarters of the present teaching force leaves U.S. classrooms over the next decade.
The National Alliance of
State Science & Mathematics Coalitions
March 1998
Public school (K-12) education is big business. In 1997, that business operated in 56 U.S. states and jurisdictions. Its 110,000 schools were organized in 15,500 school districts that independently set the learning expectations for approximately 50 million students. Its capital outlay and operating budget of $335 billion included the salaries of 200,000 administrators and 2.7 million teachers. Of those 2.7 million teachers, 1.6 million taught mathematics and science in elementary schools and 300,000 taught mathematics and science in secondary schools. By 2007, as a result increasing student numbers and teacher retirements, the schools will need to hire approximately 1.2 million new elementary school teachers of mathematics and science and approximately 225,000 new teachers of secondary school teachers of mathematics and science. However, the hiring projection may err on the conservative side, since it assumes that changes in education and the economy during that decade will not stimulate students to take more mathematics and science than was the norm in 1997.
National Alliance of State Science and Mathematics Coalitions, 1999
Few states have directly linked standards for student learning in math and science (or other subjects) to state policies regarding recertification requirements, state and local funding for continuing education, or professional development for teachers. In most states, the subject of professional development is elected by the individual teacher, and most time spent in professional development or education for recertification is not linked to curriculum or standards.
Summary of Findings from
SSI and Recommendations for NSF’s Role with States
Council of Chief State School
Officers, 2001
National and state leadership should direct the design and implementation of teacher preparation/licensure and teacher professional development towards state and national content standards for science or mathematics education, rather than relying on discipline-based curricula for teachers (e.g., major in biology).
Summary of Findings from
SSI and Recommendations for NSF’s Role with States
Council
of Chief State School Officers, 2001
States need improved data to make informed policy decisions about the next generation of teachers. Currently, many states do not have adequate data or methods for addressing the supply and demand of qualified teachers of mathematics and science. Data should allow states to determine the adequacy of supply of certified elementary teachers vs. supply of qualified teachers of K-6 mathematics and science, in addition to the usual focus on qualified teachers of secondary math-science teachers. Finally, states need to make specific estimates of teacher-leaving rates, demand for middle and high school teachers, and numbers of graduates and new teachers entering the teaching force.
Summary of Findings from SSI and Recommendations for NSF’s Role with States
Council of Chief State School Officers, 2001
Teacher learning is relatively new as a research topic, so there is not a great deal of data on it. But the research that does exist, generally in the form of rich case studies, provides important information about teachers as they attempt to change their practices.
How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience, and School
National Academy of Sciences, 1999
A study of human learning by the National Research Council concludes that being deeply educated in a discipline (e.g., mathematics or science) does not guarantee the ability to teach others.
Expertise in a particular domain does not guarantee that one is good at helping others learn it. In fact, expertise can sometimes hurt teaching because many experts forget what is easy and what is difficult for students.
How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience, and School
National Academy of Sciences, 1999
A study of learning by the National Research Council notes that it is now a major objective of education to prepare students to apply what they have learned to new problems and in new settings. Such flexible transfer of learning to everyday life is not supported by rote memorizing of facts or performance of procedures in a single context. Effective teaching for transfer requires a balance of specific examples and general principles. Students must be challenged by similar but different cases of a problem, must engage in "what-if" problem solving, must generalize learnings, and must build the language needed to represent problems at increasingly higher levels of abstraction (e.g., pictures, tables, graphs, equations).
How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience, and School
National Academy of Sciences, 1999
In its analysis of the designs of learning environments, the National Research Council (NRC) points to the need for environments that support "sense-making." Students should expect new information to make sense, and they should ask for clarification when it doesn’t. Contrary to this need, the NRC report notes that many mathematics curricula do not support sense-making; rather, they are a "substitute for thinking." The emphasis of such curricula on practicing set routines disallows attention to ingenuity, guessing, challenging, and pursuit of interesting ideas. They are curricula that could be replaced by a five-dollar calculator, curricula in which there is no need for or use of human talents. Of course, students should learn to compute. However, they also must be called upon to make sense of mathematics and to "think mathematically."
How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience, and School
National Academy of Sciences, 1999
The most recent data available (1993-94) on nationwide vacancies indicate that 20% of the slots [in the teaching of middle school and high school mathematics and science] were filled by uncertified teachers .
Before It’s Too
Late
National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st
Century
U.S. Department of Education, 2000
An estimated 240,000 middle and high school mathematics and science teachers will be needed over the next 10 years.
Before It’s Too
Late
National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st
Century
U.S. Department of Education, 2000
Teachers in this country are scandalously underpaid … many teachers experience their jobs as exercises in irony: they are expected to have high-quality qualifications and skills, but they are neither accorded professional status nor rewarded with a professional’s salary.
Before It’s Too
Late
National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st
Century
U.S. Department of Education, 2000
In 1997, teachers earned an average of $35,048 -- 71% of the average earnings of a worker with a baccalaureate degree. Nationally, the average starting salary for teachers in 1997 was $25,735. Persons earning baccalaureate degrees in mathematics and science can make twice that salary in private industry.
Before It’s Too
Late
National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st
Century
U.S. Department of Education, 2000
Teachers make up a significant portion of the nation’s workforce.
Teacher Quality: Report
on the Preparation and Quality of Public School Teachers
National Center for Education Statistics, 1999
One-third of U.S. teachers have been teaching for 20 years or more. Schools will need to hire more than 2 million new teachers during the next decade.
Richard W. Riley
U.S. Secretary of Education, 1999
The United States spends $1.2 billion a year to recruit 186,000 men and women into our armed forces — 14,000 [men and women fewer] than teaching will need annually through 2006.
"Tackling America’s
Teacher Deficit"
Education Week, January 1998
In 1993-94, 43% of U.S. schools had teaching vacancies in mathematics, 36% had teaching vacancies in the physical sciences,and 32% had vacancies in the life sciences.
National Commission on Mathematics
and Science Teaching for the 21st Century
10 March 2000
Growth rates of 20% or more in school populations between 1997 and 2007 will be confined to six states: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, and Rhode Island. Eight states will experience declines in student populations: Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
All One System: A Second
Look
Institute for Educational Leadership, 1999
About 43 million Americans change their addresses each year; about 20% of the school population changes state or district.
All One System: A Second
Look
Institute for Educational Leadership, 1999
While 35% of all 18-to-24 year olds are in higher education, only 20% are living in college housing and going to college full time; about 43% of all postsecondary students are over age 25. However, very little is known about the percentage of entering students who go on to graduate.
All One System: A Second
Look
Institute for Educational Leadership, 1999
In 1997, precollege education in the United States was delivered by approximately 2.7 million teachers whose average annual salary was about $38,5000. Between 1997 and 2008, some 2.2 of those teachers will leave the system. During that same time, K-12 enrollment will rise from 52 million to 55 million.
Jack MacDonald
Council of Chief State School Officers
The demand for education professionals is increasing.
Future Trends Affecting
Education
Education Commission of the States, 1999
While the projected job growth from new positions in elementary education is 10%, the projected replacement demand for elementary teachers is 19%.
Workforce Economics
National Alliance of Business, June 1998
School officials surveyed in the nation's 200 largest school districts said they had more trouble this year than four years ago in attracting qualified teachers. They cited as reasons low salaries, an aging teacher force, and rising enrollments. The shortages were most severe for math, special education and bilingual teachers.
"Teachers' Low Pay
Turns Off Graduates, Study Says"
Boston Globe, 6/21/99
A national survey shows that more than 10 percent of all college freshmen say they want to teach in elementary or secondary schools, the highest percentage since the early 1970s. The survey of 300,000 freshmen at more than 600 American colleges and universities suggested that the shift in attitudes about teaching is being fueled by university students' search for meaningful work, concern about at-risk children and the national call for teachers.
"Despite Low Prestige
and Pay, More Answer the Call to Teach"
New York Times, 7/11/99
Alternative certification has been cited as a means of drawing older, more experienced professionals into K-12 classrooms. However, a study published in the Fall 1997 issue of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, a journal of the American Educational Research Association, reports that:
The study concluded that alternative certification led to a lower quality of teaching and that the United States "is taking a shortcut by staffing inner-city schools with less qualified teachers."
"Study Finds Alternative
Teachers Less Qualified, But Meeting Needs"
Education Week, January 1998
Urban schools are not competing well in the quest for teachers. Half of the teachers signing on with big city schools will quit within five years "as a result of stress, long hours and stress."
"Despite Low Prestige
and Pay, More Answer the Call to Teach"
New York Times, 7/11/99
Across the United States, state departments of education are proclaiming teacher shortages, especially in "critica"" areas such as mathematics, science, industrial technology, and special education. However, a recent study of teacher shortages in seven Midwestern states (IL, IN, IA, MI, MN, OH, WI) concluded that state governments have not gathered - and are not gathering - data necessary to develop long-term plans to attract, prepare, and retain an adequate supply quality teachers in key curriculum areas. Most Midwestern states do not have the information needed to make good policy decisions in these areas. Many states do not have information about issues such as the supply and demand for teachers, the number of teachers leaving the professions, and curricular areas encountering teacher shortages or surpluses.
Teacher Shortages in the
Midwest
North Central Regional Education Laboratory, 2000
Education experts on a panel at the annual conference of the Education Commission of the States this week said the US would do well to look to Japan and Singapore for advice on how to improve teacher quality. In those countries, the teaching profession is held in much higher regard, there are more incentives for people to enter the profession, there are enticements for experienced teachers to help younger colleagues, and teacher salaries are competitive with those of other professionals. As a result, said Kazuo Ishizaka, a dean at Gifu Shotoku Gakuen University in Japan, top students compete to enter the teaching profession.
"State Leaders Urged
to Look at Japan and Singapore for Ways to Improve Teacher Quality"
Chronicle of Higher Education, 6/14/99
Thirty-one of the 50 states require a major or minor in the subject to be taught at the secondary school level; 21 states require a major.
Key State Education Policies
on K-12 Education
Council of Chief State School Officers, 1998
In 50% of the states, elementary school teacher certification extends through grade 8. Twelve states require from 6 to 12 hours of mathematics and from 4 to 12 hours in science for certification.
Key State Education Policies
on K-12 Education
Council of Chief State School Officers, 1998
In high schools (grades 9-12), approximately 10 percent of the persons teaching mathematics are "out of field" — that is, who do not have at least a college minor in mathematics. If all secondary grades (7-12) are included, the figure is are 18 percent. Moreover, the percentage of out-of-field teachers is a function of poverty as measured by the percent of students in the school who are qualified for free lunch.
Teacher Quality: Report on the Preparation and Quality of Public School Teachers
National Center for Education
Statistics, 1999
National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st
Century
10 March 2000
In high schools (grades 9-12), approximately 6 percent of the persons teaching science are "out of field" — that is, who do not have at least a college minor in science. If all secondary grades (7-12) are included, the figure is are 12 percent. Moreover, the percentage of out-of-field teachers is a function of poverty as measured by the percent of students in the school who are qualified for free lunch.
Teacher Quality: Report
on the Preparation and Quality of Public School Teachers
National Center for Education Statistics, 1999
National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st
Century
10 March 2000
Abut 56% of high school students are taking physical science from teachers who are "teaching out of field" — that is, teacher who do not have a major or minor in the subject. About 27% of high school students taking mathematics are taught by out-of-field teachers; while that percentage is half of the figure for physical science, the number of mathematics students affected is vastly larger than the number in physical science.
National Commission on Mathematics
and Science Teaching for the 21st Century
10 March 2000
A first-in-the-nation law requires Texas school superintendents to notify parents that their children are being taught by teachers who are either unlicensed or teaching with emergency credentials. The first letters went out
this fall. Texas has more than 12,000 teachers working on emergency permits and 40,000 teaching without proper licensing. The law does not require notification concerning the large number of Texas teachers who are licensed but who are working outside their fields of expertise.
"Texas Notifies Parents
of Teachers' Shortcomings"
Education Week, 3 November 1999
The attrition problem among younger teachers is so acute that it outweighs retirement as a cause of teacher shortages. A study of US Department of Education data concluded that 49 percent of teachers who leave the profession every year are either dissatisfied or switching careers. In contrast, only about 27 percent are retiring.
"New Teachers Abandon
Field At High Rate"
Education Week, 17 March 1999
Four out of ten mathematics and science teachers leave the profession because of job dissatisfaction; about 57% of these site salary as the deciding factor. By contrast, 29% leave because of student discipline problems, and 21% leave because of poor student motivation.
National Commission on Mathematics
and Science Teaching for the 21st Century
10 March 2000
The percentage of New York City's high school science teachers lacking state certification doubled in four years, from 16.5 percent in 1992-93 to 30.4 percent in 1996-97. Also, as of 1996-97, more than 20 percent of mathematics teachers were uncertified.
New York Times
2 March 1999
While Virginia's middle schools will need more than 300 new math and science teachers each year to replace retirees, the report found, the state's schools of education are producing fewer than 20 a year.
Roanoke Times
"Universities Producing Far Fewer Candidates Than Needed"
25 September 1999
An estimated 50 percent of the aspiring teachers in the country would flunk teacher certifying exams in Maryland under new minimum passing scores approved today by the state Board of Education. The high cutoff scores are
intended to put pressure on school districts that have hired a large number of teachers who lack state credentials.
Washington Post
24 February 1999
The Los Angeles Unified School District is only able to fill about 90 percent of daily substitute requests these days, compared with 97 percent just three years ago. In some sections of the city the average is 60 percent. As a result, at least 70 classrooms must be broken up every day; children are redistributed into other rooms that are generally teaching different curricula.
Los Angeles Times
28 February 1999
The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification reports that only 28 states require prospective teachers to pass examinations in the subject areas they plan to teach, and only 13 states test them on their teaching skills.
Preparing Our Children: Math and Science Education in the National Interest
National Science Board, 1999
I once asked a group of American teachers to create a lesson plan. They took 15 minutes to do it. ... The American plans always say what the teacher is going to do. the Japanese plans ask what the students are going to think if the teacher does this. ... Then I asked one of the American teachers to teach the lesson. ... It was a complete
disaster; everything went wrong. ... American teachers don't have any experience jointly talking about instruction. When they get together, they don't talk about lessons. They talk about all manner of other professional and personal issues but almost never discuss how they actually teach their students.
Lessons in Perspective:
How Culture Shapes Math Instruction in Japan, Germany and the United States
California State University Institute for Education Reform,1997
While doctors and lawyers routinely confer with colleagues, teachers often remain isolated in classrooms. Over 70 percent of teachers say that dedicated time for team planning improves their teaching a lot or moderately. Yet the allotment of team planning time for teachers is an uncommon practice.
Teacher Quality: A Report
on the Preparation and Qualifications of Public School Teachers
National Center for Education Statistics,1999
Research correlating effective teaching — where effective teaching is defined in terms of student performance — with the college preparation of teachers has shown that mathematics teachers were more effective if they had a degree in mathematics education than if they had a bachelor's degree in mathematics without an education concentration.
Teacher Licensing and
Student Achievement
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, 1999
The annual capital outlay and operating budget of the K-12 education business in the U.S. exceeds $300 billion. What percentage of that budget goes to employee development? What percentage should go to employee development?
In fact, little is known about how much of America's K-12 education budget is invested in the continuing education of its employees. For what might be invested, consider the following data from the business world as reported by the National Alliance of Business.
[REVIEWER'S NOTE: Recent data on training procedures and expenditures of corporations can be found at the website of the American Society for Training and Development (http://www.astd.org/virtual_community/research). For instance, recent statistics on 750 companies include reporting of an average education investment of 2.3% of payroll; for the 55 "leading-edge" firms, the average was 4.4%.]
Workforce Economics,
June 1997
National Alliance of Business
The typical U.S. school invests only 0.5 percent of its budget on raising the abilities of its staff. The typical private-sector company spends about four times that much.
Fitting the Pieces: Education
Reform That Works
U.S. Department of Education Office of Research and Improvement, 1996