Dive Brief:
- The Hillsborough and Polk County Public Schools in Florida received a three-year, $4.5 million Math-Science Partnership Grant in 2014 from the state's Department of Education to improve professional development opportunities for teachers of science, technology, engineering or math courses.
- Larry Plank, director of K-12 STEM education in Hillsborough County, and Tomeka Thompson, the program coordinator for the mathematics and science partnerships program in Polk County, write for eSchool News that about one-third of middle school math and science, as well as high school chemistry and physics, teachers didn’t major in those fields and don’t have certificates to teach them.
- Through summer institutes, STEM certification courses and STEM writer academies, the districts aim to improve content knowledge and teaching skills among participants, and they do it by actively engaging teachers in PD, taking an inquiry-based approach, incorporating tools from the classroom, emphasizing content over technology, and giving teachers a chance to learn from each other.
Dive Insight:
The national teacher shortage often leaves schools and districts at a loss when it comes to filling math and science courses, especially. These are fields where college majors can make much more money by taking their skills to industry rather than education. A recent survey of California school districts found special education teachers were also particularly scarce.
To fill open positions, schools have to make compromises, and these compromises often include asking teachers to teach courses they’re not content experts in. With proper professional development, this may not be so bad. Some people believe teaching is the harder skill, compared to mastering content. But districts need to make sure teachers have a way to get the skills they need to teach new courses outside their areas of expertise, and high-quality professional development curricula are an important component of doing so.
