Dive Brief:
- Michael Marder, co-founder and co-director of UTeach, a prep program for future middle and high school science, technology, engineering and math teachers, argues in Education Week the STEM teacher shortage is the biggest obstacle to finally addressing the “urgent crisis” we face in these fields.
- Marder points to the 1983 “A Nation at Risk” report that compared the education system’s mediocrity to an act of war, had it been imposed by a foreign country, and he says the reason the problem has not been resolved in the 33 years since is because the nation doesn’t have enough incentives to draw students who major in STEM fields into teaching.
- Federal scholarships for STEM teachers are underfunded and the desire for better working conditions and higher salaries among prospective and current teachers is hard to offer, but companies that rely on a STEM workforce, who could be allies in the fight, often hire scientists and engineers from abroad, fueling the problem.
Dive Insight:
The New Jersey Center for Teaching and Learning has taken a different route to increasing the number of teachers in the state’s high schools prepared to teach physics. Executive Director Bob Goodman, a physicist by training and a former teacher, thought it would be easier to teach physics content than to train physicists to be good teachers. The center’s model is to find good teachers and help them learn the physics they need. His program is producing more physics teacher than any college in the country and a far more diverse cohort than physics programs traditionally attract, addressing two problems in one strategy.
The teacher shortage in STEM fields is dire and it often means students are learning these subjects from teachers who don’t have the training they should. Schools and districts have to get creative about solving the crisis and diversify their efforts. Trying in vain to attract physicists and engineers into the education field is not enough.
