Ryan ChartrandIt all comes down to a simple equation.
Fewer math teachers + fewer science teachers = more undereducated students.
According to a report issued last month by the California Council of Science and Technology, such teachers play a critical role in whether children pursue an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers.
Philip Bailey, dean of the College of Science and Mathematics and chemistry professor, said the country will suffer if the demand for qualified math and science teachers is not met.
“It’s a problem in California and the United States. There are not enough people going into STEM careers,” he said. “They are not enough to support the economy and there are not enough to produce enough math and science teachers for K-12.”
Biology professor Edward Himelblau said there would be dire consequences for the next generation of Americans who lack qualified teachers to interest them in math and science.
“We have a technologically based economy, and to have a workforce trained to do those jobs requires an excellent math and science education,” Himelblau said. “There could be a weakening economy, even national security, as a result of people not being well-trained in math and science.”
The CCST report also states that K-12 students pursue STEM degrees based on their positive experience with math and science classes. However, older teachers in the field are beginning to retire, thus compounding the problem.
“There’s a big wave of retirements coming up, and we’re not producing the science and math teachers to take care of their retirements,” Bailey said.
These teachers are into the classroom, it becomes difficult to keep them there.
According to the CCST report, the factors that drive most talented math and science students from the teaching field include low pay, lack of support from the school administration and lack of discipline in the classroom.
“Here at Cal Poly, students come to be mathematicians or biologists, and they go look for jobs in industry. We’re trying to create an environment that we could use to recruit students into math and science teaching,” College of Education Dean Bonnie Konopak said.
Cal Poly recruits students into teaching with incentives that include student loan forgiveness, paid tutoring and scholarships from private corporations. One of these programs is called the Assumption Program of Loans for Education.
APLE, which is administered by the California Student Aid Commission, will cover $19,000 in student loans if students become teachers in areas where they are most needed.
However, Konopak said that the program had a relatively new focus on math and science teaching and its success largely hinges on the quality of the students.
“We depend on really good students, prepared in high school math and science, to come to a polytechnic institution,” Konopak said. “We have fewer high school students going into math and science, and therefore the colleges have fewer students applying in those areas.”
Although Cal Poly offers no undergraduate major in education, there are programs to get a teaching credential. For example, a student can become a math teacher by enrolling in the mathematics major and taking courses that lead to a credential.
“They come to us for a year to get the credential, and then they could get advanced (teaching) credentials,” Konopak said.
Advanced credentials include a master’s or doctorate degree.
Integrated programs allow students to pursue a teaching credential in their respective fields as early as their junior year. Konopak said an integrated program has been successfully used in the chemistry program, and the results seem to be successful.
“It’s very high across the CSU system, the number of people who graduate with a teaching credential who go into teaching. It’s about 98 percent,” Konopak said.
Konopak said that the high percentage is based across the board of subjects. However, Himelblau said that math and science students find it challenging to pursue a job in teaching or a job in their respective industry.
“Over the last few years, (students) had a lot of options in terms of jobs. People who may have been interested in teaching also have to decide between job doing research and everything related like that,” Himelblau said.
But some students are making the decision to teach in the classroom. Ecology and systematic biology senior Jeremy Zwang-Weissman said that teachers also have to be passionate about their subject so their students can remain interested in math and science.
“I’m actually aiming to be a math and science teacher in this state. It’s interesting to think that something I’ve been working at for the last four to five years is something that means so little to some people,” Zwang-Weissman said.
Zwang-Weissman said that he wanted to be a high school biology and environmental sciences teacher.
“School is not just about grades. They are there to learn the material, and I have to be compassionate about it,” he said.