How to Get Better Science Teachers
Q. What's
up with the so-so performance of American high-school students on standardized
science tests? Haven't we always been first in the world in science? Does it
have something to do with the quality of the science teachers?
Yes, there is a shortage of
qualified science teachers coming out of our teachers' colleges, and yes,
American students are on a downward trend in achievement as measured by
standardized science tests. There are two main reasons for the teacher
shortage:
1. The
bell curve: there just aren't that many people smart enough to master physics
and chemistry, and those who are can get higher-paying jobs outside of
teaching. But that's a bit of a red herring, because teaching elementary
physics to teenagers is significantly easier than applying higher-level physics
to a real-world work project.
2. The
key reason, most observers believe, is the straitjacket on differential teacher
pay that is imposed by teachers' unions themselves. They will not allow a
school board to pay a teacher in a hard-to-hire area, such as upper-level
science, more than a teaching job with a much more plentiful supply of qualified
applicants, such as elementary education.
As for declining student achievement
in science, consider these indicators:
n
American high-school students scored
poorly on the largest international study of math and science, the Third
International Mathematics and Science Study in 1996-97. The U.S. came in 18th.
n
The 50,000-member National Science
Teachers Association claims that only 26% of the high school Class of 2003 did
well enough on the ACT to predict successful completion of first-year college
science.
n
The United States ranks 14th
in the world in the percentage of 24-year-olds with degrees in math or science,
compared to third place just 25 years ago.
One reason for this science
underachievement may be ineffective career guidance, that steers many students
with aptitude for science into "easier" majors on the fringes of science, such
as psychology, perhaps because the counselors themselves (who were likely
education majors) consider hard science to be extremely difficult, and the
students want high GPAs to maintain grants and scholarships.
It also may be that many science
teachers do not have particular expertise in science, whether they are good at
teaching or not. University of Pennsylvania education professor Richard M.
Ingersoll reports that 60% of physics and chemistry teachers have neither a
major nor a minor in the subjects they're teaching, and among science teachers
overall, 28% majored in something else.
Also, the combined Graduate Record
Examination scores of applicants for graduate study in physics and astronomy were
the highest of all 51 areas of graduate study, tested between July 1, 2001 and
June 30, 2004. The mean GRE score of all 1.2 million applicants was 1,066; the
mean for all education majors, 984. But physics students scored an average of
1,272. So education majors - including those who will go on to become
educational administrators who are the bosses of the science teachers -- are
below the mean, and physics majors are 'way above it. (See http://ftp.ets.org/pub/gre/994994.pdf)
Increasingly, technology companies are
calling on Congress to raise the cap on H-1B visas to bring in more foreign
science and engineering talent, including teachers. But that could be extremely
destructive to the American educational system, since the pressure would be off
K-12 schools and colleges to turn out more qualified science teachers, and the
message to students would be that the American government would rather give a
teaching job to a foreigner than do what it takes to develop you for that job.
Bottom line: most parents, taxpayers
and business leaders would like to see higher differential pay for math and
science teachers, and a relaxation of nonsensical restrictions such as teacher
certification and a requirement that a student be an education major, to
attract better people into teaching jobs. If that means paying a physics
teacher more and a grade-school teacher less, because qualified grade-school
teachers are so much more plentiful and their jobs so much less cognitively
demanding, so be it, they say.
Homework: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2004/tc20040316_0601_tc166.htm
By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • In the
Classroom 118 • © 2007
