Spring Break
Help Wanted
Educators, experts and businesses address nationwide shortages of math and science teachers
Anna Camp
Issue date: 11/4/05 Section: Features
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The lectern at the front of Allison Nickel's freshman high school math class often stood empty. Nickel's teacher, Susan Boyd, was busy showing her students that math could be fun.
Boyd's official teaching position seemed to be in the corner of the room - at her piano. It was there, at Abilene High School, where she often sat to teach algebra equations she set to the tune of well-known melodies. Nickel's favorite was the quadratic equation sung to "Pop Goes the Weasel."
"I'll never forget that formula. I just loved that class - she made math exciting," said Nickel, now a math major and education minor at TCU, who will teach high school algebra or geometry when she graduates.
Students like Nickel, who are eager to teach math or science at a middle or high school, are in high demand in Fort Worth and all across the country. American education has been faced with a chronic shortage of science and math teachers. Experts say they are in need now more than ever, and the problem doesn't seem to be disappearing soon. Large corporations like IBM have recently taken giant steps to join education schools such as TCU and volunteers to help repair the growing shortage of teachers for math and science classes.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, jobs requiring science, engineering and technical training will increase 51 percent through 2008. This increase could lead to 6 million job openings for scientists, engineers and technicians. In order to begin to prepare today's youth for these careers, more than 260,000 new math and science teachers are needed by the 2008-2009 school year. There just aren't enough, officials are saying.
Experts cite the differences between general math and science wages and teacher salaries and cultural gender roles as contributing factors to this dilemma.
"This is a definite problem that we should all be worried about, and it needs to be addressed," said Molly Weinburgh, associate director of the Institute of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education at TCU.
Boyd's official teaching position seemed to be in the corner of the room - at her piano. It was there, at Abilene High School, where she often sat to teach algebra equations she set to the tune of well-known melodies. Nickel's favorite was the quadratic equation sung to "Pop Goes the Weasel."
"I'll never forget that formula. I just loved that class - she made math exciting," said Nickel, now a math major and education minor at TCU, who will teach high school algebra or geometry when she graduates.
Students like Nickel, who are eager to teach math or science at a middle or high school, are in high demand in Fort Worth and all across the country. American education has been faced with a chronic shortage of science and math teachers. Experts say they are in need now more than ever, and the problem doesn't seem to be disappearing soon. Large corporations like IBM have recently taken giant steps to join education schools such as TCU and volunteers to help repair the growing shortage of teachers for math and science classes.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, jobs requiring science, engineering and technical training will increase 51 percent through 2008. This increase could lead to 6 million job openings for scientists, engineers and technicians. In order to begin to prepare today's youth for these careers, more than 260,000 new math and science teachers are needed by the 2008-2009 school year. There just aren't enough, officials are saying.
Experts cite the differences between general math and science wages and teacher salaries and cultural gender roles as contributing factors to this dilemma.
"This is a definite problem that we should all be worried about, and it needs to be addressed," said Molly Weinburgh, associate director of the Institute of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education at TCU.
