Striving For More Sciences, Math Teachers Thrilled By 'Seeing That Light Bulb Come On'

"So many things need to change at the same time," said Michelle Cahill, a vice president at Carnegie Corp., which recently released a sweeping report on the STEM problem. "But I think there is more of a push for it. People are starting to see that the world has changed dramatically. They're seeing it in the job opportunities that are out there for them and their kids."

Though state and federal officials have recognized for many years a drastic need to improve math and science education, public attention seems to be catching up. With the rapid deterioration of traditional job providers in the U.S. and the simultaneous rise of mathematically and technologically capable work forces in India and China, better training in math and science no longer seems like a luxury or an abstract need.

"We know that the quality of math and science teachers is the most influential single factor in determining whether or not a student will succeed or fail in these subjects," said President Barack Obama in an April 27 speech to the National Academy of Sciences. "Yet, in high school, more than 20 percent of students in math and more than 60 percent of students in chemistry and physics are taught by teachers without expertise in these fields. And this problem is only going to get worse; there is a projected shortfall of more than 280,000 math and science teachers across the country by 2015."

That shortage is the root of a much greater problem, education officials and corporate leaders agree. Without students getting excited about math and science in high school, the nation will be deprived of future researchers, inventors and engineers.

"If we continue to use the same models, we will not get where we need to go," said John Winn, chief program officer for the National Math and Science Initiative and former secretary of education in Florida.

The Carnegie report describes a complex problem. Not only do universities and school districts need to recruit more math and science majors to teaching, they need to increase the number of total students in math and science courses, provide financial incentives to compete with private industry, make sure future teachers are taking challenging courses, improve support programs for new teachers and push for continued learning by veteran teachers.

And that's just the top of a long list.

The good news, Cahill and Winn said, is that some universities have bolstered their production of math and science teachers by creating programs tailored to that goal.