As part of his agenda for the 2007 budget, President Bush plans
to bring an influx of math and science professionals into
elementary school classrooms across the country.
Bush proposed two programs as part of his Academic
Competitiveness Initiative: the Adjunct Teachers Corps and the
Advanced Placement Incentive Program, which would train a total of
100,000 new teachers qualified to instruct upper-level math and
science classes by the year 2015.
Designed to increase the level of expertise in the teaching
field, the Adjunct Teachers Corps would encourage math and science
professionals to consider careers in teaching, and the Advanced
Placement Incentive Program would train current teachers to teach
advanced math and science classes, if the measure is passed by
Congress.
The Adjunct Teachers Corps program would spend $25 million to
increase the number of math and science teachers by training
science, math and engineering professionals to teach elementary
school classes as adjunct teachers. The proposal suggests that this
could be accomplished through partnerships between school districts
and private sponsors.
As part of the program, adjunct teachers would be allowed to
teach without credentials, which Bush administration officials say
sometimes discourages some professionals from teaching.
According to the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and
Science Survey done by the National Research Council, less than 8
percent of elementary school students are taught math and science
by teachers with majors or specializations in that field.
The president’s budget allotted a combined $147 million
for the two-part plan to increase the amount of students being
instructed by professionally trained teachers.
“We need to encourage children to take more math and
science, and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to
compete with other nations,” Bush said in his State of the
Union address on Jan. 31.
The goal of the Adjunct Teachers Corps is to create 30,000 new
teachers by drawing from what the Bush administration calls
“untapped resources” ““ current and retiring math
and science professionals with college degrees.
But some education professionals say teachers without a
credential, no matter how qualified in their subject, may not be
able to properly communicate lessons to students.
“It takes more than professional status in a field to make
a teacher,” said Fred Glass, a spokesman for the California
Federation of Teachers, a statewide organization that represents
faculty and other school employees.
Glass said though a credential is no guarantee of a good
teacher, knowing teaching methods and child psychology is better
than not having any significant preparation for teaching.
Bush’s proposal cites some evidence that shows new
professionals may be more likely to consider going into teaching if
“teacher certification recognizes the training and experience
they possess in their field.”
Even without the requirement of a credential, Glass said the
plan will not be effective because it is unlikely that math and
science professionals, especially new graduates, will go into
teaching.
“Chances are that if (math and science graduates)
aren’t already considering teaching they’ll still turn
to employment opportunities that offer them more money,”
Glass said.
Jules Guerra, program coordinator for the UCLA Teachers
Education Program, said she has seen dwindling numbers of math and
science applicants in recent years, which indicates to her that
there is a decline in interest in teaching.
“We only had 12 applicants for science subject matter, and
though the numbers were slightly higher for math, it represents the
challenge the program faces,” Guerra said.
Guerra attributed this decrease to the salary differences
between jobs in teaching and employment in other fields, saying the
pay discourages students from going into education.
The second component of the plan, the Advanced Placement
Incentive Program, would allocate $122 million to create an
estimated 70,000 new Advanced Placement and International
Baccalaureate teachers. The program would train and qualify current
high school math and science teachers to effectively teach
upper-level math and science to high school students.
To encourage teachers to participate, incentives like
incremental increases in salary and bonuses would be offered to
teachers who complete the program, and teachers who have many
students pass AP or IB exams would receive additional rewards.
The goal of this program is to increase the number of AP/IB
qualified teachers, and to increase the number of students passing
one or more AP and IB tests from 230,000 to 700,000.
In a Feb. 3 speech at a Texas high school, Bush said AP classes
are important tools for creating engineers and scientists who are
able to “compete with other students around the
world.”
Remaining competitive with other nations in math and science has
a been a theme for the administration this year. The Adjunct
Teacher Corps and the Advanced Placement Incentive are just two
parts of Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative, which
proposes to spend a total of $5.9 billion with the goal of training
students to be proficient in math and science.
In addition to these two programs, the American Competitiveness
Initiative would increase investments in math and science research
and development.
With reports from Bruin wire services.