Here's what other other SMCM physics students said about their high-school physics teachers.
This chart shows national data on the percentage of high-school teachers who have a degree in the subject they teach. Notice how the percentage of physics and chemistry teachers with a degree in their field is below 50%. Only 47% of physics classes are taught by a high-school teacher with a degree in the subject, compared with 73% of biology classes and about 80% in humanities classes. (You can read more about this by clicking the image.)
Shortage of physics teachers
The shortage of well-qualified physics teachers in US high schools is a problem for our educational system and our country. The demand for teachers overall is really high, and teachers of math and science are particularly in demand -- especially physics.
Here's another way to look at the situation. The American Association of Employment in Education collects hiring data from schools. From this data AAEE assigned a score for the level of demand for particular teaching fields. A score of 5.00 indicated the highest possible demand, and scores of 5.00-4.21 were described as having "considerable shortage". The top five most in-demand fields were
Special Ed. -- Severe/Profound Disability 4.61
Physics 4.59
Special Ed. -- Visually Impaired 4.59
Mathematics 4.49
Chemistry 4.47
(Source: 2018 AAEE Educator Supply and Demand in the United States Report)
The severe national shortage of high school physics teachers is due to very low numbers of new teachers educated at U.S. colleges and universities. About two-thirds of institutions with a secondary education program prepared no high school physics teachers in the last 5 years.
The map above shows the percentage of the estimated need for physics teachers in each state that is being met by the state's preparation programs. In Maryland, school districts need to hire about 32 new physics teachers each year, but only a little over 5 well-qualified physics teachers are trained each year in the state, meaning only 17% of the state's needs are being met. Takeaway: Beyond the national need, there are tons of opportunities to be hired here in Maryland.
(Source of bar chart and map above: PhysTEC, using data from the US Department of Education. Click to learn details.)
Solving the problem
Here at SMCM, we want to change the shortage. Our Physics Teacher Education Program has pathways for students to earn a BS in physics and an MAT (Masters of Arts in Teaching degree). You can learn more about the program at the end of this activity.
However, one reason why we have a physics teacher shortage is that many people are unaware of the facts about the teaching profession. The rest of this activity will get the facts out about teaching and hopefully provide you with another option for a career pathway to consider.
How about you? Have you ever thought about becoming a teacher? Let us know your thoughts in the anonymous poll below.
Please be sure to press "Submit" in the poll above. After that, you may click to the next page below.