Diversifying the Science and Mathematics Teaching Work Force in the Southwest

It’s as simple as doing the math: an increase in students plus a deficit in the number of teachers equals higher education institutions looking for better ways to recruit and retain quality candidates for their teaching programs. Even more so, they seek teacher candidates who can mirror a diverse student population.

Last May, teacher educators from across the U.S. Southwest met at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to share information and ideas on how best to address the critical shortage of minority teachers. Diversifying the Science and Mathematics Teaching Workforce in the Southwest Region was the theme of the meeting organized by SEDL’s Eisenhower Southwest Consortium for the Improvement of Mathematics and Science Teaching (SCIMAST) in collaboration with the Ph.D. program in Science and Mathematics Education at Southern University.

Stephen Marble, SEDL program manager, Program for the Improvement of Teaching and Learning

SEDL program manager Stephen Marble, who is the director of SCIMAST, says the spring meeting was the first step in building a community of people and institutions committed over the long term to solving the problem of recruiting more minority math and science teachers. Marble believes having a strong community based on trust is key to being able to face the issues of race, culture, and equity that must be discussed in finding solutions to the teacher shortage. "You will never get past Equity 101 if you don’t build a community that can work together," says Marble. "It is the only way to push people and institutions to really look at race, culture, and equity, and pay more than just lip service to those issues."

Marble says the first meeting also helped define the minority teacher shortage as a regional problem. Educators who had been seeing the shortage as a problem particular to their college or their teacher education program were able to view the problem in a broader scope and find out what resources had been developed and what solutions were being tried at other institutions in the Southwest.

The meeting’s course was set by a presentation of data reflecting the patterns of student-to-teacher representation in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The numbers not only showed the problem — that there are three or four times as many minority students as there are minority teachers — but that the problem was becoming worse because of the increase in students and decrease in teachers. Information from each of the states about the math and science teacher pipeline also helped provide participants with a more realistic picture of the number of minority mathematics and science teachers exiting the pipeline and entering the workforce.

Participants heard presentations from Texas A&M University professor of political science Kenneth Meier and University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of teacher education Carl A. Grant. They also heard from regional institutions that currently have teacher recruitment programs in place, such as the Teacher Education Collaborative, and Collaborative for Excellence in Teacher Preparation (both of these funded by the National Science Foundation), as well as an African-American teacher student from Northwestern Oklahoma State University. Members of these programs discussed their recruiting strategies and the issues and obstacles associated with their efforts, and offered advice for dealing with teacher candidate recruitment.

One of the most important outcomes of the meeting was the creation of a network of teacher educators concerned about, and committed to, addressing the shortage of qualified science and mathematics teachers in general, as well as the shortage of minority teachers representing the diversity of the region’s student population.

Participants also shared how they and their institutions would help in the diversification of the science and mathematics teaching workforce in their particular region. Commitments ranged from using distance learning and grow-your-own teacher preparation programs to creating more teacher preparation partnerships with organizations like the National Science Foundation and promoting nontraditional certification programs (such as the Teacher Cadet programs).

This spring, a second meeting of teacher educators from across the region will be held at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, an institution that primarily serves the Delta area. SCIMAST hopes this meeting will continue to grow the community of educators and institutions involved in solving the teacher shortage and that the meeting will result in the development of regional strategies. In fact, SCIMAST is committed to growing the network for the next five years — it will sponsor an annual meeting and continue to support concerted efforts to ensure all students have the opportunity to be taught by qualified teachers.

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