Is the STEM Teacher Shortage Real?

November 10, 2010 - In recent years, the hue and cry has gone out that the nation faces a shortage of mathematics and science teachers. But does the evidence bear up the claim?

Drawing on nationally representative data from multiple sources, Penn GSE Professor Richard Ingersoll has conducted an empirical analysis of the supply of teachers in those all-important fields – and found the claim of a shortage to be wanting.

While confirming that math and science are the most difficult for schools to staff, Ingersoll's findings revealed a complicated picture. The supply of new teachers to the field comes from a number of sources. Candidates with subject-matter degrees and those in the reserve pool outpace those with newly minted education degrees. And those sources have been more than enough to meet increased demand (driven by revised graduation requirements, student course selection, and teacher retirement).

But when teacher attrition — that is, teachers leaving the field before retirement — is factored in, the balance between supply and demand tightens. Compared to subjects like English, the system does not enjoy as large a cushion of teachers in STEM fields.

The result, Ingersoll maintains, is that the problems of staffing math and science classrooms have more to do with retention than supply. In another paper, Ingersoll cites working conditions as the major source of teacher turnover – and the major challenge in staffing the nation’s STEM classrooms.

The list of factors that are driving these teachers out of the classroom includes lack of classroom autonomy, discipline problems, ineffective professional development, low salaries, weak administrative support, and inadequate classroom resources.

Richard Ingersoll’s work on the STEM teacher “shortage” was featured in a recent Science article, Data Say Retention Is Better Answer to “Shortage” Than Recruitment.

Is the Supply of Mathematics and Science Teachers Sufficient?, by Richard Ingersoll and David Perda, appears in American Educational Research Journal, 20(3).

The Magnitude, Destinations, and Determinants of Mathematics and Science Teacher Turnover, by Richard Ingersoll and Henry May, is a CPRE Research Report, published in 2010.

Contact: Kat Stein, Exec. Director of Communications / katstein@gse.upenn.edu / (215) 898-9642