- Year 2024
- NSF Noyce Award # 1950284
- First Name Michael
- Last Name Hansen
- Registration Faculty/Administrator/Other
- Discipline N/A
- Role Co-PI
- Presenters
Michael Hansen, Brookings Institution
Need
This project sheds light on the STEM teacher workforce in high-need settings. Prior evidence suggests this workforce is especially vulnerable to staffing challenges, but prior work has not closely monitored this segment of the workforce and it is not well understood.
Research Questions
How does the STEM teacher workforce in high-need settings compare against other segments of the workforce, based on demographics, qualifications, turnover, and staffing patterns? Have these dimensions been changing over time as the STEM workforce has experienced a dwindling supply of new teachers and increasing demand for STEM instruction?
Approach
This poster analyzes successive waves of nationally representative teacher survey data to explore various dimensions among the secondary STEM teacher workforce in high-need settings has fared over time. Empirical results are primarily descriptive and longitudinal in nature.
Outcomes
Despite documented staffing pressures, results show qualifications gaps across high- versus low-need settings are either stable or slightly narrowing over time, a sign of surprising resilience. We examined whether changes in STEM staffing patterns help to explain this resilience and we find important shifts on several dimensions: an increasing reliance on certification-only STEM teachers, an increasing reliance on teachers graduating from foreign universities, and real salary increases for all teachers in high-need settings. STEM teacher turnover from high-need settings is slightly elevated relative to comparison teachers and settings, though appears to be stable over time including into the pandemic recovery era.
Broader Impacts
Findings from this analysis will inform policy approaches to supporting the STEM teacher pipeline and the distribution of STEM teachers across schools.
