NAAC releases paper on STEMing the Teacher Shortage Tide
November, 2009: The United States continues to face a critical shortage of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) candidates to pursue careers in these fields as well as candidates with these backgrounds to teach in our nation’s P-12 schools. NAAC has just released a paper that calls on business leaders – from corporations that employ significant numbers of STEM professionals – to become partners in the effort to recruit, prepare and retain high quality STEM teachers. STEMing the Teacher Shortage Tide 
provides the framework for NAAC’s initiative to involve corporate leaders in a national effort to support innovative pathways to teaching in STEM fields.
Research studies validate the importance of having strong, well-prepared, well-educated teachers in STEM subjects. But STEM teachers are in critically short supply. A 2007 study by the Business-Higher Education Forum projects that our country will need more than 280,000 new teachers in math and science by 2015. We must not overlook the pool of potential teachers with degrees in STEM fields who are currently employed in industry and are interested in an encore career in teaching. With appropriate, innovative programs to help these professionals transition into teaching, we can redirect their expertise and passion into the classrooms that need them. Many alternative certification programs are already doing just that, and would welcome the support of business in these efforts.
To read the Executive Summary, click here
To download the entire report, click here
