Alternative Pathways, Alternative Solutions to Physics Teacher Demand in NYS

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Alternative Pathways, Alternative Solutions to
Physics Teacher Demand in NYS

• Physics First, Cornell University
• 28 July 2004
• Joe Zawicki, Department of Earth Science and
  Science Education, SUNYBuffalo State College
• 130 SCIE Bldg BSC, 1300 Elmwood Ave, Buffalo NY
  14222, E-mail zawickjl_at_buffalostate.edu
• Dan MacIsaac, Department of Physics, SUNYBuffalo
  State College
• David Henry, Department of Elementary Education
  and Reading, SUNYBuffalo State College
• Dewayne Beery, Department of Physics,
  SUNYBuffalo State College
• Kathleen Falconer, Department of Elementary
  Education and Reading, SUNYBuffalo State College

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Supporting Partners
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National and New York State Demand for Physics
Teachers

• Currently there is not, in fact, a general
  nation-wide shortage of teachers in the United
  States
• There are adequate numbers of prepared and
  certified teachers to meet most of the nation's
  needs
• We face shortages of people willing to work at
  the salaries and under the working conditions
  offered in specific locations -- in rapidly
  growing, rural and urban areas.
  (Darling-Hammond, 2001).
• Real teacher shortages do exist in a few subject
  fields -- most particularly in special education,
  mathematics, physics, chemistry, and Spanish in
  order of national demand (AAEE, 2003)

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Physics Teacher Preparation

• US national high school physics enrollments are
  at a fifty-year high (AIP, 1999 Neuschatz
  McFarling, 2000)
• Only about one-third of all physics teachers
  received a major in physics or physics education
  (Neuschatz McFarling, 2000).
• More than half of all physics teachers (AIP,
  1999) are actually teaching out-of-field
  (Ingersoll, 1999 CSMTP, 2001).

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Certified Physics Teachers

• 61 of public and 27 of private high school
  physics teachers are state certified to teach
  physics
• NCLB certification changes are suggested but
  not standardized
• NYSED reacts to NCLB

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Changing Certification Requirements

• NY State Education Department (NYSED) has
  intensified teacher certification and high school
  science graduation requirements (NYSED, 2000)
• Curriculum and exam renovations have incorporated
  increased levels of conceptual understanding
  (Zawicki, Jabot, Falconer, MacIsaac, Henry
  Fischer, 2003)

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Changing Certification Issues

• The NYS demand has increased (Willie-Schiff,
  2002)
• NYSED physics certification requirements have
  increased
• thirty credits in physics (NYSED 2004)
• successful completion of the Content Specialty
  Test in Physics (NES, 2002)
• Following initial certification, teachers must
  complete a Masters degree within three (five)
  years to earn professional certification (NYSED
  2004).

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Current Physics Teachers Nearing Retirement

• 728 teachers are over the age of fifty
• This represents 43 of the entire NY HS physics
  teaching population, or
• over half of the 2002 NYSED physics- certified
  HS physics teaching population.

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Irregular Certification

• Hot button (US Department of Education
  Secretary's Annual Report, 2002, p21
  Darling-Hammond, 2002 Darling-Hammond Youngs,
  2002)
• Alternative certification
• Differs from traditional certification pathways
• Usually avoids student teaching
• Emergency certification
• Transcript Evaluation

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Third Year Departure Rates

• Traditional programs 33
• Extended five-year programs -- 10
• Emergency or Temporary 90-100
• Short-term hiring policies are costly in the long
  term, and dollars spent upon teacher preparation
  are one of the most cost-effective predictors of
  student achievement.

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There are many ifs, but if the program is run
correctlythere is a clear need for

• extended teacher education programs with
  year-long internships in high quality
  alternative pathways at the post-graduate level
  for mid career changers (Darling-Hammond, 2000,
  p35).

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Alternative Certification Demographics

• Alterative certification teachers
• Leave the profession at higher rates
• Are preferentially hired
• Are far more likely to seek immediate employ
  after certification (30-40 of new teachers
  graduating from traditional programs are not
  immediately employed)

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Alternative Certification Demographics

• Alterative certification teachers
• Held the highest percentage of employment after
  five years (Harris, Camp and Adkinson, 2003).
• Recruit significantly more minority teachers than
  do traditional programs.
• These minority teachers
• are significantly more likely to be employed in
  urban schools serving minorities
• are significantly more likely to teach
  mathematics and science
• are more likely to have considerable business or
  military experience.

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Alternative Certification Demographics

• Alternative certification program teachers have
  uniquely attractive backgrounds, interests and
  levels of underrepresented minority
  representation sought by schools, and alternative
  certification programs can address needs not
  adequately met by traditional programs.

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Buffalo State College

• 11,000 students
• Buffalo is the second largest city in NYS
• Largest comprehensive college in the SUNY system
• The only urban SUNY campus
• 18 part-time student population
• 16 minority student population (mostly African
  American)
• 55 female student population
• 740 evening-only students and about 450
  disabled students attend BSC

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Buffalo State College

• Undergraduate students
• 28 major in education
• many are first family college attendees
• BSC classes are typically small
• BSC was the first and still is the largest
  National Council for Accreditation of Teacher
  Education (NCATE) SUNY Institution
• BSC is a Carnegie Masters I institution,
  specializing in Bachelors and Masters -level
  students

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Development of the PTP Program

• Program revisions in 2001-2002 lead to the
  development of two programs
• streamlined alternative certification program
  (M.S.Ed.- Physics with Alternative Certification)
  
• The regular program (M.S.Ed.- Physics) was
  revised to address forthcoming NY state permanent
  certification requirements.
• Both revisions incorporate physics coursework
  that supports a second certification in physics
• The MSEd programs satisfy the NYSED requirement
  for an approved masters degree which can lead to
  permanent or professional teacher certification
  (NYSED, 2004).

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PTP Academy

• In summers 2000 and 2001, BSC Physics, EER and
  BSC Department of Earth Sciences and Science
  Education (ESSE) faculty collaborated on the
  creation of Pathways to Physics Teaching PTP
  Summer Physics Academy
• intensive boot camps for MS physical science and
  HS physics teachers
• run 10 hours/day for 2-3 weeks
• courses are similar in format to better-know
  courses offered by the Modeling Physics Group at
  Arizona State University (Modeling Physics, 2004
  Wells, Hestenes Swackhamer, 1995).

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PTP Academy

• Academy courses are unique
• Run for profit, unsupported by external funding
  of instructors, or participant stipends
• Demand has grown ninety teachers enrolled during
  the summer of summer 2003.
• Most of these teachers paid full graduate tuition
• Some NSF STEMTP (National Science Foundation -
  Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics
  Teacher Preparation) funding
• Some funding from the BSC Center for Excellence
  in Urban and Rural Education (CEURE) (MacIsaac,
  2003 Truscott, 2001).
• A recent NSF-Noyce Grant will support some future
  candidates

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Buffalo Public Schools

• A large ( 46,000 student), inner-city,
  high-need, urban school district
• Over 64 of BPS students are eligible for free or
  reduced lunch programs (Department of Education
  Title II definition as a "high need" district)
• Employs more than 3600 preK-12 teachers,
  including about 170 grade 7-12 science teachers.

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Buffalo Public Schools

• Fall of 2002,
• only eight of eighteen BPS high schools (45)
  taught physics
• only 511 BPS students wrote physics exams (10 of
  eligible students)
• Fewer than 50 of physics teachers hold NY state
  certification to teach physics
• 70 of BPS students taking physics are attending
  Hutchinson Central Technical High School
• There are some BPS high schools where physics is
  never regularly taught (Shriver Thompson, 2002
  Josef, 2002), which is becoming very problematic
  in light of new NYS graduation requirements.

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CEURE

• The Center for Excellence in Urban and Rural
  Education (CEURE) at Buffalo State College is
  dedicated to the recruitment of, commitment by,
  and retention of qualified and effective teachers
  for high-need urban and rural areas.
• The center's mission is to work with the greater
  educational community "to respond thoughtfully
  and effectively to societal realities, the Center
  will work in partnership with schools,
  communities, institutions of higher learning and
  other constituencies.

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CEURE

• CEURE has provided supplementary funding
  arrangements since 2000
• CEURE has an outstanding commitment to continue
  supporting the academy through to
  institutionalization and self-sufficiency.
• CEURE expertise will augment advertisement,
  recruiting and FTC creation and support efforts
  in particular.

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Program Admission Requirements
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PTP Courses

• PTP courses are assembled from physical science
  curricula developed by world class PER
  researchers and curriculum developers under NSF
  sponsorship
• Collaborate with the developers of curricula
• Students also participate in project evaluation

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PTP Courses

• Modeling Physics (Arizona State)
• Force Concept Inventory (Hestenes, Wells
  Swackhamer, 1992).
• Eisenhower-funded Modeling workshops for teachers
  (MacIsaac Cole, 1999 1997 MacIsaac 1997)
• the ONLY physics teaching curriculum identified
  as exemplary by the US Department of Education.
• Constructing Physics Understanding (CPU) (San
  Diego State)
• Powerful Ideas in Physical Science (PIPS) (AAPT,
  Boise State)

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PTP Courses

• BSC has used the Constructing Physics
  Understanding (CPU) curriculum from Fred
  Goldberg's group for five years now by PTP staff
  with pre- and in- service teachers.
• The Powerful Ideas in Physical Science (PIPS)
  curriculum has been used by the PI for three
  years for pre-service elementary teacher
  instruction and is currently under development by
  Dewey Dykstra.

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Recruitment Participation

• Regional and statewide mailings to high schools
• Posters and appearances at the statewide and
  regional conferences
• Website
• Regional news articles
• WNYPTA meetings
• New York State Section of the AAPT
• Word-of-mouth
• Advertisement in national publications such as
  The Physics Teacher and regional engineering
  alumni newsletters has been considered. (Program
  enrollments are nearing capacity we will
  shortly start qualified turning applicants away.)
  

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Recruitment Participation

• 35 active candidates
• 13 active M.S.Ed. (Physics by alternative
  certification) candidates, or career switchers
• 22 traditional, second certification
  candidates
• 10 alternative certification candidates hold
  engineering degrees (77)
• Non-engineers hold bachelors degrees in physics
• 63 (22/35) of our masters program candidates
  already hold teacher certification, and almost
  all of these are working teachers.

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In Conclusion

• There is a substantial need for new physics
  teachers in New York State
• Alternative certification programs, such as the
  PTP project at BSC, lead to retention in teaching
  beyond the third year
• The PTP program continues to demonstrate growth

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Questions, concerns,

• Resources
• This talk http//PhysicsEd.BuffaloState.edu/pubs
  /jpteo/AlternativeSolutions.ppt
• The paper
• http//physicsed.buffalostate.edu/pubs/JPTEO
• For additional information
• zawickjl_at_buffalostate.edu
• [phone]