Schoolteachers report career satisfaction. Jobs are plentiful. Pay is better than in many professions. Pensions are good. Yet for decades the US has struggled with acute teacher shortages, especially in physics, math, and chemistry.

Roughly 27 000 teachers are teaching physics in US high schools, according to the Statistical Research Center of the American Institute of Physics. The shortfall in physics teachers nationwide is 15 000—23 000, says Michael Marder, executive director and cofounder of UTeach, a nearly 25-year-old science and math teacher preparation program at the University of Texas at Austin that is now replicated at 49 universities in 23 states.

In science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields more broadly, the shortages in teachers in 2017–18 were about 100 000 in high schools and 150 000 in middle schools. To address the deficits and to make up for retirements and resignations in high schools alone, he says, the US needs to prepare an additional 10 000 STEM teachers annually for a decade.

 SCU Receives $3 Million NSF Grant for STEM Teachers        

Across the country, 2 million students leave high school unprepared for college-level math, even as the pipeline of highly prepared math teachers is shrinking. To help support the development of high-quality mathematics teaching in high-need schools, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a $3 million grant to Santa Clara University to  pay for 20 future math teachers to earn both a master’s degree and teaching credential, while learning cutting-edge approaches to teaching math.

The grant also covers research to ensure that the methods of math teaching and teacher support can be replicated and scaled.