July 27, 1983
Participating were:
Most of the efforts are to be directed at promoting "computer literacy," programming, and applications, rather than computer-assisted instruction. Funds have also been allocated to help districts buy software rated as superior by state evaluators.
Two "loan-forgiveness" programs for current and prospective teachers in math and science were part of a $106-million package of educational reforms that had been sought by Gov. William Winter for several years. The reform bill was approved by the state legislature and signed into law by the Governor in January.
If the new standards are approved, schools will be short some 1,750 math teachers and 1,800 science teachers, he predicted.
But the state will probably still face a shortage "in the neighborhood of 20 math teachers," Mr. Dolan said, because not all the new graduates will go into teaching and there is likely to be some attrition among the existing teaching force. Last year, about 9 of the 16 newly graduated math teachers went into teaching.
The legislature is still considering bills that would establish a flexible tuition scale for students of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics and provide financial incentives to encourage teachers to earn advanced degrees in math and science.
The board also passed a proposal to require students to take at least 115 minutes of math and science instruction per day in the 7th and 8th grades and instruction in computer literacy throughout their 12 years of schooling.
Bush, the director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development, responded the following year in the form of a report, Science--The Endless Frontier. His answer to the fourth question was yes, such a program can be developed.
The Joint Committee on School and College Articulation, a study group of educators appointed by the state commissioner of education, has developed a set of recommendations for upgrading graduation requirements for high-school students and strengthening relationships between secondary and postsecondary schools.
Mr. Rutherford: Let me say that there are a lot of solutions being proposed, and a lot of them make some kind of sense when looked at individually. We say: "The teachers are not prepared, so let's give them some workshops." We say: "The materials aren't up to date, so let's develop some new ones."
The state this year will spend $50,000 from an education trust fund for the loans, which will be forgiven at a rate of one year of tuition for each year spent teaching.
The state board of education plans, however, to include an intensive new science and math program in the curriculum of a 500-student boarding school it is taking over from the federal government.
In chemistry, there was a shortage of 82 teachers, with only two new teachers arriving from the state's education schools, and one teacher re-entering the profession.
$250,000 for special math and science institutes at state universities to help elementary and secondary teachers update their teaching skills and keep abreast of developments in their fields.
One reason for the shortage is that 20 of the 181 districts have increased their graduation requirements in these subjects and are looking for more highly trained teachers. In Colorado, individual districts set their own graduation standards.
The program will be administered by the board of regents for higher education; the funds will be distributed through a formula based on the percentage of certified graduates from each of the state's teacher-training institutions, according to Scott Brohinsky, assistant to the commissioner of education. Each year, the areas of shortage (officials say math and industrial arts are the most likely areas) will be determined by the state board of education.
In order to address this problem, the state legislature this spring passed a measure to finance "forgivable loans" for students planning careers in those fields.
Through this move into technology education--the study of industry and technology--the industrial-arts profession signaled an attempt to realign itself with the general-education program, and, at the same time, to strengthen its vocational and prevocational posture in the schools.
The teacher shortage may become more severe at the high-school level, said Ms. Zimmerman, as a result of the Indiana state board of education's move in April to raise high-school graduation requirements; the change upgraded the requirements in both math and science from one year to two for all students.