July 27, 1983

Gov. John Carlin in June appointed a "Governor's cabinet" to study a range of education issues, among them math and science education. The 13-member panel is composed of the executives of the state's major education organizations, such as teachers' unions, the state board of regents, and the Kansas School Boards Association.

"He was an extraordinary person and a good friend. It's a great loss for American education," said Frank J. Macchiarola, former chancellor of the New York City public schools, and now executive director of the New York City Partnership. Mr. Macchiarola hired Mr. Edmonds as his aide in 1978.

It has sent a letter to the parents of students living in bordering school systems, encouraging them to consider enrolling their children in a school system that sends 75 percent of its students to college.

Sponsors/Funding: The National Science Board (nsb) and the National Science Foundation (nsf). (The nsb is the policy-making arm of the nsf).

The state board of education is working on a policy that would permit scientists and mathematicians from business and industry to teach advanced high-school courses. The state is willing to suspend certification rules for such individuals, Mr. Bowers said, provided that they have demonstrated ability to organize and present material, perhaps in part-time college teaching or in corporate inservice training.

Gov. George Nigh last month signed into law a revised version of a bill that will create a committee to study how a specialized high school for math and science could be established.

The bill was introduced in the House as part of a legislative package that also called for the establishment of a "Council for Science and Mathematics," which would study math and science education in the state.

The department will soon complete a statewide assessment of the need for teachers that will document the exact size of the shortage.

Mr. Aldridge: The major problem is that you have people in situations where they are not qualified, with teaching materials that are outdated, teaching the people who are going to become scientists and engineers. They don't have any of the modern electronics, computers, and that sort of thing in the courses and in the labs. And for 95 percent of all the kids, the courses are inappropriate.

That decision came in spite of a documented shortage of 130 math teachers in the state, according to Marilyn Hala, math director for the state department of elementary and secondary education.

Following is a selected bibliography of materials on the subjects of mathematics and science education. The readings, listed chronologically, are not intended to be comprehensive but to suggest the scope of professional concerns and activities over more than a decade.

In its latest session, the state legislature undertook no initiatives to encourage new teachers to enter these fields. However, it did create a committee to monitor teacher shortages that might arise in any subject area. Called the "Statewide Committee to Insure Availability of Teachers in Critical Curricular Areas," the 21-member group includes representatives from industry, community groups, the public schools, and colleges, and was appointed by the state education department.

State officials said the reform bills were drafted in response to criticisms of the state's education system contained in reports by two study groups. One group was created by Governor Graham in October 1981 to examine the condition of the state's high schools; the other was created in July 1982 by House Speaker H. Lee Moffitt to examine the quality of math, science, and computer education.

A.D. Luke, chief of the bureau of instruction for the state, said there are no plans in the works to increase the number of qualified math and science teachers.

At present, the worst shortages are in math and physical sciences, said James H. Nohara, an administrator for certification and development in the department.

Mr. Howe and Jack A. Gerlovich, consultant on science education in the state education department, have conducted teacher supply-and-demand surveys in Iowa public schools for the past 13 years.

In general, girls score lower than boys, and most minority groups score lower than whites, on "higher-level" problems that require students to figure out how to manipulate data, rather than to simply perform a computation or memorize a formula.

Students who enter the 9th grade this fall will be required to earn one more credit in both mathematics and science before graduating from high school. The requirement is now one year of study in both subjects. The legislature has not appropriated any extra funds for the program.

The study commissions were established in response to a bill introduced in the last session calling for various incentives for improving the teaching profession as a whole, including math and science teaching. The bill, which was defeated, would have set up stipends for teachers in areas that specific districts saw as their "critical areas," according to James Wilson, a spokesman for the legislature.

One bill authorizes the state board of education to charge a certification fee for new teachers in the state and to use the proceeds to retrain teachers in math, according to William Helton, administrative director of personnel. The $25-certification fee, he said, will yield an estimated $75,000 this year to support the math institute for teachers, which the department intends to expand to include other subject areas with teacher shortages.

The computer system will link 17 vocational schools, according to Nicholas Hobar, assistant chief of the the state education department's bureau of learning systems. The system, he said, will eventually expand to include all of the state's 1,333 public schools.