Story highlights:
- A new state audit says lawmakers may want to reconsider the need for incentive programs aimed at attracting more and better-trained math and science teachers.
- Lawmakers created the programs in the late 2000s because of concerns the state was facing a shortage of math and science teachers.
- The audit says such shortages may not currently be as big a problem in Georgia as they are nationally. But Professional Standards Commission officials said that they believe the state will, in fact, experience a shortage of math and science teachers in future years. Metro Atlanta districts were reporting earlier this school year that their largest teaching vacancies included math and science.
- The program is budgeted to cost more than $15 million this year, and auditors said the state has spent about $90 million in incentives since the programs' inception. But a relatively small number of k-5 teachers pursue the endorsement needed to obtain the incentives of $1,000 to $2,000 a year for five years. Auditors said one of the problems is that it costs an average of $1,500 to pay for the classes and materials — closer to $5,000 at the University of Georgia — to obtain the endorsement. So the small, temporary increase in salary isn't worth the work for many teachers.
- Professional Standards Commission officials said the incentive programs are still relatively new and that they should be given more time to address design and implementation issues before lawmakers evaluate whether to keep or scrap them.
A new state audit argues that lawmakers may want to reconsider the need for incentive programs aimed at attracting more and better-trained math and science teachers.
Lawmakers approved the program in the late 2000s because of concerns that the state faced a shortage of math and science teachers, something the audit said may not currently be as big a problem in Georgia as it is nationally.
The program is budgeted to cost more than $15 million this year. Auditors said the state has spent about $90 million in incentives since the program’s inception.
Under the program, k-5 teachers who get an “endorsement” in math and/or science education — largely extra course work — could get an extra $1,000 or $2,000 a year for five years.
While the number of teachers getting the endorsements has increased, the audit said it’s a relatively small number of educators.
Auditors said one of the problems is that it costs an average of $1,500 to pay for the classes and materials — closer to $5,000 at the University of Georgia — to obtain the endorsement. So the small, temporary increase in salary isn’t worth the work for many teachers. A few districts help teachers with the cost. For instance, auditors said Gwinnett County’s system offers math and science endorsement programs free of charge.
The auditors said there are few local programs to earn endorsements in some areas of the state, such as portions of southeast Georgia.
Another part of the program provides financial incentives to relatively new math and science teachers in grades 6-12. Auditors said the number of teachers receiving those incentives has remained relatively stable.
One possible reason the program hasn’t grown is that officials at some colleges of education aren’t using the incentives to try to persuade students to go into math and science education. Auditors said that’s partly because they didn’t know about the program and partly because they weren’t aware it was being funded.
‘Lack of confidence’
Auditors also noted, “The grades 6-12 salary incentive is not being used as a recruitment tool because of a lack of confidence in the continuation of the funding stream or a perceived lack of need.”
The “lack of confidence in the continuation of the funding stream” issue has long been a problem in education incentive programs.
For years, the state paid extra money to teachers who went through a time-consuming national certification process. Teachers were promised a 10 percent supplement after earning national certification, but the state reneged on the deal, cutting out the extra pay in the late 2000s. Some of the state's most highly certified teachers wound up seeing massive pay cuts during the Great Recession because they lost the supplement.
Auditors said a study by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission suggests that Georgia may not be currently experiencing the math and science teacher shortages reported in various national studies.
Based on the impact of the incentive efforts, auditors said, “the General Assembly may wish to revisit the continued need for the math and science incentives in their current form.”
Professional Standards Commission officials said that they believe the state will, in fact, experience a shortage of math and science teachers in future years. Metro Atlanta districts were reporting earlier this school year that their largest teaching vacancies were in math, science, special education and foreign languages.
Incentives’ effect uncertain
Auditors say it isn’t clear the incentives have helped slow the attrition of math and science teachers. The extra money is paid to teachers in grades 6-12 after the school year is over. “Therefore, it is unclear what influence the incentive has on a math or science teacher’s decision to remain in the field, especially between their first and second year of teaching,” the report said.
A state report showed that the five-year attrition rate of high school teachers newly hired in 2010 was between 39 percent and 45 percent for most subjects. The attrition rate of foreign language teachers was highest, at 45 percent, with math teachers coming in second, at 44 percent.
Atlanta math teacher Sajatta Latten wasn’t surprised by the findings.
She is one of two math teachers at the Early College High School at Carver, and during her eight years there she has seen four new math teachers come and go.
They struggled to learn their craft during a period of constant curriculum change, as the state flipped back and forth from “integrated” to “discrete” math standards, she said. A slightly bigger paycheck is nice, she said, but teachers need to have passion and she sensed growing fatigue among the new hires.
Learning to manage a classroom is one of the biggest challenges for a new teacher, and that work was intensified by the ever-changing math standards dictated by the state, plus a lack of “support” for the rookie teachers, she said.
“I just think that newer teachers could not keep up with how much the curriculum was changing,” Latten said. “I don’t think they were equipped to handle it.”
In their response to the audit, Professional Standards Commission officials said the incentive programs are still relatively new and that they should be given more time to address design and implementation issues before lawmakers evaluate whether to keep or scrap them.
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