The
Arizona Crisis in Physics Education: how you, the school principal, can help
June
2017 (updated July 2019)
At a time when students are being encouraged to pursue
a STEM career path, high school physics enrollment in Arizona is only half of the national average. This document explains why,
without physics, an Arizona studentŐs success in post-high school STEM
education is in jeopardy – and how you can improve the situation.
Why should more students take
high school physics?
Students
who take an upper-level sequence of science courses that includes physics are
substantially more likely to reach the College Readiness Benchmark in Science
(24) than students who took only Biology and Chemistry or less.Ó (ACT
2006, p. 3. 45% are ready vs ~20%. http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED493179.pdf)
Physics,
more than any other subject in high school, teaches quantitative and analytical
reasoning skills. Math is an important tool, but physics makes math "make
senseÓ.
Physics
is a gateway course for post-secondary study in science, medicine, and
engineering, as well as an essential component in the formation of studentsŐ
scientific literacy.Ó (Position Statement of the National Alliance of Black School
Educators - 2012)
Most
leakage from the STEM career "pipeline" occurs in high school and in
the transition from high school to college, not in college. Most students
who do not /cannot take high school physics never enter the STEM
pipeline.
Nationally
the numbers of high school students taking physics has grown rapidly to 40%.
Unfortunately Arizona has moved in the opposite direction. Physics enrollment is below 20% and not
even offered in some large high schools because of a lack of qualified staff.
The high salaries offered by industry have created an environment in which
universities graduate very few physics majors who desire to teach.
Why arenŐt more Arizona
students taking physics?
Monica
Plisch, Associate Director of Education and Diversity at the American Physical
Society, said, "Physics is
often seen as an elite discipline that requires a lot of math and is only for
college-bound students. This view is not only outdated, it risks underestimating
students' abilities and cutting off their future opportunities in STEMÓ.
Online
guidance programs for high school students, like the state-mandated Arizona
Career Information System (AZCIS) (https://portal.azcis.intocareers.org
),
are no help; they fail to require high school physics even for careers that
clearly require physics understanding; e.g., the career clusters Health
Sciences; Science, Technology, Engineering & Math; Architecture and
Construction, etc.
Of
all school subjects, physics has the most severe teacher shortage, followed by
math and chemistry. There are surpluses of
biology teachers.
The
shortage of physics teachers leaves too many U.S. students unprepared for
college study in STEM disciplines. America lags far behind most of our global
competitors in physics education. The large
STEM-trained populations in China and India are supporting burgeoning
industrial development in those countries.
To
better understand the crisis at school level, Earl Barrett and Larry Dukerich,
with support of a grant from the Boeing Company in Mesa and assistance of the
Arizona Department of Education, surveyed high school counselors in January
2017. Recognizing that they also needed data on studentsŐ views, they gave a
similar instrument in February to chemistry students in 8 Arizona school
districts. They received responses from 75 counselors and nearly 900 students.
Summary
of Survey Results
1. Only 45% of chemistry students surveyed
said they have a good idea of what they would study in physics. Nearly
65% of counselors think that students DO NOT have a good grasp of what physics
is about.
2. While 60% of students feel that they have
the math skills needed to be successful in physics, almost 70% of counselors
disagree with that view.
3. About 45% of students arenŐt sure that
physics would help them succeed in college or technical school. 57% of
counselors think that students are not aware of benefits of physics.
4. Nearly 65% of students fear that a poor
grade in physics will hurt their chances of being accepted by college.
56% of counselors agree.
5. More than 40% of students think that
physics is only for people intending to become engineers. Over half of the
counselors think this is what students believe.
6. It is
distressing that nearly 60% of counselors admit that they have no significant
contact with the physics teacher(s) at their school.
Conclusions
The majority of
counselors believe, erroneously, that physics requires a student to have
exceptional math skills and a desire to be an engineer. Without a belief that
physics is important for anyone interested in a STEM career, they often steer
students to other science courses. A related problem is lack of an effective
recruitment plan by the physics teacher: most physics teachers are in
competition with their science colleagues for that third year of required
science.
High schools seem to
have no big picture that recognizes that a vibrant physics program better
prepares students for a STEM career than does AP coursework. It is natural for principals to feel
pressure to expand the AP program at their school, because the public has been
sold the idea that the number of AP offerings at a school is a measure of its
academic excellence. (Charter schools like BASIS have been singled out as some
of the best schools in the nation because their students take an average of 11
AP exams.) Neither parents nor students are aware that in Arizona 80% of
students who take the AP-1 physics exam, for example, fail to earn college
credit because our universities demand a score of 4 or
5 on the exam. This AP model does not work for the vast majority of our
students.
What
can be done at school level to address this crisis?
á Most of
our schools could add two or more sections of physics with their present
staffing.
á School
districts already have the right to declare that physics has enough mathematics
to be accepted as meeting the mathematics requirement for graduation. We believe students would be eager to
take a class where math is applied in a real world context as their 4th
required math class.
á Our
survey revealed that counselors overwhelming agreed they would support physics
for the average student if the class was designed to
improve studentsŐ math skills and was built around practical applications and a
project-based design.
á ASU
is the birthplace of a world-renowned program in the
reformed practice of teaching physics – Modeling Instruction. Each summer
it offers 3-week workshop courses that would enable your present staff to
retrain and earn certification as physics instructors. Arizona Senate Bill SB
1051 (passed as SB 1551 in 2019), a continuation of
SB 1038 (passed in May 2017) will help to defray the cost of such coursework,
with $2000 grants to teachers. (Apply at
www.azed.gov/hetl/pd-pilot-program .) With additional funding
from school districts, it is possible to retrain a teacher for physics in as
little as two summers at ASU and a school year of ŇrefresherÓ evening classes
(or online) at a community college. Information: http://modeling.asu.edu
We
would be glad to provide our surveys. If you want to examine them closely, we
can share actual counselor comments and survey results for all questions. We would be pleased to meet with you to
answer your questions about implementing a plan to increase physics enrollment
in your school.
Larry
Dukerich ldukerich@mac.com
Earl
Barrett ejbarrett10@gmail.com
Larry
Dukerich received his B.S. in Chemistry from Michigan State University and his
Master of Natural Science degree from Arizona State University. He taught high
school chemistry and physics, including regular, honors and AP courses, in
Michigan and Arizona for 34 years. He was a Woodrow Wilson Dreyfus Fellow in
Chemistry in 1986 and a Presidential Awardee for Excellence in Science Teaching
in 2000. Since 1995, he has
conducted numerous summer workshops for physics and chemistry teachers as part
of the Modeling Instruction Program at ASU, and later in Pennsylvania, N
Carolina, Tennessee, New York City, Missouri, California and Colorado. He has
made presentations about and conducted workshops on Modeling Instruction at
NSTA, ChemEd and BCCE conferences.
He is a lead contributor to the curricular materials used in Modeling
Instruction in chemistry.
Earl Barrett
received his B.S. in Science from Seton Hall University and his MST from
Antioch College. He taught high school earth science, biology, chemistry and
physics, including regular, honors, dual enrollment and AP courses, in New
Jersey and Arizona for 41 years.
He has participated in National Science Foundation graduate study
institutes in mathematics, earth science, and physics at Rutgers University, Newark
College of Engineering, NC State, UC Berkeley, ASU, Florida State, Colorado
State, Dartmouth College, Dickinson College and Lewis and Clark College. He
served two years as the president of the Phoenix Union High School District
classroom teachers association and treasurer of the Arizona Science Teachers
Association. He was a nominee for Teacher of the Year in 1987, received a
Presidential Award for Excellence in Science Teaching in 1993, and was a
recipient of the Tandy Technology Outstanding Teacher Award as a Top Fifty
Physics teacher in 1990. Since
retiring he has given local presentations concerning the crisis in physics
education and had a related paper published in The Physics Teacher. https://www.aapt.org/Resources/upload/PTE000399_Increasing-Physics-Enrollment.pdf
Together they
taught physics and chemistry at Dobson High School in Mesa, AZ for 20 years.