Colorado’s shortage of math and science teachers is persistent, a new report shows.
Only a tiny proportion of the college students in Colorado who want to become teachers is willing to teach math, science or foreign language, says the report, reviewed Thursday by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
Less than 2 percent of teacher education majors in Colorado public colleges are planning to teach a foreign language, 2.6 percent plan to teach math and 3.5 percent plan to teach science.
Just five of the 10,869 college students seeking teacher licenses in 2004-05 were majoring in physics, said Matt Gianneschi, the commission’s chief academic officer. That’s one physics teacher for every 58 high schools in Colorado, he said.
One-third of the students were majoring in elementary education. Nearly 80 percent of all education majors were white and 77 percent were women, the report says.
“We’re not seeing the kind of diversity that we’re seeing otherwise on our campuses,” Gianneschi said.
