Overview of the problem

SEP 01, 1983

Our present situation is the culmination of a long trend—interrupted only weakly in the Sputnik era—of declining enrollments in physics, but the state of the economy may provide a new context.

DOI: 10.1063/1.2915845

John W. Layman

Science and mathematics education in this country is in a precarious state. Most of our students do not learn nearly as much as they could and many of our teachers are ill prepared. That the state of affairs has deteriorated to the point of becoming a crisis is confirmed by the number of editorials in our journals, the amount of legislation being proposed at all levels, the attention given the subject in the popular press and the number of meetings held to discuss the crisis. Thus, for example, the National Academy of Sciences sponsored a national convocation (May 1982) to consider the state of precollege education in the United States. The topic also received special attention in October 1982 at The American Institute of Physics Corporate Associates meeting and at the Spring 1983 meeting of the AIP Assembly of Society Officers and the AIP Governing Board meeting.

References

1. Science and Engineering Education: Data and Information, National Science Foundation (1981), page 128.
2. R. Brown, National Assessment Findings and Educational Policy Questions, SY‐CA‐50, Education Commission of the States (1982).
3. Science and Engineering Education for the 1980s and Beyond, NSF 80‐78, National Science Foundation (1980), page 47.
4. AIP Manpower Statistics Division, Results of the AIP analysis of the NCES tapes from High School and Beyond, preliminary report (unpublished).
5. S. E. Klein, NSTA Testimony to the Labor and Human Resources Committee of the US Senate, 15 April 1982.
6. J. N. Akin, Teachers Supply/Demand 1983, Association for School, College and University Staffing (1983).
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11. J. W. Buchta, PHYSICS TODAY, September 1959, page 35.
12. V. J. Young, A Third Report on a Pre‐College Physics Study, AIP Department of Education and Manpower (1965), page 3.
13. V. J. Young, Phys. Teach., January 1966, page 20.
14. Preparing High School Physics Teachers, Commission of College Physics (1968), page 1 (this report is available from AAPT).
15. Physics in Perspective, National Academy of Sciences (1972), page 756.
16. F. Press, Science 216, 1055 (1982).https://doi.org/SCIEAS

More about the Authors

John W. Layman. University of Maryland.