The Dallas news reports that a new study released Monday indicates that a longtime shortage of teachers in science and math in Texas has grown dramatically worse and will continue to do so.

The report from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin also found that the shortage has increasingly meant that less-qualified teachers are used, particularly at schools with lower-income students.

Among the other key findings:

• The most acute Texas teaching shortages in the state are in secondary math and science. Since 2004, those shortages have increased dramatically, especially in high school science where the shortage has jumped by over 80 percent.
• Projections of future supply and demand suggest that the shortage will continue to increase over the next five years. That shortage comes as Texas high schools implement the 4-by-4 graduation requirements for core courses, including an extra year of math and science. The requirements now apply to freshmen and sophomores.
• From 2004 through 2008, there were sizable increases in the percentages of math and science teachers who were not certified to teach their subjects. For example, the percentage of high school science teachers who were teaching out of their field jumped from 23 to 34 percent during the period.

Read the full story here.

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