College and University Mathematics and Mathematics Teacher Education Departments are invited to participate in a new NSF project, “Get the Facts Out: Changing the conversation around STEM teacher recruitment”.

The Colorado School of Mines, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, and the Mathematical Association of America are partnering on an NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Development and Implementation project that seeks to dispel misperceptions associated with being a teacher of physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the middle and high school level.

About half of STEM majors report some level of interest in grade 7-12 teaching, but very small numbers enroll in teacher certification programs. Get the Facts Out will change this by providing faculty with well-developed strategies and materials designed to dispel negative misperceptions and offer accurate and positive information about the teaching profession.

The project team hopes to engage mathematics and mathematics teacher education departments in this important work.

Requests of departments include:
• Consider implementing Get the Facts Out strategies and materials in your department
• Contacting students and faculty annually to complete brief online surveys about their perceptions of grade 7-12 teaching as a profession
• Providing an annual count of majors who enroll in a teacher preparation program

Benefits to departments include:
• Research-based, user-tested strategies and materials to aid your teacher recruitment efforts
• An annual report analyzing the data from your department, which can inform teacher recruitment efforts
• Consultation with experts on the above, as requested

Interested in learning more or getting involved? Please complete the short form found at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GFOQuantitativeSites

Thanks for all that you do to support teacher education!