Getting the Facts Out - About Teacher Recruitment

Fall 2022

An Update from the AMTE Get the Facts Out Task Force

by Tim Hendrix

As mathematics teacher educators, a large part of our role is recruiting future teachers, and encouraging our colleagues to send positive messages about teaching as a career option.  AMTE members identified teacher recruitment as a top priority issue that we face in our profession today, and AMTE has been involved in supporting our members in these efforts through the NSF-funded Get the Facts Out (GFO) grant, housed at the Colorado School of Mines (See footnote).  AMTE is a partner in this grant, along with three other professional societies (American Association of Physics Teachers, American Chemical Society, and American Physical Society), to build resources and empower a community of professionals reaching out to recruit STEM teachers in the PreK-12 arena.

AMTE has a task force focused on the GFO work to support our members in recruitment and positive messaging.  The task force includes Jean Lee (chair), Tim Hendrix, W. Gary Martin, Amy Roth McDuffie, and Glenn Waddell.  As we begin the new academic year, the task force wants to let you know of upcoming events and updated resources to support your work.

Coffee Chats: Each month, the Task Force is hosting an online Coffee Chat via Zoom to hear what is important to you in your recruitment efforts, and to share ideas and resources.  The team will briefly update you on any new GFO resources, and then we want to hear from you the issues that you are facing.  Together, we can identify important challenges, and brainstorm or share solutions.  Here are the upcoming Coffee Chats for the Fall 2022 semester, held on the third Tuesday of each month at Noon Eastern time:

  • August 16 - Focal Topic: Recruiting Strategies for the Fall Semester
  • September 20 - Focal Topic: Recent Teacher Retention Data
  • October 18 - AMTE GFO Webinar rather than a coffee chat this month
  • November 15 - Focal Topic: How can we talk with other faculty about GFO?
  • December 20- Focal Topic: To be determined

Even though we try to identify a topic of interest, we most want to hear from you - what are your ideas, questions, challenges, and successes in recruiting teachers of mathematics?

NCTM Presentation: At the upcoming annual conference in Los Angeles, on Friday, September 30, members of the Task Force will present at NCTM, 4-5pm: We Need More Math Teachers! Changing the Narrative about Mathematics Teaching as a Career.  We envision a mix of in-service classroom teachers, curriculum supervisors, and mathematics teacher educators coming together to discuss how we can communicate accurate and positive messages about teaching mathematics as a career.  If you are at NCTM, come join us at Session 378!!

October Webinar: On Tuesday, October 18, 12 - 1 PM Eastern time, we will host an AMTE Webinar focused on the work of Get the Facts Out and teacher recruitment.  We will share basic information about the project for those folks who have not learned about GFO, and will share the most updated materials, information, and resources for all of us.

AMTE Pre-Conference 2023: Last year, the AMTE GFO Task Force partnered with the Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership (MTEP) to host a pre-conference the day before the AMTE conference that focused on both teacher recruitment and issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in our work.  This coming February, in New Orleans, AMTE GFO and MTEP will collaborate again on February 1, 2023 to focus on important issues in recruitment of teachers of mathematics.  More details will follow in the upcoming months, along with registration information for this pre-conference. 

Updated Materials from the GFO Website: The Get the Facts Out Project hosts a robust website of resources to support us in our teacher recruitment and messaging efforts.  The website is located at:

            Get the Facts Out: https://getthefactsout.org

The website provides information about positive messaging for the teaching profession, downloadable and adaptable resources (posters, flyers, brochures, etc) that can be personalized to your institution, template presentations for various audiences (potential teacher candidates and faculty), and data/research to support our efforts.  Although a monumental task, the GFO project team strives to provide updated information and resources on an ongoing basis, so check out the website for more information.

One resource that is often helpful is personalized data about teacher salaries and cost of living data for particular school districts that the GFO team will research and provide for us.  They have a database of school districts with data, but are responsive to adding information about new school districts and locations.  The GFO team will deliver a PDF, and editable PPTX slide of the information for your district.  An example is shown below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For all of us, sending positive but accurate messages about the teaching profession and recruiting the next generation of teachers of mathematics and science are among our highest priorities and greatest challenges.  We do not have all of the answers of how best to accomplish this, but there are many people across our STEM disciplines who are working on ways we can support each other in this important mission.

Ways you can become involved are to attend a presentation or coffee chat, visit the website, and even register on the GFO website to be a Mathematics Champion. Champions are those of us who are engaged in teacher recruitment, who have seen and consider using the GFO resources, and want to stay informed about updates from the project.  Simply sign up on the GFO website:  Become a GFO Champion - Get the Facts Out: https://getthefactsout.org/become-gfo-champion/

If you have any questions, ideas, or issues that you would like to discuss, please contact any member of the AMTE GFO Task Force.  We welcome your input and your feedback.  Visit the AMTE Get the Fact Out Website (https://amte.net/content/get-facts-out) and click on any of the team’s names to send us an email.

Jean Lee, Task Force Chair, Shari Stockero, AMTE GFO Co-Principal Investigator, Tim Hendrix, W. Gary Martin, Amy Roth McDuffie, & Glenn Waddell, Jr.

NOTE: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 1821710 & 1821462. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.