APS News

December 2011 (Volume 20, Number 11)

NCES Data for Physics Graduates and Physics Teachers

 Annual Graduates from Stem fields new

Figure 1.  Annual graduates from all STEM fields, and Physics alone from US institutions. Data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

 

NCES Physics Teacher data new

Figure 2. The percentage of high school classes taught by teachers with degrees in the field they teach.  The annual demand for physics instructors is roughly three times the supply of teachers with undergraduate majors in physics. Data is from the NCES Schools and Staffing Survey (2007-08).