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More Jobs Than Job Seekers in Mathematics Education

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By Gabriela Montell

Want a tenure-track job teaching mathematics? The competition will be stiff. But if you're searching for one in mathematics education -- teaching people how to teach mathematics -- academe wants you, desperately.

"It's a seller's market," says Sidney Graham, chairman of the mathematics department at Central Michigan University. "All the cards are stacked in favor of the job seeker."

In 2000-1, of the 134 job openings in mathematics education (all but one of them was on the tenure track), 66 -- or 49 percent -- went unfilled, according to a report in this month's issue of Notices, the magazine of the American Mathematical Society.

The demand for Ph.D.'s in mathematics education has increased, in large part, because of faculty retirements. "There are many of us in our 60s who are retiring or getting ready to retire and that's opening up a lot of positions," says Jeremy Kilpatrick, a professor of mathematics education at the University of Georgia. In fact, experts predict that more than half of all faculty members in the field will be eligible to retire in the next three years.

Unfortunately, there simply aren't enough doctoral students in the pipeline to meet the demand, Mr. Graham says. "It's an option in our graduate program to do work in mathematics education, but it's not that terribly popular. Right now we have only one student who's working in that area."

The number of new doctorates awarded annually in the field ranged from 80 to 115 in the 1990s, according to the National Research Council. However, the annual pool of Ph.D's competing for academic jobs is actually much smaller because 20 percent of new Ph.D.'s in math education typically take jobs in elementary or secondary schools, with government agencies, or at textbook-publishing companies, says Bob Glasgow, an assistant professor of mathematics at Southwest Baptist University who conducted a study on the career paths of doctoral graduates in math education.

Of the remaining Ph.D.'s, an additional 33 percent already have jobs -- they took sabbaticals or educational leave to complete their doctorates -- so they won't be on the job market, he says. Thus, only about 45 new Ph.D.'s go on the higher-education job market each year. (Incidentally, Mr. Glasgow is one of the 33 percent who took a sabbatical to complete his degree. He returned to his job in 2000.)

Few students major in mathematics and most of those who do go into careers other than in teaching, Mr. Kilpatrick says. "There are simply lots of opportunities for people with a math background where they can make more money."

A shortage of elementary- and secondary-school math teachers has also created a major dilemma in the field, says Robert E. Reys, a professor of mathematics education at the University of Missouri at Columbia and author of the report in the February issue of Notices. "Whenever we recruit a math teacher into one of our doctoral programs we're robbing Peter to pay Paul because it contributes to the shortage of [school] teachers."

The end result is that almost anyone who wants a tenure-track job in the field can get one. Last year, for example, the University of Georgia's mathematics-education department graduated four new Ph.D.'s; all of them got tenure-track jobs. "Every graduate we've ever had has found a position," says James W. Wilson, a professor of mathematics education and graduate coordinator at Georgia. "I don't know of any student who's ever gone more than a very short time before being placed."

The University of Wisconsin at Madison and Central Michigan also placed all of their doctoral recipients last year.

Graduates typically have multiple interviews and job offers. P. Mark Taylor, who obtained his Ph.D. in the field from the University of Missouri at Columbia, says he had four interviews (he turned down a fifth) and two offers last year.

"I never had any doubt that I would get a job," he says, "I was merely worried about getting the kind of job that I wanted in the location that I wanted." Mr. Taylor now works as an assistant professor of mathematics education in the College of Education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

While the shortage is good news for job seekers, it's downright frustrating for hirers.

At Central Michigan, Mr. Graham says he's conducting a search for one mathematician and two math educators. So far he's received 165 applications for the math position, but he can count the number of applications for the math-education positions on his fingers.

His situation is not unique. "In our field it may take two or three years to find somebody to fill a job," says Mr. Kilpatrick.

Last year, for example, Jay A. Wood, chairman of the mathematics department at Western Michigan University, says he failed to fill a mathematics-education position because he received only two applications, and one of them was incomplete. He hopes he'll have better luck this year. He's reopened last year's search and hopes to fill a second mathematics-education position. So far he's received eight applications.

Some departments are so desperate for candidates that they're hiring people who haven't yet finished their degrees. M. Lynn Breyfogle, an assistant professor of mathematics at Bucknell University, knows this firsthand. Bucknell recruited her for the job a year and a half before she had completed her degree and held it for her until she finished last July.

Other departments have resorted to raiding each other. "Hirers are feeling the pinch, so they're not just looking at new graduates; they're asking around," says Jennifer Bay-Williams, an assistant professor of mathematics education at Kansas State University, who has herself been approached by other institutions. "And I know when we do another search, we'll do the same thing. We'll call around to other universities and say, 'Do you have any good graduates?' We can't just expect the applications to come in. We really have to go looking for people and try every possible avenue, including considering new hires who might be interested in transferring."

All of this makes for an unusual situation in academe.

"People who have tenure-track positions or even tenured positions can go elsewhere if they want to," Mr. Graham says. "In pure mathematics you just can't think about that unless you're a big star or you're willing to be a department chair."