WASHINGTON—Higher starting salaries, more rigorous teacher-training programs and additional support for first year teachers are just a few of the incentives needed to deal with a projected shortfall of more than 280,000 math and science teachers across the country by 2015, according to a group of business, foundation and higher education leaders.

The recommendations were included in a report released by the Business-Higher Education Forum, a Washington-based group organized to increase US competitiveness. Its release was timed to coincide with the national debate on teacher quality and pay as Congress prepares to reauthorize No Child Left Behind, the Higher Education Act and the budget for the National Science Foundation.

The group’s goal is to double the number of graduates in science, math, engineering and technology fields during the next 10 years. “But we can make little progress without tackling the teacher problem,” said Brian K. Fitzgerald, president and chief executive of the forum, while describing the report at the National Press Club.

According to the report, the quality of math and science teachers is the most influential variable in determining the success of a student in those subjects, but fewer talented math and science graduates are becoming teachers because they have many higher paying professional opportunities.

To make teaching a viable career choice, the report proposed a package of financial incentives, including scholarships, signing bonuses, loan forgiveness, housing subsidies and differential pay to teachers who work in high-demand subjects or those willing to work in high-poverty school systems, where shortages are being felt most acutely.

Offering higher pay in some subjects would depart from the existing system, which is based on experience and educational credits.

The proposal has been controversial, with some teachers unions worried that different pay scales would encourage discord on faculties.

The report also calls for comprehensive measures to retain new teachers, citing statistics that as many as 33 percent of new teachers leave the field within three years. In addition to calling for better pay, the study advocates more mentoring and a reduced course load in the first year of teaching.

“We know that every year across America, we lose people in the teaching profession because they get off to a bad start,” said Edgar B. Hatrick III, superintendent of Loudoun County, Virginia, school system.

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Higher pay urged to lure math, science teachers

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