physicists & physics: an overview of our data - nvtc€¦ · • initial employment /...

NVTC Education & Workforce Committee

February 1, 2013 • Reston, VA

Physicists & Physics:

An Overview of Our DataStatistical Research Center

American Institute of Physics

Physicists & Physics:

An Overview of Our DataStatistical Research Center

American Institute of Physics

Susan White, PhD

Research Manager



Not everything that can be counted counts,

not everything that counts can be counted.

and



AIP is …

• A not-for-profit membership corporation created

for the purpose of promoting the advancement and

diffusion of the knowledge of physics and its

application to human welfare.

• A leading publisher in the physical sciences

• A “society of societies”



AIP’s Physics Resources Center (PRC)

• Government relations

• News and media

• History

• Education

• Statistical research

• Industrial outreach



What is the SRC?

• Established in 1961 to examine physics

education and workforce issues

• Today we have a full-time staff of 12

– Experienced survey practitioners

– Median time at the SRC: 18 years

• The source for data on physicists

– Tight-knit physics community

• www.aip.org/statistics



In addition to our work in physics …

• We do contract work in allied fields

– Planetary science, Heliophysics, Geosciences

• For physics societies

– Including AAPM, AAS, OSA

• For scientific publishers

• And beyond

– Project-based learning, Research-based

instructional strategies, Humanities



Our Core Studies

• High school physics teachers

– Sample of about 3,500 schools, public & private

• Physics in Two-Year Colleges

– Census

• Physics degree-granting departments

– Census

• Physics & Astronomy Degree recipients

– Census



High School Physics

• Begun in 1987; repeated at least every 4 years

• Data on enrollments, physics taking, teacher

credentials, textbooks

• Why do we do this study?

• The community asked us to collect the data

• Data not available from CCD (NCES)

• Data for physics teacher preparation programs

• Textbook ratings favorite of teachers



Physics in Two-Year Colleges

• Census of all administrative units that offer

physics

• 1995, 2001, 2011

• Data on enrollments, number of faculty,

faculty turnover

• Why do we do this study?

– The community asked us to collect the data



Physics Offerings at TYC Campuses(at TYC Campuses which Offer Any Physics)

72%

84%

30%

21%

15%

10%

13%

79%

94%

54%

26%

47%

3%

31%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Calculus-based

Algebra-Trig based

Conceptual

Tech / Applied

Physical Sci

Other Phys

Physics / Phys Sci for Ed

2001

2011



Enrollments in Intro Astronomy Classesin TYCs & Departments Offering at least Bachelor’s Degrees

Institution /

Department Year

Introductory

Astronomy

Enrollments

TYCs 2011 51,000

Physics degree-

granting2010 144,000

Astronomy degree-

granting2010 52,000



Physics in Degree-granting Departments

• Census of all degree-granting departments

• Enrollments and degrees conducted annually

– Also collect contact info for degree recipients

• Academic workforce conducted every 2 years

• Why do we do these studies?

– Community requests the data

– Community uses the data



0.0%

0.5%

1.0%

1.5%

2.0%

2.5%

3.0%

3.5%

4.0%

1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009

% of Bachelor's % of Doctorates % of Calc-Based

State of Virginia Contributions(3-year moving average)

Calc-based is calculus-based intro physics taught in physics departments. Some engineering schools teach their own intro physics.



Physics Degree Recipients

• Initial employment / matriculation to graduate

programs

– Survey administered every year to all graduates

for which we have contact information

– For doctoral recipients, we will contact the faculty

advisor if we can’t reach the student

• Why do we collect these data?

– The community uses the data and keeps asking for

more.



Current Studies

• PhD + 10

• Global survey of physicists



PhD+10

• Study of mid-career graduates to examine

career paths

• Updating contact information was challenging

– Much easier to find those working in academia

• Reports forthcoming

• Why did we do this study?

– The community requested data about careers

beyond academia



Global Survey of Physicists

• SRC’s largest survey effort ever

– Outgrowth of IUPAP Conference on Women in

Physics

– Almost 15,000 respondents

• Analysis ongoing

• First report: Women in physics: A tale of limits

• Why did we do this study?

– Community requested it (and found us a grant to

administer it in 8 languages!)



Respondents to Global Survey(Most Recent Country of Residence)



From the article …

For this analysis, the responses of physicists whose spouse or partner was not employed were omitted.

Having children appears to help a man’s career and hinder a woman’s.



Focus on Underrepresented Minorities

• Data from all our studies

• Women

• Hispanics

• African Americans

• Why do we break these out?

– The community is concerned about diversity.



How are our data used?

• Physicists are scientists, and they want data.

– To examine trends over time

– To make comparisons

– To measure goal attainment

• The SRC does not advocate.

– We do not want our data to be suspect.

• Others do advocate with our data.



Some ways we have used our data …

• SERI (Science & Engineering Readiness Index)

• Number of physics teachers & “best” schools

• Physics majors and scores on the MCAT

• Physics majors and scores on the LSAT

• Salary reports

• Job searches



Science & Engineering Readiness Index(2008-09 Data)



Number of Physics Teachers and

“Best” High Schools# of Physics

Teachers

% Earning CI

Ranking

% Earning SM

Ranking

Comparison to

Base Rate

0 or 1 2% 1% ~1/3

2 19% 7% ~2x

3 or more 32% 20% 4 – 7x

Overall 7% 3%

CI – Challenge Index; number of AP tests taken divided by number of seniors; used by Newsweek

SM – SchoolMatters; state accountability tests adjusted for student demographics; used by US News & World Report

All data are for the 2004-05 school year.



Total

31.2

31.0

30.8

30.6

30.0

30.0

29.6

29.3

28.7

27.6

27.3

26.9

25.7

28.0



AIP Education

• Student programs

– Society of Physics Students

– Careers Using Physics (CUP)

– Gradschool Shopper

– Compadre & The Nucleus

• Honors programs

– Sigma Pi Sigma

– Quadrennial Congress



Would this work in other disciplines?

• Hard to say

• The physics community is relatively small and

tight knit.

• The community requested most of the data

we collect, so they use it.

• With ~800 degree-granting departments, we

can track them year-to-year. They know us

and use our data, so they respond to our

surveys.



Higher education use is a driving force

• Anecdotally, we hear that NSF program

officers in other disciplines are envious of the

wealth of data in physics.

– The data is quite useful for grant proposals and

evaluation.

– This is mostly in higher ed.

– Our higher education studies have much higher

response rates than HS and TYC. (95%+ versus 60 –

70%)



SRC has worked with ACS

• Most recently on the two-year college survey

– In TYCs, physics and chemistry are very likely to be

in the same administrative unit.

– Chemistry is offered on more TYC campuses.

• Also on an early high school survey

• Can be harder to work with other disciplines

beyond TYCs because other disciplines are

more prevalent

– In physics & astronomy, ~800 departments



Thank you!

• We’d love to let you know when we’ve posted

a new report in an area that interests you.

www.aip.org/statistics/

e_updates.html

Questions? Let me know … Susan White, [email protected]

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