A Seven Year Look at Physics Education in the State of New York.

Physics has been identified as a gatekeeper course for many post-secondary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics programs. Access to quality high school physics courses have varied widely across the United States, depending on factors such as the location of the school, socioeconomic factors, and school demographics. Many of these factors have been identified to have compounding and related issues including increased likelihood of teacher isolation, increased rates of teacher turnover, increased percentages of out-of-field teaching, and inequitable course offerings. This observational, longitudinal study conducted for the years between 2012 and 2019 aimed to explore (1) how the distribution of physics teachers changed in New York state, (2) how the extent of professional isolation of physics teachers changed in New York state, and (3) how physics availability, course-taking, and teaching course load changed among school contexts. Results have indicated an increased number of physics teachers for the state, but also demonstrated an increased number of isolated teachers. Data also highlighted that this increase in isolated teachers may be a localized problem tied to contextual factors, such as locale, as indicated by the increase in isolated teachers in only urban schools. Results also suggest that this increase may be tied to more physics offerings in urban locales which implies greater student access to physics. When looking at socioeconomic status (SES), schools of lower SES also showed an increase in the number of physics teachers. Interestingly, the increase of isolated teachers, as organized by SES, mainly took place in average SES schools. The goal of this research was to set the groundwork for future exploration in this field and to better understand the trajectory of New York physics for years to come.