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There are some signs of hope on the pedagogical horizon. Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, No Child Left Behind will require states to start testing in science in three grades. "There's gonna be a large snapping sound as schools suddenly remember they do have to teach science after all," says Wheeler. In his speech, Bush said he would like to train 70,000 high school teachers to lead advanced-placement courses in math and science, nearly tripling the number of such teachers, and expanding access for low-income students to those rigorous courses. Another of Bush's plans would bring 30,000 math and science professionals to teach in classrooms through an Adjunct Teacher Corps program. Educators and industrialists who have long been pushing for action say they want to see the fine print of Bush's proposal. "There were a lot of hoorays from the business world," says Bill Swanson, CEO of Raytheon, a defense company that offers schools $1 million in math grants each year. "But I'm concerned about what's going to happen in that fourth- to eighth-grade range. If you lose a kid then, it's awfully hard to get him back into science in high school."

While Washington is just getting on board with science education, some programs that originated outside the Beltway are flourishing. The University of Texas at Austin's UTeach graduates 70 students a year with teaching certificates and bachelor's degrees in a science or math, and those aspiring teachers are more than twice as likely to stay in the eight-year-old degree program as other science students. A crucial element of the program's success, says co-director Michael Marder, is giving students classroom experience in their first year. "The best way to convince talented young people to teach," says Marder, "is to give them an opportunity to try it."