Washington ? Many educators and employers liken the state of science education to a chemistry project gone awry: A bad mix of factors has come together and it spells trouble.

By law, making students better at reading and math is the nation’s priority. When it comes to science, however, a quiet crisis is engulfing schools, say scientists, educators, business leaders and entrepreneurs.

It begins when young students skip challenging science courses and later produces an understaffed or ill-trained corps of science instructors. The result is lagging U.S. performance in jobs, research and innovation.

“The public is not hearing this,” said Gerald Wheeler, a nuclear physicist and executive director of the National Science Teachers Assn. “It’s troubling that at one level, we understand that we live in a technological society, but it’s not playing out that way. Science is on the back burner.”

Not everyone is pessimistic.

The country remains a dominant force in the advancement of science. Also, some observers say the picture of an “emerging and critical” problem in the labor force, as it was put by the government advisory National Science Board, is overblown.

But teachers in the field say they need help, mainly in professional training and class time to be creative.

“Is the goal now a set of scores or is the goal a set of scientists?” said Janis Elliott, who teaches physics at a high school in Bellevue, Neb.

Teachers attending the National Education Assn.’s annual meeting spoke about the state of science education in a group interview Saturday with The Associated Press.

Elliott, who trains other teachers in science trends, says she often must seek her own training from outside sources. They include military weapons experts, an engineering company and a cancer research institute.

“In physics, with infrared imagery, I have to tell kids how to use it, how they’re going to need to know it, what computer applications come with it, how they’re going to use it in medicine and in looking for bomb shelter in war … We don’t get that training in college,” Elliott said.