August 2007 News
Briefs on STEM Education
In this Issue:
7.
Newly introduced STEM Education Legislation
Students who
had more math courses in high school did better in all types of science once they
got to college, researchers say.
3. Science and Technology Investments Strengthen
Heavy investments in science and technology
during the 1990s by some Asian nations are paying notable economic dividends in
high-tech areas important to the
To access the full
report, “
(Chronicle of Higher Education 7/17)
In some fields -- mainly engineering and the hard sciences -- most
people complete their Ph.D.'s after six or seven years of doctoral study, but the
most interesting of the council's findings is the suggestion that the 10-year mark
may be too soon to write off some students as noncompleters.
5. Student Results Show Benefits of Math and Science
Partnerships (7/18 NSF press release)
Students' performance
on annual math and science assessments improved in almost every age group when their
schools were involved in a program that partners K-12 teachers with their colleagues
in higher education.
Recently
Introduced STEM Legislation
This is a record of recently introduced legislation
related to STEM Ed. but does not represent Caucus endorsement of any legislation
H.R.3418 Title: To provide for a permanent exclusion
from gross income for employer-provided educational assistance.
Sponsor:
Rep Levin, Sander M. [D-MI-12] (introduced 8/3/2007)
Cosponsors:
36
Committees:
Latest Major Action: 8/3/2007 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
H.R.3040 Title: To amend title 38, United States
Code, to provide additional educational assistance under the Montgomery GI Bill
to veterans pursuing a degree in science, technology, engineering, or math.
Sponsor:
Rep Space, Zachary T. [D-OH-18] (introduced 7/12/2007)
Cosponsors:
7
Committees: House Veterans' Affairs; House Armed Services
Latest Major Action: 7/12/2007 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, and in addition to the Committee
on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of
the committee concerned.
H.R.3235 Title: Nanotechnology Advancement and New
Opportunities Act
Sponsor:
Rep Honda, Michael M. [D-CA-15] (introduced 7/31/2007)
Cosponsors: (none)
Committees: House Science and Technology; House Ways
and Means; House Energy and Commerce; House Homeland Security
Latest Major Action: 7/31/2007 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Science and Technology, and in addition to
the Committees on Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Homeland Security, for
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
H.R.3313 Title: To amend provisions of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965 relating to mathematics and science instruction.
Sponsor:
Rep Ehlers, Vernon J. [R-MI-3] (introduced 8/2/2007)
Cosponsors:
3
Committees: House Education and Labor
Latest Major Action: 8/2/2007 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
H.R.3428 Title: To bridge the digital divide in rural
areas.
Sponsor:
Rep McHugh, John M. [R-NY-23] (introduced 8/3/2007)
Cosponsors: 0
Committees: House Energy and Commerce; House Ways and
Means; House Science and Technology
Latest Major Action: 8/3/2007 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the
Committees on Ways and Means, and Science and Technology, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as
fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
H.R. 3242 Title: Strengthening
Sponsor:
Rep McMorris Rodgers, Cathy [R-WA-5] (introduced 7/31/2007)Cosponsors:
1
Committees: House Education and Labor
Latest Major Action: 7/31/2007 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
S.1857 Title: Minority Serving Institutions for Advanced
Technology and Education Act
Sponsor:
Sen Warner, John [R-VA] (introduced 7/23/2007)
Cosponsors: (none)
Committees: Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Latest Major Action: 7/23/2007 Referred to Senate committee.
Status: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions.
The Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Education Caucus’ primary mission
is to promote all areas of STEM Education including K-12, higher education and workforce
issues in Congress. At its core, the caucus functions to increase the visibility
and importance of STEM Education and educate Members of Congress and their staffs
on the technical issues and public-policy options surrounding STEM education.
The Caucus serves as an information source and a catalyst for improving STEM education.
If you would like
to join the Caucus, please contact Julia Jester (x53831) in Mr. Ehlers’ office or
Wendy Adams (x52161) in Mr. Mark Udall’s office.
Tuesday, July 17,
2007
By
the time the 10th anniversary of their enrollment in a Ph.D. program has rolled
around, about 57 percent of doctoral students have their terminal degrees in hand,
according to
new data scheduled for release today by the Council of Graduate Schools.
That
figure represents the latest and most comprehensive stab at measuring American Ph.D.-completion
rates, which conventional wisdom has placed at about 50 percent since the 1970s
-- a statistic that some observers in higher education have called scandalous because
of the waste of time and resources that it signifies. The new data, which come from
preliminary findings of the council's Ph.D. Completion Project, suggest a slightly
more optimistic picture.
The
most interesting of the council's findings is the suggestion that the 10-year mark
may be too soon to write off some students as noncompleters.
In
some fields -- mainly engineering and the hard sciences -- most people complete
their Ph.D.'s after six or seven years of doctoral study. After that, the percentage
of students who have completed their degrees begins to level off. However, in the
social sciences and in the humanities, even into the eighth, ninth, and 10th years
of study, the percentage of students who have completed their degrees slowly but
doggedly continues to rise.
Trends
in the data suggest that still more humanists and social scientists may complete
their degrees after 11 or even 12 years in Ph.D. programs, according to Daniel Denecke,
program director for the project. Those findings may call into question the wisdom
of setting time limits on doctoral study, as some universities do, said Mr. Denecke.
This
stage of the Ph.D. Completion Project is a study of doctoral completion and attrition
rates at about 30 public and private universities across the country. To provide
a first glimpse of data from the project, the council has released a set of statistics
on Ph.D. completion and attrition rates broken down by field of study, along with
a report on exit surveys of doctoral students who have completed their degrees.
Later stages of the project will study the effects that different interventions
have on completion rates.
The
council drew its data from doctoral students who began studying for Ph.D.'s from
1992 to 1995.
Low Completion, High Attrition
The
humanities have the lowest completion rates of any field, and the social sciences
are not far behind, the study found. However, mathematics and the physical sciences
have the highest attrition rates. Those may have something to do with the career
opportunities that might have lured, say, computer scientists away from academe
in the mid-1990s, Mr. Denecke suggested.
Earlier
studies have suggested that graduate programs with small numbers of doctoral students
yielded better Ph.D.-completion rates than those with large numbers. Not so, say
the council's data. Over all, the difference between completion rates for disciplines
with large and small numbers of students is insignificant. In some individual fields,
however, size does make a difference. In engineering, smaller is slightly better;
in the life sciences, smaller is slightly worse.
The
same goes for the difference between completion rates at public versus private universities.
Higher-education researchers have long thought that private universities yielded
better Ph.D.-completion rates than public universities did, presumably because the
private institutions tended to have deeper pockets for grants, stipends, and other
aid. But the council's study found little difference between the completion rates
at the two types of universities. Public institutions, in fact, fared slightly better.
To
Chris Golde, an associate vice provost for graduate education at Stanford University
and a longtime researcher on doctoral completion rates, that last finding is surprising
because it suggests that attrition is not all about money.
Money
was, however, high on the minds of the people who completed the council's exit survey
after earning their Ph.D.'s. Eighty percent of those respondents said that financial
support was the main factor that had enabled them to complete their doctoral programs.
In Ms. Golde's mind, those two statistics are not irreconcilable.
Money, she said, "may help people complete, but that doesn't mean that [lack of money] is the reason people leave."