http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/01/1425n.htm
ATTENTION
(STEM) Education
CAUCUS STAFFERS:
February 2008 News
Briefs on STEM Education
In this Issue:
6.
Newly introduced STEM Education Legislation
While their peers
in
2.
National
Science Board Releases Science and Engineering Indicators 2008
(NYT 1/16)
The National Science
Board has issued a new report—"NSB Report: Science & Engineering Indicators
2008"— showing that while the United States is still a science and innovation world
leader, it is falling behind fast. The report suggests that the
The
enrollment of first-time foreign students in graduate science and engineering programs
increased significantly in 2006, according to the results of a National
Science Foundation survey released this week. The number of students in all years
of those programs grew over all by 1.7 percent in 2006.
5.
Tech Literacy Tests Not Widespread Despite NCLB Mandates
The No Child Left Behind Act made it a goal for
all 8th graders to be technologically literate but left this out of the actual accountability
provisions. As a result, most states do not specifically test technological literacy.
6. 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.RES.917
|
Title: Supporting
the goals and ideals of National Engineers Week, and for other purposes.
Sponsor:
Rep Lipinski, Daniel [D-IL-3] (introduced 1/15/2008) Cosponsors:
44
Committees: House Science and Technology
Latest Major Action: 1/15/2008 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Science and Technology.
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.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/01/1425n.htm
Wednesday, January
30, 2008
The
enrollment of first-time foreign students in graduate science and engineering programs
increased significantly in 2006, according to the results of a National
Science Foundation survey released this week. The number of students in all years
of those programs grew over all by 1.7 percent in 2006.
Enrollment
of first-time foreign students in graduate programs in science and engineering increased
by 16 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to the NSF's "Survey of Graduate Students
and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering." At the same time, overall first-time
graduate enrollment in those programs increased by 6 percent.
The
findings are in line with those published by the
"The
NSF numbers parallel ours, and it shows that we've mostly rebounded from the dips
after 9/11," says Peggy Blumenthal, the institute's executive vice president. "Back
then, the word was out that visas were hard to get, and people were being turned
away. But I think there is more opportunity now, and universities have worked very
hard to get that word out."
According
to the NSF report, engineering showed robust growth in first-time foreign enrollment,
shooting up by 23 percent. Such enrollment in mathematical sciences increased by
11 percent, and in social sciences by 12 percent.
While
overall graduate enrollment in computer sciences declined slightly, by 0.7 percent,
the discipline saw some of the largest first-time enrollment increases in foreign
students. That enrollment jumped by 21 percent, while the number of
In
addition to drawing more foreign students, science and engineering graduate schools
saw higher numbers of American minorities and women enrolling. The number of female
students increased by 2.3 percent in 2006. The number of black students increased
by 1.6 percent, and the number of Hispanic students by just over 3 percent. In contrast,
enrollment of men and of white, non-Hispanic students of both genders each went
up by about 1 percent.
Josh Fischman contributed to this article.
Education Week
Published in Print:
January 30, 2008
Any
educator who’s ever had to ask a pupil to fix a computer might be surprised to learn
that not all students are technologically proficient—or at least not savvy enough
to be considered “technologically literate.”
While
that term has no universal definition, the core idea could be boiled down to this:
Technologically literate students not only know how to operate hardware and software—they
can also analyze the information flowing through it, evaluate that digital content’s
relative merit and relevance, and use it creatively and ethically in communicating
with others.
The
federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law six years ago, made it a national
goal for all 8th graders to be technologically literate. Unlike reading and math,
though, tech literacy does not factor into the law’s school accountability provisions,
and most states do not administer separate tech-literacy tests statewide.
Still,
at least one test-maker has seen the NCLB goal as an opening and developed assessments
of tech literacy for 8th graders. Appropriately, those tests do use not paper and
pencil, but instead are delivered to students via computers.
Learning.com,
a privately held Portland, Ore.-based company, has sold hundreds of thousands of
its middle school version of TechLiteracy Assessment since the test was launched
in 2005. “I think we’re at the early stages of this market—we’re just seeing a few
of the early-adopter states that are doing an assessment [of tech literacy],” said
company spokesman Mark Tullis.
The
Educational Testing Service, the
Stephen
Denis, ETS’ iSkills product manager, said that the assessment is marketed only to
colleges and universities. He estimated that less than 5 percent of the roughly
15,000 iSkills tests that ETS has administered since the assessment was launched
in 2005 were taken by precollegiate students.
Moreover,
the company has no immediate plans to come up with a test for 8th graders, the grade
level specified in the NCLB law, said ETS spokeswoman Karen Bogan.
“If
[technological literacy] becomes part of NCLB [accountability requirements], we’d
have more of a drive to do that,” she said. Under NCLB, states that receive federal
Enhancing Education Through Technology grants must report their progress toward
making their students technologically literate by the end of 8th grade, but that
technological literacy is defined only by each state.
The
lack of teeth in that provision is often cited as a reason that the market for online
assessments of students’ technological literacy has not caught up to the national
goal. “It’s not that we don’t want to do that—there’s not a market demand for that
right now,” said Ms. Bogan of the ETS.
“It’s
a slow-growing market right now because it’s a voluntary test.”
When
the NCLB law was enacted, “we were hoping that we’d see a wave of high-quality,
21st-century assessment tools,” said Donald G. Knezek, the chief executive officer
of the International Society for Technology in Education, a Washington-based professional
organization that advocates greater use of technology in schools.
Instead,
he said—in part because the U.S. Department of Education didn’t collect information
about states’ assessment of technological literacy, and because states were too
busy testing reading and math proficiency for accountability purposes—“there wasn’t
enough momentum to guarantee a market to invest in those quality products.”
“There’s
so much pressure on the system to test to whatever tests are being required,” said
Elsa M. Garmire, a professor of engineering at
The
committee’s
2006 final report, the culmination of a two-year study, found tech literacy
to be still in its infancy, concluding: “No one really knows the level of technological
literacy among people in this country.” According to
Technology Counts,
an annual Education Week report
on school technology, only four states—Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Utah—offer
statewide testing of students on technology.
“We
have been frustrated,” said MarkSchneiderman, the director of education policy for
the Software and Information Industry Association, a Washington-based trade group
that includes many publishers and online-assessment companies. “My sense is that
there’s a great desire at the state and local level to look at these kinds of [technological-literacy]
skills. But there’s a challenge with curricular requirements and overtesting.”
Learning.com’s
Mr. Tullis acknowledged those barriers, but said his company remains committed to
working with states: “There are still states that want to know their students’ tech-literacy
levels, regardless of whether the Department of Education is telling them what to
do or not.”
That
was the case in
“We
did this just because we thought it was the right thing to do,” said Cathy J. Poplin,
the state’s deputy associate superintendent for educational technology. “The least
of the reason was the feds.”
Fifth
and 8th graders in the state are tested twice a year, in the fall and in the spring.
“The
data that we’ve received back has been phenomenal,” Ms. Poplin said. “Within 48
hours, [districts] can have their results back. School-level results, class-level
results, student-level results. A teacher can drill down and make correlations.”
Other
states have tweaked off-the-shelf assessments. “There’s nothing out there that meets
our exact needs,” said Dee Appleby, the director of
“I
think Learning.com’s probably the closest we’ve seen to the ISTE standards,” she
said, referring to the tech-literacy standards drawn up by the International Society
for Technology in Education, which have been adopted by most states as the starting
point for their own standards.
Still,
Ms. Appleby noted, the state has employed a Maryland-based company to customize
Learning.com’s TechLiteracy Assessment for its particular needs.
“No
two states are the same,” she said. “It’s difficult to come up with one baseline
program that will work for everybody.”
“You
can’t build something that’s one-size-fits-all,” said Kate J. Kemker, the state’s
bureau chief for instruction and innovation.
This
year, for the first time, the Education Department has collected data on tech literacy,
something Mr. Schneiderman of the SIIA called a step in the right direction.
And
bills introduced last year in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives
may portend even wider changes. Called the Achievement Through Technology
and Innovation Act, the bills would uniformly define student tech literacy,
and would authorize a maximum of $2 million a year to develop an annual national
report on the subject.
Looking
back on the federal approach to student technology literacy since the NCLB’s passage,
ISTE’s Mr. Knezek decried what he called the Education Department’s “selective enforcement.”
“The
negative leadership they’ve shown has cut seriously into 8th graders’ tech literacy,”
he said.
Timothy
J. Magner, the director of the Education Department’s office of educational technology,
said it was “probably a fair statement” that commercial assessments of tech literacy
would have grown more quickly if the department had collected such data since the
NCLB’s enactment, and that states would by extension be farther along in assessing
students’ tech literacy.
But,
added Mr. Magner, a former executive director for K-12 education at the Microsoft
Corp. and a former deputy executive director of the Council of Chief State School
Officers: “I’m not sure it’s quite as causal as Don [Knezek] would say. That’s a
market dynamic.”
Coverage
of mathematics, science, and technology education is supported by a grant from the
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation at
www.kauffman.org.