ATTENTION
(STEM) Education
CAUCUS STAFFERS:
May 2008 News Briefs on STEM Education
In this Issue:
6. Newly introduced STEM Education Legislation
Unnerved by job losses, weak test scores, and competition from an increasingly skilled foreign workforce, state officials have launched a variety of efforts to improve mathematics, science, and technology education, in an attempt to gird against whatever economic challenges may come.
Previous generations of Americans have been labeled Generation X, the Greatest Generation, and the Lost Generation, but if the young people of today want to succeed amid the souped-up competition of the global economy, they had better become the Science Generation.
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
Title: Honoring the life and achievements of John Archibald Wheeler and expressing condolences on his passing.
Sponsor: Rep Foster, Bill [D-IL-14] (introduced 4/17/2008) Cosponsors: (none)
Committees: House Science and Technology
Latest Major Action: 4/22/2008 Passed/agreed to in House. Status: On motion to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution Agreed to by voice vote.
H.R.5848 Title: Preparing Teachers for Digital Age Learners Act of 2008
Sponsor: Rep Holt, Rush D. [D-NJ-12] (introduced 4/17/2008) Cosponsors: 2
Committees: House Education and Labor
Latest Major Action: 4/17/2008 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
H.RES.1101 Title: Honoring and commending The George Washington University in
Sponsor: Rep Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC] (introduced 4/10/2008) Cosponsors: (none)
Committees: House Education and Labor
Latest Major Action: 4/10/2008 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
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.
Published: March 27, 2008
Unnerved by job losses, weak test scores, and competition from an increasingly skilled foreign workforce, state officials have launched a variety of efforts to improve mathematics, science, and technology education, in an attempt to gird against whatever economic challenges may come.
Those initiatives are being filed under an increasingly recognizable identifier: STEM, or science, technology, engineering, and math education. The term has become popular shorthand among policymakers convinced that schools must do a better job preparing students for an economy that will require different and more technically sophisticated skills.
Some of the state-level activity can be traced to the 1980s and 1990s, when states first hatched plans to raise academic standards and require testing across subjects—efforts that have evolved and expanded since then, particularly under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Last year, national policymakers also took up the cause, when Congress approved legislation that authorizes the creation of numerous STEM-related federal programs, such as those focused on teacher training and recruitment, as well as the expansion of existing ones. At the same time, some federal leaders, including officials of the Bush administration, have called for more effective measures of what works in STEM education, given the federal government’s estimated $3 billion annual investment in those areas.
But the idea of bolstering the economy through improved STEM education has especially strong appeal in the states, particularly those hard hit by job losses in manufacturing and other areas, says Meghan Groome, a senior policy analyst at the National Governors Association. That Washington-based organization of the states’ chief executives has tried to spotlight promising efforts in math and science education.
Technology has played a strong role in state and local efforts to improve student achievement in recent years, as education officials have sought to mine data to improve instruction and use technology for purposes such as teacher professional development and online courses for students. States and districts have also tried to boost students’ overall technological literacy, in part by expanding access to laptop computers and other equipment, and by attempting to integrate the use of digital tools across the curriculum, such as with special projects.
Elected officials are trying “to think about what the 21st-century economy is going to look like in their states, and how the K-12 systems in their states can contribute to that economy,” Groome says. “STEM education is really about building a positive future [with] high-wage, highly skilled jobs.”
Last year, the governors’ association hired Frank Luntz, a prominent pollster and consultant based in
He found that a majority of Americans believe that states, more so than the federal government, should take a strong role in attempting to encourage innovation—which they saw as closely tied to technological innovation—in K-12 schools and the workforce. That support comes from both Democrats and Republicans, the survey found.
But the public’s appetite for higher math and science standards is not universal.
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A survey released last year found that just 25 percent of parents in
Some have questioned the rhetoric used by the business leaders and elected officials who see STEM education as a way of fortifying the
The K-12 and college education systems are producing plenty of students with the science and engineering skills and enthusiasm needed to meet workforce demands, the paper found. The problem, the authors argued, is with science- and engineering-oriented firms failing to attract and retain those graduates.
“Training people in math and science is not the same as creating a math or science job in the economy,”
Yet economic concerns have been a driving force behind many state STEM efforts, in which K-12, higher education, and business leaders have worked together to identify workforce needs and determine how schools and colleges could help meet them.
Requiring More
States increased the number of mathematics and science credits needed for a high school diploma from an average of 2.2 years of math and 2.0 years of science in 1989 to 3.0 years of math and 2.7 of science in 2006.
SOURCE: Council of
Some states are trying to lead more students into STEM studies and careers through monetary incentives, as the case in
Others are tackling student motivation.
And many states have supported math and science “academies,” specialized public schools tailored to students with talents in those subjects. The National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology, which supports the academies, had just 15 member institutions when it was founded in 1988; it has more than 100 today, serving 37,000 students nationwide.
Many STEM-focused schools, as one might expect, have a long tradition of providing students with access to up-to-date computer technology, says Cheryl A. Lindeman, the executive director of the consortium, in
“Twenty years ago, the M, S, and T were separate,” says Lindeman, referring to STEM. “Now they are really [thought of] as interdisciplinary.”
But perhaps the most common state STEM strategy is one that targets the entire student population: increased graduation requirements in math and science.
Between 1989 and 2006, states increased the number of credits needed for a high school diploma from an average of 2.2 years of math and 2.0 years of science to 3.0 years of math and 2.7 years of science.
As recently as a decade ago, according to the Education Commission of the States, just 19 states, plus the District of Columbia, set a minimum of at least three years of math to graduate with a regular high school diploma. And at that point, only 13 states, plus the District, mandated three years of science.
Today, in the 2007-08 school year, 38 states require at least three years of math or are phasing in that standard, according to the ECS, a Denver-based policy and research organization. And 35 states require at least three years of science before graduation, or will add that mandate soon.
In addition, 48 states now have standards for what students should know and be able to do with technology, according to the Editorial Projects in
Poverty: The Gap in Science
In 31 states, a gap of more than 20 scale-score points existed in the average scores of low-income 8th graders and their nonpoor peers on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress in science. States’ average poverty gap was 28.1 points.
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SOURCE:
Increased STEM mandates have met resistance from some educators, parents, and others, who fear they will encourage students to drop out of school. Critics also ask where school districts will find the teachers to lead those courses, and whether schools will have to cut back on electives to make room for the new requirements.
Those objections surfaced in
“The level of curriculum matters, especially in graduation rates,” Dounay says. States and districts that do not set high standards in math and science, she adds, “are creating a pathway to fall behind.”
But as states raise standards in math and science, the impact of their efforts so far remains unclear.
On the one hand, student scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as “the nation’s report card,” have improved in math in the 4th and 8th grades since 1990, on tests measuring both state-by-state and national trends in that subject. Moreover, those gains have occurred among students across achievement levels. NAEP reading scores, by contrast, have been more stagnant over that time.
“There’s no question we’re making more progress in math than anything else,” says Kati Haycock, the president of the Education Trust, a Washington-based research and advocacy group that supports efforts to raise academic achievement, particularly among students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Haycock points out that minority students have made steady gains in math on the national assessment in recent testing cycles.
But math scores among older students have stagnated; 17-year-olds’ performance in that subject has remained almost flat on NAEP since the early 1970s. And in science, NAEP results have been similiarly mixed. Fourth graders’ science scores have risen over the past decade, but 8th graders’ performance has stayed the same, and high school seniors’ marks have actually fallen since 1996.
Some experts say those results suggest a need to introduce students to challenging math and science in different ways.
Schools have, for example, made increasing use of interactive technology in math classes—systems that provide teachers with instant feedback on whether individual students are grasping the material, as those lessons unfold.
Science teachers at all grade levels are relying on online lessons and experiments as a way to stir students’ enthusiasm for the subject. Teachers also use Web sites from scientific organizations for reliable, up-to-date information on scientific issues of the day, such as climate change and bioethics, that they believe textbooks are not covering in depth.
Trends in the Science Gap
Nationally, the 8th grade poverty gap on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in science narrowed only slightly, by 3.5 scale-score points, between 2000 and 2005. Among the 36 states that participated in both assessments, gaps narrowed in 26 states but grew in 10. The states that narrowed their gaps between low-income and nonpoor students the most were
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SOURCE: National Assessment of Educational Progress,
And while critics have complained about the academic quality of vocational education programs, those courses, if taught well, can offer a valuable path into challenging math and science, argues James R. Stone III, the director of the
Stone and others at the center, formerly based at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, have devised an instructional model that trains vocational education teachers to identify and build upon math topics that occur naturally within career-oriented classes—from agriculture to nursing to automotive technology—rather than trying to force math into such courses out of context.
A federally funded 2006 study found that the instructional approach increased the math scores of students taught that way. About a dozen states and school districts are now seeking help from the center to develop teacher training based on the math-in-career-education model.
“There’s a growing recognition that simply piling on the regular math classes, taught in the regular way, doesn’t seem to be working,” Stone says. Enthusiasm for math and science rises, he says, when students are given the opportunity to apply those skills—and “for many kids, that’s career and tech ed.”
For many states, the road to improved math and science achievement runs through more specialized, and in some cases smaller, high schools.
In 2003, for example,
Eighty-six schools are now being created from scratch or redesigned as part of the project. Thirty-four of the schools have a specific STEM focus.
Students who attend the redesigned schools will be expected to follow a demanding curriculum in math, science, and other core academic areas, says Tony Habit, the president of the
The state has seen many of its major industries, such as textiles, furniture, and farming, wither away over the past two decades, though other sectors of the economy, in white-collar fields such as technology, have taken hold. Many of the redesigned schools are opening in cities and towns affected by job losses and others with businesses requiring skilled workers, Habit says.
“The economy is in transition,” he says. “We’ve seen communities that have been been significantly impacted. … [We] need to grow a new workforce so we can grow jobs in sectors of the economy that hold promise for the future.”
The New Schools Project will continue that tradition, Habit says. Sixteen of the schools being planned by the project will have a 1-to-1 student-to-computer ratio, and a heavy emphasis on integrating technology into curricula through independent projects and other means.
As states move to raise student achievement in math and science, some are addressing a crucial related need: the quality of their teaching corps.
According to a 2007 report from the Washington-based Council of Chief State School Officers, only 61 percent of the nation’s math teachers in grades 7-12 have a major in that subject, a lower percentage than for science. In some states, the percentage of math teachers with a college major in math or science is much lower than it is nationwide.
Several states are seeking to shore up the educator workforce with help from the private sector. The National Math and Science Initiative, a Dallas-based nonprofit organization, has awarded grants of as much as $2.4 million each to 12 universities in nine states so far to replicate U Teach, a widely praised program for training math and science teachers at the
That effort, which aims to spawn 50 such teacher-training programs, is being underwritten with $125 million from the ExxonMobil Corp. In an effort to ensure that the university efforts will last, the program requires that the schools show support from the governors’ offices in their states when applying for funding.
Some state efforts, meanwhile, focus on improving the skills of math and science teachers who are already in the classroom.
Participating schools receive help throughout the year from roving AMSTI instructors. Schools designate lead teachers in math and science; allow time for teachers to work on math and science lessons as teams; and form partnerships with local business organizations.
They are also asked to incorporate technology into their math and science lessons. Schools are expected to use graphing calculators in middle school math, and they receive access to science-related technology for labs at the middle and high school levels. Teachers are trained to use that technology, says Steve Ricks, state coordinator for AMSTI.
Schools that take part in the state program, funded at $38 million in fiscal 2008, are recognized as “AMSTI Schools,” a title that they typically display on their school grounds. About 365 schools at all grade levels—roughly one-quarter of the state’s total—have received that designation so far.
Students at AMSTI schools outperformed those from nonparticipating schools with similar demographics on
“We realized, if you want to bring high-quality, high-paying jobs to
States have also sought to make sure that teachers are prepared to use technology wisely.
Many other states have tapped federal aid to pay for professional development that helps teachers use interactive classroom technology and assessment tools to guide lessons, says Mary Ann Wolf, the executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association, which tracks that state activity.
“States are beginning to see, if you want to transform education, technology [should] play a key role,” Wolf says. “Technology can be an accelerator for change.”
As they try to meet the needs of employers, states are also launching STEM efforts that will appeal to a broad range of students, not just high achievers.
For instance,
The career-oriented academies are a twist on the governor’s schools—state-supported schools with demanding academic curricula—that have been a fixture in
Integrating Tech Standards
While 26 states have technology standards that are distinct, stand-alone documents, 16 states integrate technology standards for students within the standards for other subjects. Six states have both types of standards, while three have none at all. Of the states that embed their technology standards, 15 weave them into the standards of the four core subjects of English, history, math, and science.
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SOURCE:
While
“We will not be able to meet the needs of
The academies will emphasize “the application side” of math and science, says Linda Wallinger, the assistant superintendent for instruction for the Virginia Department of Education. The target population is students with a strong interest in technical fields, who will be exposed to increasingly stronger math and science.
In the years ahead, the success of state STEM efforts will depend partly on policymakers’ ability to tailor those programs more specifically to workforce needs, says Groome of the NGA.
State leaders already have acquired a keener sense of how important interpersonal, or “soft,” skills in addition to core academic lessons, are to employers, she says. They also need to become attuned to the demands of the job market.
For instance, some business and science leaders in recent years have spoken of the need to boost the number of students focusing on the physical sciences—rather than biologic sciences— because of future shortages in physical science-related fields.
Some labor experts, meanwhile, say policymakers need to do a better job of informing students of career opportunities in economic sectors that are projected to grow in the years ahead, such as health care and other professional and technical services, and that require competency in math, literacy, and other areas. “It’s really about [creating] more of a dialogue, a ‘fluency’ between education people and workforce-development people,” Groome says. “We need to look specifically at what our workforce demands are.”
Vol. 27, Issue 30, Pages 10,12-13, 16,22-23
Published Online: April 11, 2008
Published in Print: April 16, 2008
Previous generations of Americans have been labeled Generation X, the Greatest Generation, and the Lost Generation, but if the young people of today want to succeed amid the souped-up competition of the global economy, they had better become the Science Generation.
Or so said a high-profile lineup of speakers at “Science Generation: A National Imperative,” a gathering held here last week at the
“My daughter and your children will ... in all likelihood inherit a lower standard of living,” unless
It was the latest in a long line of convocations—most of which have been long on education policy wonks and business leaders—focused on the need for better education in the so-called STEM fields: science, technology, engineering, and math.
But it was through the breadth of fields represented that its organizers aimed to set this conference apart from the swarm of other STEM-oriented gatherings over the past few years. Speakers included an investment banker, a paleontologist, and a group of local public school students, to name a few.
“The idea was to broaden the conversation to a broad range of branches and fields,” said Ellen V. Futter, the president of the
Science, she said, “has ramifications for all aspects of our lives.” Science and other STEM-field education has been at the forefront of national policy conversations off and on since the start of the Space Race a half-century ago, including during the time of A Nation at Risk, the landmark 1983 federal report on the shortcomings of U.S. schooling in science and other subjects that turns 25 this month.
But a series of more recent reports, including the 2005 National Academies book Rising Above the Gathering Storm, which details the slippage of American international competitiveness and a need for more science education and other investments, have sharpened interest among policymakers and educators.
A follow-up conference organized by the
At last week’s meeting, big ideas were not in short supply. Some participants took the opportunity to advocate favorite initiatives.
“If Congress wants to make a dent in education, I highly recommend that … every child in this country have a laptop,” said Nicholas Negroponte, a former head of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Laboratory. He now leads the Cambridge, Mass.-based nonprofit One Laptop per Child Foundation, which aims to distribute low-cost laptop computers to children in poor countries and the
Newt Gingrich, a former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives who participated in the event by videoconference, suggested a debate among presidential candidates solely on the subject of science.
But several participants noted that ideas alone would not suffice, and that conferences whose only outcome is a consensus that a problem exists do little to solve it.
“We don’t need more panels,” said panelist William S. Schmidt, a
“We’ve got the plan. Now we’ve just got to fund it and move forward,” said Rep. Gordon, referring to the federal America COMPETES Act, which incorporates proposals for more college science scholarships, new programs to train science teachers, and more research funding.
Many of the programs in the legislation, which was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Bush last year, have not been financed.
“It’s time to stop studying this,” Rep. Gordon said. “It’s time to do something.”
Technology Counts '08: The Push to Improve STEM Education
Our annual report provides detailed state reports and state technology grades for all states, as well as news, data, and reports on states' progress to improve STEM education.
One idea supported by many conference speakers was that of a national science curriculum. Former
“I believe national standards in science education are absolutely essential,” said Mr. Hunt, now the chairman of the James B. Hunt Jr. Institute for Educational Leadership and Policy at the
“The way I see this as being done is … with these state and local leaders coming together,” he said. “I think it will need to be funded privately—perhaps with corporations.”
None of the numerous corporate officers present at the conference immediately threw thousand-dollar bills on the stage at the mention of that notion. But all signed on to the idea that businesses need to do their part to get students more interested in science, if only out of self-interest.
“The private sector has got to be a major leader, because the private sector has to have people … for the jobs of the 21st century,” said Robert D. Hormats, a vice chairman at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the large investment bank based here. “This economy, this country is going to sink or swim together.”
Panelists also weighed in with other ideas.
Mr. Gingrich called on Congress to triple the budget of the National Science Foundation, a federal agency that supports a broad range of programs in mathematics and science education, calling his own failure to do so “the greatest mistake of my speakership.”
Neil DeGrasse Tyson, the director of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, took a different tack, suggesting that NASA’s budget be tripled instead as a way of inspiring more students to become fascinated with science.
“With all due respect to the NSF, I don’t know anyone who says, ‘When I want to grow up, I want to be an NSF researcher,’ ” Mr. Tyson said. “That has never happened—ever … in K-12.”
Another idea came from Becca Robison, a 16-year-old from
“We should talk to the kids and see what they want to do,” said Ms. Robison, who founded AstroTots, a free science camp for girls ages 4 through 10 that is based in her hometown and operates in 10 states.
But the ideas on how best to improve science education offered by children at the conference diverged just as much as did those of the adult panelists.
In an interview following a panel discussion among students from the public World Journalism Preparatory School—a small, 2-year-old school in the Queens section of New York City serving grades 6-10—the young people were emphatic that something about their science education had to change. But they did not agree about how.
Giananthony Damasco, 15, unfavorably compared
“If we just focused more,” Mr. Damasco suggested, more learning might get done.
Fellow student Raymond Arroyo, also 15, proposed an opposite remedy, complaining that the curriculum was too narrow. “Right now, it’s all about global warming, global warming, global warming,” he said. “I think what we need to do is be balanced.”
But, as panelists pointed out, just that kind of intellectual sparring, coupled with open-ended inquiry, is the foundation of science.
“We are gathered here not to identify the problem, but to jump-start and accelerate action to remedy the problem,” said Ms. Futter, the museum’s president. In that regard, she said, “we do think we’ve advanced the ball.”
Vol. 27, Issue 33, Page 6
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