ATTENTION Science, Technology, Engineering
and Math
(STEM) Education
CAUCUS STAFFERS:
April 2009 News
Briefs on STEM Education
In this Issue:
5. Newly introduced STEM Education
Legislation
Two
“I admit I’m being heretical,”
said Richard M. Ingersoll, a professor of education and sociology at the university.
“But it’s not that we’re producing too few math and science teachers. It’s that
we’re losing too many.”
Mr. Balet, who teaches at
4.
The National Association
of Manufacturers (NAM) and The Manufacturing Institute launched a new NAM-endorsed
Manufacturing Skills Certification System focused on core or basic personal
effectiveness skills, academic competencies, general workplace skills, and industry-wide
technical skills required by employers in all sectors of manufacturing.
5. 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.1464 Title: Learning Opportunities With Creation
of Open Source Textbooks (LOW COST) Act of 2009
Sponsor:
Rep Foster, Bill [D-IL-14] (introduced 3/12/2009) Cosponsors: (none)
Committees: House Science and Technology; House Education
and Labor
Latest Major Action: 3/17/2009 Referred to House subcommittee.
Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Research and Science Education.
H.R.1492 Title: To establish a pilot program to provide
assistance for partnerships supporting applied sciences in renewable energy.
Sponsor:
Rep Murphy, Patrick J. [D-PA-8] (introduced 3/12/2009)
Cosponsors:
1
Committees: House Education and Labor
Latest Major Action: 3/12/2009 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.
H.R.1580 Title: Electronic Waste Research and Development
Act
Sponsor:
Rep Gordon, Bart [D-TN-6] (introduced 3/18/2009)
Cosponsors:
6
Committees: House Science and Technology
Latest Major Action: 3/26/2009 House committee/subcommittee
actions. Status: Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote.
H.R.1709 Title: STEM Education Coordination Act of
2009
Sponsor:
Rep Gordon, Bart [D-TN-6] (introduced 3/25/2009)
Cosponsors:
3
Committees: House Science and Technology; House Education
and Labor
Latest Major Action: 3/31/2009 House committee/subcommittee
actions. Status: Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee (Amended) by Voice
Vote .
H.R.1926 Title: To authorize the National Science
Foundation to establish a Global Warming Education Program.
Sponsor:
Rep Honda, Michael M. [D-CA-15] (introduced 4/2/2009)
Cosponsors:
5
Committees: House Science and Technology
Latest Major Action: 4/2/2009 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on Science and Technology.
H.R.1791 Title: STAPLE Act
Sponsor:
Rep Flake, Jeff [R-AZ-6] (introduced 3/30/2009)
Cosponsors: (none)
Committees: House Judiciary
Latest Major Action: 3/30/2009 Referred to House committee.
Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
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 John Veysey
(x55701) in Mr. Dan Lipinski’s office.
Published Online: March
6, 2009
Published in Print: March
11, 2009
Two
“I
admit I’m being heretical,” said Richard M. Ingersoll, a professor of education
and sociology at the university. “But it’s not that we’re producing too few math
and science teachers. It’s that we’re losing too many.”
Mr.
Ingersoll and his research partner, David Perda, calculate that colleges and universities
are producing 2½ times more math and science teachers than schools require to replace
those who are retiring.
Moving On
Dissatisfaction
topped the list of reasons for leaving their jobs that teachers gave on federal
surveys that were examined in a recent study.
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SOURCE: Richard M. ingersoll
and David Perda
Once
analysts factor in the “reserve pool” of teachers—in other words, those who left
teaching and are returning to the field, or students who earned education degrees
but never taught—the supply is sufficient to replace all the math and science teachers
leaving their jobs, for whatever reason, in a given year, the scholars say.
The
findings are important, Mr. Ingersoll said, because they suggest that national efforts
aimed at expanding the pipeline of new math and science teachers are misdirected.
If policymakers really want to ensure that those subjects are being taught by skilled
teachers, he said, they ought to focus on retaining the much larger pool of science
and math teachers who are already in schools.
Mr.
Ingersoll shared the not-yet-published findings last month at the
“He’s
defining the supply of teachers in a different way than economists would,” said
Douglas N. Harris, an assistant professor of educational policy studies at the
That
definition doesn’t account for undetermined numbers of graduates who veer off the
teaching path before they set foot in the classroom, possibly to take a job
outside the profession.
“We
know we should be paying more attention to teachers in their induction years,” said
Hank Kepner, the president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, in
While
teacher supply-and-demand issues are much debated, there have been relatively few
efforts to examine the issue empirically, Mr. Ingersoll said. The new findings extend
previous research he has done that highlighted retention as a central problem for
the teaching field overall.
“One
of the reactions I received to my earlier work was that, while many agreed that
my thesis was true overall, many also claimed that some fields are the exception
and truly do have supply shortages—and math and science are always mentioned,” said
Mr. Ingersoll.
For
their new study, the University of Pennsylvania researchers relied on data from
1999, 2000, and 2001 from three different federal databases: the Schools and Staffing
Survey and its supplement, the Teacher Follow-Up Survey, which periodically surveys
50,000 teachers and follows up on 7,000 of them; the Baccalaureate and Beyond Survey,
which tracks a nationally representative sample of more than 10,000 new bachelor’s-degree
recipients; and the Integrated Postsecondary Data System, which gathers a wide range
of information from postsecondary education providers.
While
some may view the data sets as somewhat dated, the statistics were the most recent
available that allowed researchers to study the same time period in all three surveys,
Mr. Ingersoll said.
The
researchers counted teachers as part of the “supply” if they were qualified to teach
and had not taught the previous year. The pool of would-be-teacher hires includes
graduates of master’s- or bachelor’s-level education programs, as well as those
who earn noneducation degrees in math and science fields but signal their intention
to pursue teaching—either by obtaining teaching licenses, taking teacher-certification
exams, or applying for teaching jobs.
The
researchers calculate, for example, that colleges produced 13,654 eligible science
teachers in the 1999-2000 academic year. That’s twice as many as the number of newly
minted science teachers who were hired for that school year—6,261—and more than
three times as many as the 3,935 science teachers who retired that year.
But
the number of new entrants into the pool of science teachers was far smaller than
the 21,627 science teachers who left their jobs, for whatever reason, the same year.
The total number of science teachers employed for that year was 223,080, the data
show.
The
pattern is similar for math, where twice as many eligible teaching candidates entered
the field as retired in 1999-2000. But the 8,021 newly minted would-be teachers
that year fell far short of the 13,750 who left for any reason. The total number
of math teachers employed for that year was 182,456.
While
the actual number of teachers in the reserve pool is unknown, the researchers were
able to determine how many of the teachers hired in 1999-2000 came out of that group.
When the researchers added those numbers into the mix, the supply of teachers in
both fields was roughly the same as the demand, according to the study.
None
of this means schools aren’t feeling the pinch when it comes to staffing their classrooms.
The study shows that over half of all secondary schools—54 percent—had job openings
for math teachers in 1999-2000 and 38 percent were looking for physical science
teachers.
But
the researchers maintain that those difficulties stem more from teacher turnover
than from supply-side problems. “For science, those leaving teaching at the end
of the year represented 130 percent of those who entered at the beginning of that
year,” the study says.
For
math, the number of teachers leaving their jobs was 120 percent of the number who
entered the pool of qualified candidates at the start of the year. In both fields,
retirements accounted for only a small percentage of leavers, suggesting that most
of the attrition is not the result of a graying workforce.
The
high rate of nonretirement-related job movement led Mr. Ingersoll to suggest that
retention, rather than supply, is the key to solving schools’ staffing problems.
“Production
is really not the right diagnosis, because we’re pouring water in a leaky bucket,”
he said.
The
study also found that turnover rates were similar across all teaching fields. Mr.
Ingersoll said staffing problems may seem more severe in math and science because
the “cushion” of available teachers is thinner in those fields than it is in other
subject areas, such as English, for which there is an oversupply of candidates.
The
researchers found that math and science teachers leave their jobs for the same reasons
as teachers in other fields. Among teachers leaving the profession, for example,
56.8 percent of math teachers, 47.2 percent of science teachers, and 50.1 percent
of teachers from all other fields cited “job dissatisfaction” as their main reason
for going. In each of the three groups, only about a third left to pursue other
jobs.
Schools
can reduce turnover, Mr. Ingersoll said, by improving their working conditions—supporting
new teachers, for example, offering better pay schedules, getting a handle on student-discipline
problems, or showing more effective leadership.
“I’m
pleased to see this report talking about retention, because so much of the focus
has been around recruitment,” said Francis Eberle, the executive director of the
National Science Teachers Association, based in
Yet
other experts said teacher turnover has advantages, too, though they are often overlooked.
Erling
E. Boe, an education professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert who
is not connected with the study, said his research shows that, in their first five
years, teachers who say they’ve had little preparation for the job are five times
more likely to leave than those with “considerable preparation,” implying that they
possibly should not have been teaching.
And
many teachers who switch schools, he said, are moving from an out-of-field to an
in-field teaching assignment.
Mr.
Boe’s research also suggests that 30 percent of teacher turnover comes as they move
into other education jobs: becoming principals, perhaps, or going to work in school
districts’ central offices.
“It’s
not like there’s a mass exodus of leavers going outside the field,” he added.
Vol. 28, Issue 24, Pages 1,12-13
|
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Nanotechnology
is the science of tiny things. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter in length.
A sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers thick.
Each
day in class, it’s the job of John Balet to bring nanotechnology into plain view.
He and his students discuss applying nanotechnology to produce better computer chips,
more-protective car wax, and less-visible sunscreen. They talk about its potential
to transform solar power, and possibly cure cancer, as well as the ethical and safety
concerns surrounding the science.
Mr.
Balet, who teaches at
By
delving into nanotechnology, a specialized subject that is more commonly taught
at the university level, teenagers in the 4,500-student Ballston Spa district not
only gain an understanding of a rapidly advancing area of science, but also pick
up skills coveted by local employers, Mr. Balet says.
“Do
I think they’ll have an advantage? Yes,” he said. “Nanotechnology is going to be
affecting products in so many areas of our lives.”
While
there is no single definition of nanotechnology, it is generally described as the
design and engineering of materials and particles at the molecular or atomic level.
Scientists trace the development of modern nanotechnology to the 1980s, and researchers
in biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering have made major advances in the
field since then.
Today,
nanotechnology is used to make materials stronger, clothing more stain-resistant,
and computer chips more sophisticated. Scientists see potential for nanotech to
produce environmental and energy benefits, such as in the development of batteries
that are more efficient and solar panels that yield more power.
Some
of the more tantalizing potential breakthroughs are evident in medicine, such as
the possible use of nanoparticles to isolate and eliminate cancerous growths.
That
technology was highlighted on a segment of “60 Minutes” last year, which Mr. Balet
recently showed in his class.
Not
long afterward, the teacher staged a lab activity in his class to simulate the nanotechnology
used by the cancer researchers.
“It
opened up a whole new spectrum of how the world worked,” said Zach Durocher, 17,
a senior taking the course. “I never knew there was so much of a process that went
into making things, like computer chips and technology.”
This
is the first time nanotechnology is being taught in Ballston Spa. Mr. Balet, a science
teacher, leads students through a semester-long section of the elective called Biomedical
Applications, while his colleague, technology teacher Michael Potter, covers Materials
Sciences the other semester.
The
teachers picked up ideas for their class last summer at an institute on developing
nanotechnology curricula at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, in nearby
They
have an advocate in Ballston Spa Superintendent Joseph A. Dragone. In 2007, while
working as an assistant superintendent in the
Mr.
Dragone thought the subject would have special relevance to students and families
in a region that includes large operations for the General Electric Co. and Advanced
Micro Devices, a major technology corporation.
“Everyone
has been cognizant that this has broad application for our district,” Mr. Dragone
said recently. “Science is going in this direction. We’re missing a huge opportunity
if we don’t do this.”
Building
a science course from scratch isn’t easy. Mr. Balet has no textbook. He and Mr.
Potter have crafted their own activities and lessons, using ideas from the rpi workshop
and teachers they stay in touch with from other districts.
When
an issue in nanotech captivates his students, Mr. Balet tries to build on it.
That
occurred when he showed the “60 Minutes” story about John Kanzius, a former radio
and TV executive with no scientific background who developed a process for pinpointing
cancerous growths with radio waves. Using Mr. Kanzius’ idea, scientists are experimenting
with nanoparticles made of metal or carbon, which can affix themselves to cancerous
tumors and kill them with intense heat.
Mr.
Balet’s class set out to re-create what occurs at the nano level. His students filled
a tub with plastic golf-ball-size spheres, attaching pins, fabric fasteners, and
magnets to them. Then they constructed models of gold nanocell particles—made of
beads, glue, and gold glitter—and threw them into the tub, which was shaken, with
all the different plastic balls inside.
Some
of those nanocell particles attached themselves to the magnets, simulating the nanoshell
bonding to specific cell receptors found on the cancerous cells.
Mr.
Balet also has his students research the uses of nanotechnology in various products.
For example, a company might assert that its products, at the nano level, seep into
the surface of a car’s exterior at the molecular level, forging a stronger sealant.
When businesses make such claims about their use of nanotech, “are they giving consumers
the full story?” Mr. Balet asks students.
In
addition to building students’ science skills, nanotechnology studies are making
the young men and women more appealing to employers, argues Superintendent Dragone.
He said employers have told him that high school students with nanotechnology backgrounds
who go on to receive two years of technical training can find entry-level jobs as
technicians making between $50,000 and $70,000 a year.
Some
of the implications surrounding nanotechnology lessons are ethical, not economic.
Scientists and consumer advocates warn that engineering stronger, lighter, and more
powerful products at the molecular level could pose risks to human health and the
environment that are not yet understood.
“The
increasing use of engineered nanoscale materials in industrial and consumer products
will result in greater exposure of workers and the general public to these materials,”
said a
2008 report of the National Research Council, which called for greater government
research on the potential hazards of nanotechnology. Advances in the field, the
report added, require making “every reasonable effort to anticipate and mitigate
adverse effects and unintended consequences.”
Kenneth
Bowles, a teacher at
The
science teacher’s interest in nanotechnology at the high school level grew after
participating in a workshop about five years ago at the
“A
lot of the experiments require a good knowledge of science,” Mr. Bowles said. “There’s
a big learning curve, if you really want to do the neat nanotechnology that’s out
there.”
Yet
one the most significant challenges the teacher faces is one of the simplest, he
added.
“It’s
getting them to understand the concept of ‘small,’ ” Mr. Bowles said. “They can’t
picture it. It just blows kids’ minds that you can take a piece of coal, rearrange
its atoms, and make a diamond.”
Coverage
of mathematics, science, and technology education is supported by a grant from the
Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, at
www.kauffman.org.
Vol. 28, Issue 27