Triangle Coalition For Science And Technology Education

Volume 17, Number 30

This Week’s Topics:

• TRIANGLE COALITION TO HOLD NATIONAL STEM EDUCATION CONFERENCE OCTOBER 3-4
• DUNCAN URGES MASTER TEACHERS TO HELP TRANSFORM TEACHING PROFESSION
• REPORT OFFERS NEW FRAMEWORK TO GUIDE K-12 SCIENCE EDUCATION, CALLS FOR SHIFT IN THE WAY SCIENCE IS TAUGHT IN U.S.
• CAMPUS TECH A TOP FACTOR IN COLLEGE SELECTION AND PERCEIVED CAREER SUCCESS
• COSN RELEASES HORIZON REPORT: 2011 K-12 EDITION TOOLKIT
• NEW REPORT EXAMINES STUDENT TEACHING IN THE UNITED STATES1

– TRIANGLE COALITION TO HOLD NATIONAL STEM EDUCATION CONFERENCE OCTOBER 3-4

On October 3-4, 2011, Triangle Coalition will present its annual STEM education conference, “Advancing STEM Education Through Innovation,” in Alexandria, VA. Each year, the conference brings together STEM education leaders from around the nation to explore innovative and best practices, share ideas, collaborate, and to advocate for STEM education. Topics this year will focus on issues, including business/education partnerships, underserved populations, America’s economic success, innovative models in STEM education, and the new science education framework. The conference will also provide time for interactive table-top discussions and opportunities for networking. The second day of the conference will have a legislative focus, as Members of Congress and their staff provide an overview of current STEM education legislation and policy issues. Attendees will then blanket Capitol Hill to visit Congressional offices and discuss STEM education as a national priority.

Registration for the conference is currently available at a discounted early-bird rate. Triangle Coalition members are eligible to receive an additional 20% discount on registration. A limited number of exhibit spaces will also be available for organizations and sponsors that wish to feature quality STEM education resources and programs. To register or learn more about the conference and/or exhibit and sponsorship opportunities, visit www.trianglecoalition.org/conference.

– DUNCAN URGES MASTER TEACHERS TO HELP TRANSFORM TEACHING PROFESSION

“America should radically transform the way that teachers are recruited, assigned, evaluated, and compensated in order to recognize and reward its great veteran teachers, attract top students into the field, and make America more competitive,” said U.S. Education secretary Arne Duncan. In a recent speech to the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, Duncan urged teachers to rebuild their profession to give teachers more autonomy in exchange for performance-based accountability. Duncan also called for higher salaries to make teaching more competitive with other professions like medicine, law, and engineering. A critic of teacher preparation programs, teacher evaluation systems and a school year based on the agrarian calendar, Duncan said, “the entire model no longer works: a broken pipeline; a nine-month school year; a factory approach to staffing, compensation, and benefits; a school design from the last century; and a management structure that is simply not up to the challenge.”

Duncan added, “The incentives today are all wrong. Too many schools compensate teachers without respect to their impact on student learning. This is a blue collar model left over from the industrial era, based on seniority and credentials. It is not how professionals are compensated in this age of innovation,” he said. Duncan suggested that starting salaries of around $60,000 and top salaries approaching $150,000 would help change the economics and makeup of the profession but acknowledged the difficulty of finding more money when governments at every level are wrestling with debt and deficits. Duncan added, however, “We can’t mortgage our future by under-investing in education.”

– REPORT OFFERS NEW FRAMEWORK TO GUIDE K-12 SCIENCE EDUCATION, CALLS FOR SHIFT IN THE WAY SCIENCE IS TAUGHT IN U.S.

A report recently released by the National Research Council presents a new framework for K-12 science education that identifies the key scientific ideas and practices all students should learn by the end of high school. The “Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas” will serve as the foundation for new K-12 science education standards, to replace those issued more than a decade ago. The committee that wrote the report sees the need for significant improvements in how science is taught in the U.S. The framework highlights the power of integrating understanding the ideas of science with engagement in the practices of science and is designed to build students’ proficiency and appreciation for science over multiple years of school. Of particular note is the prominent place given to the ideas and practices of engineering. The overarching goal of the framework, the committee said, is to ensure that by the end of 12th grade, all students have some appreciation of the beauty and wonder of science, the capacity to discuss and think critically about science-related issues, and the skills to pursue careers in science or engineering if they want to do so — outcomes that existing educational approaches are ill-equipped to achieve.

The framework was developed by an 18-member committee that included experts in education and scientists from many disciplines. The committee publicly released a draft in summer 2010 to obtain and incorporate feedback from the broader community of scientists, science educators, educational policymakers, and education researchers. The framework is the first step in the development of new K-12 science education standards. The framework lays out the broad ideas and practices students should learn and will serve as the basis for specific standards, which will be developed in a process led by a group of states and coordinated by the nonprofit educational organization Achieve Inc. When the standards are finished, states may voluntarily adopt them to guide science education in their public schools. In addition to serving as the foundation for the development of new standards, the framework can be used by others who work in K-12 science education, such as curriculum and assessment developers, those who train teachers and create professional development materials, and state and district science supervisors. The framework specifies core ideas in four disciplinary areas — life sciences; physical sciences; earth and space sciences; and engineering, technology, and the applications of science — that all students should understand by the time they finish high school. At the upcoming Triangle Coalition Annual STEM Conference, the report’s authors will provide an inside look at the new science education framework.  More details about the conference are online.

– CAMPUS TECH A TOP FACTOR IN COLLEGE SELECTION AND PERCEIVED CAREER SUCCESS

Despite the fact that 98 percent of college administrators say that learning and mastering technology skills will improve their students’ educational and career opportunities, far fewer — just 22 percent — say that using technology to enhance the learning process is one of their top priorities, according to CDW-G’s 2011 21st-Century Campus Report. Even further down on administrators’ priority list, at just 12 percent, is improving and enhancing campus Information Technology (IT). The annual report, released by CDW Government LLC (CDW-G), a provider of technology solutions to government, education, and healthcare customers, is based on a survey of more than 1,200 college students, faculty, IT staff, and administrators about the role of technology in higher education. For the first time, CDW-G surveyed administrators — and found an underlying disconnect between their priorities and the importance of campus technology for students and faculty.

Eighty-seven percent of college students surveyed said they considered their institution’s technology when selecting their college. This finding is also reflected in CDW-G’s 21st-Century Classroom Report, which looked at educational technology in K-12 and found that 92 percent of current high school students say technology is an important consideration as they evaluate colleges. Other key findings from the CDW-G 21st-Century Campus Report include:

• Tech use is up: Students are using technology more often while in class. Thirty-one percent use technology as a learning tool every day, up from 19 percent last year
• Mobility makes an impact: Faculty and IT staff report that e-readers, media tablets, and smartphones are essential technologies for the 21st-century campus
• Faculty still struggle with technology: Students, faculty, and administrators all report that the biggest challenge to campus technology is that faculty do not know how to use it.

– COSN RELEASES HORIZON REPORT: 2011 K-12 EDITION TOOLKIT

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) has released the HCoSN Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition Toolkit, which is designed as a companion piece to the NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition. The report was produced by the New Media Consortium (NMC), and details emerging technologies likely to have a significant impact on teaching and learning around the globe. The toolkit is geared toward education leaders who wish to learn more about and further the dialogue on the emerging technologies identified in the report and their potential to re-imagine K-12 education. The toolkit and report are both made possible through a grant from HP’s Office on Global Social Innovation. “The report is a short- and long-term roadmap for the future of educational technologies, and the CoSN Toolkit is an additional component that will help continue the dialogue,” said Larry Johnson, CEO of the NMC. “The technologies profiled have the potential to shift the way we think about teaching and learning, and will help educators and students alike maximize the education experience.”

The report includes a rich set of topics, examples, and resources regarding the two most important emerging technologies for 2011; two technologies on the two- to three-year horizon; and two additional technologies on the four- to five-year horizon. Now in its second year, the companion toolkit is designed as a roadmap for education leaders responsible for exploring and implementing new technologies. The toolkit includes PowerPoint presentations of the report, a discussion facilitator’s guide, discussion activities, and a video overview of the report. The toolkit, report, and other supporting materials may be downloaded for free at www.cosn.org/horizon.

– NEW REPORT EXAMINES STUDENT TEACHING IN THE UNITED STATES

A new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality, “Student Teaching in the United States,” examines policies and practices at 134 universities and colleges to answer questions like… “Who is mentoring our future teachers?”; “Do student teachers receive the feedback they need to improve?”; and “Does the experience sufficiently replicate the experience of being a teacher?”. In addition to providing a national snapshot of student teaching today and overall ratings of each of the 134 institutions, the report includes specific examples of exemplary student teaching practices and recommendations on how all programs can improve. According to the report, the NCTQ analysis raises some serious concerns about whether student teaching, examined in the aggregate, is adding nearly the value that it can and should. Four findings stand out:

1. There are neither enough qualified cooperating teachers, nor is there the need for new elementary teachers to justify the high numbers of student teachers that institutions insist on placing each year.

2. Institutions lack clear, rigorous criteria for the selection of cooperating teachers — either on paper or in practice.

3. Institutions convey a strong sense of powerlessness in their relationships with school districts.

4. Institutions do not take advantage of important opportunities to provide guidance and feedback to student teachers.

According to the NCTQ, the study shows that while many institutions aim for quality, something is often missing in the way in which student teaching programs are carried out. A university may make significant efforts to recruit a group of highly-qualified cooperating teachers, but also accept a number of unscreened volunteers. The report concludes that all too often, too many elements of student teaching are left to chance.

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