Triangle Coalition For Science And Technology Education

Today, Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced the finalists for the second round of the Race to the Top grant competition. Out of 36 applicants, 18 states and the District of Columbia were selected to present their plans in Washington the week of August 9.

The 19 finalists are: Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

Duncan formally announced the winners this afternoon at the National Press Club in Washington, where he delivered a speech mentioning the “quiet revolution” of education reform around the country.

“There is a growing sense that a quiet revolution is underway in our homes and schools, classrooms, and communities,” Duncan said. “This quiet revolution is driven by motivated parents who want better educational options for their children. It’s being driven by great educators and administrators who are challenging the defeatism and inertia that has trapped generations of children in second-rate schools.”

While Race to the Top gives competitive preference to states with STEM initiatives, Duncan only briefly touched on America’s competitiveness in STEM today. “We’re competing with kids from around the world and the truth is we are slipping further behind. Among developed nations, our 8th grade students trail 10 other countries in science and our 15-year-olds are in the bottom quarter on math,” said Duncan.

Duncan also talked about the “game-changers” in his reform plan and in the blueprint for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization, such as measuring individual student growth rather than proficiency. Other game-changers include current federal initiatives like the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund, the Teacher Incentive Fund, School Improvement Grants, and the federal charter school program. Between all of these programs, Duncan estimates that the Department of Education will distribute almost $10 million to support education reform.

Initially, the Race to the Top pot was $4.35 billion and out of that, $600 million was awarded to first round winners, Delaware and Tennessee, and $350 million is reserved for a separate assessment competition, leaving $3.4 billion remaining for the second round grant winners. The Department says it expects to select 10-15 winners, which will probably be announced in early September.

Duncan said, “Just as in the first round, we’re going to set a very high bar because we know that real and meaningful change will only come from doing hard work and setting high expectations.”  

STEM education became an unexpected topic of conversation and a unifying issue among a highly partisan Senate during a hearing on Wednesday. The hearing was held by the Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations to examine the Department of Education’s FY2011 budget request, as well as the current education jobs crisis. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan testified before the committee and was followed by a second panel of witnesses representing education at the state and local levels.

While the majority of the hearing focused on education jobs and the budget request, Sen. Shelby (R-AL) refocused the conversation when he brought up the issue of the STEM education priority included in the US Department of Education’s recent Race to the Top competition. In the application, fifteen competitive preference priority points, all or nothing, were attached to STEM initiatives. Shelby expressed profound disappointment that greater emphasis was not given to STEM. He asked witness, Dr. Joseph B. Morton, what his reaction was to Race to the Top allocating only fifteen out of five hundred points to STEM.

Dr. Morton, Superintendent of the Alabama State Department of Education and Council of Chief State School Officers member, responded that he was “stunned and disappointed” when he found out that only three percent of the points were based on the inclusion of a STEM component. “Our whole initiative (Alabama Math, Science, and Technology initiative) was built on the fact that we think that in Alabama and America, our students’ future is in math, science and technology,” said Morton. “If we’re going to be number one, we’ve got to invest in engineering, mathematics, technology, and biotech.”

“It seems like this is upside down” stated Shelby, and referred to Race to the Top‘s STEM focus as “a flawed program” that needs to be changed. Chairman Harkin (D-IA), surprised by this information, agreed with Shelby and Morton that more emphasis needed to be given to STEM. The Senators agreed to work together in a bipartisan effort to look into this further.

According to EdWeek’s Alyson Klein in the Politics K-12 blog, the fact that the Committee is questioning the program’s application content doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t fund the Department of Education’s request for the $1.35 billion in Race to the Top extension funds. However, Klein says it does seem to mean that Congress intends to begin weighing in on the program.

Secretary Duncan’s testimony at this hearing also included specific mention of improving STEM education outcomes, citing some of the STEM items included in the FY2011 budget request as outlined below. “The world our youth will inherit will increasingly be influenced by science and technology, and it is our obligation to prepare them for that world,” Duncan said to the committee. Duncan did not make any specific mention to the STEM priority points in Race to the Top.

He mentioned President Obama’s ongoing “Educate to Innovate” campaign, which fosters public-private partnerships in support of STEM education. The goal, Duncan says, is for American students to become the world’s top achievers in STEM over the next decade. The education budget specifically includes the following requests for competitive grant programs related to STEM education:

• $300 million -Effective Teaching and Learning: STEM programs
• $500 million- Investing in Innovation (i3) program, including $150 million for STEM projects
• $25 million- STEM initiative within the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education

For more coverage on the Department of Education’s FY2011 budget request or the Race to the Top program, check out Triangle Coalition’s previous Legislative Update posts.

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that Tennessee and Delaware are the first round Race to the Top winners. Forty states and the District of Columbia submitted lengthy applications for this landmark, $4.35 billion grant competition between states. Delaware will receive approximately $100 million and Tennessee $500 million to implement their school reform plans over the next four years.

“We received many strong proposals from states all across America, but two applications stood out above all others: Delaware and Tennessee,” said Duncan in yesterday’s announcement. “These states received the two highest scores in the competition. Both of them have statewide buy-in for comprehensive plans to reform their schools.”

States that placed an emphasis on education programs in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) were awarded competitive preference priority points. Thirty-three of the original applicants and all of the finalists, except for Louisiana, received the competitive priority points for addressing STEM.

The winners, Delaware and Tennessee, had especially strong STEM strategies that were integrated throughout their applications, both with central themes of collaboration and partnerships. Both states’ applications also included plans to develop statewide STEM coordination networks.

Tennessee

Tennessee’s STEM priorities (p. 147 to 150 of the application) focused on the development of the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network, which will link together all STEM efforts in the state, and on the formation of strategic partnerships between entities including, Oak Ridge National laboratory, Battelle Memorial Institute, Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and the Ohio STEM Learning Network. The state plans to leverage its substantial STEM education, research, and industry assets to dramatically accelerate STEM education.

“Tennessee’s plan truly is a statewide effort,” remarked Duncan. “In particular, it will reach rural areas with a STEM initiative to increase high school rigor and has a specific plan to recruit teachers into rural areas.”

The application also highlighted the state’s plans to invest in both new, innovative, STEM programming, as well as existing, proven programs, which will target K-12, higher education, unrepresented minorities, rural areas, as well as current teachers and mid-career changers. In addition, it included a strategy to turn around its persistently lowest-performing schools and also develop STEM-focused high schools.

Delaware

Delaware has historically fostered partnerships between nonprofits, institutes of higher education, and businesses, (including Triangle Coalition member, DuPont), to enhance STEM education throughout the state. Delaware’s application included plans to increase rigor in STEM coursework, promote college-readiness in science and mathematics, and to further integrate technology into education, while continuing its strategy of collaboration and innovation.

Delaware laid out three goals for STEM (p. P-2 to P-5 of the application):

1. All schools to offer a rigorous course of study in STEM subjects,
2. Formalize, continue, and expand collaboration with industry experts, institutes of higher education, universities, research centers, and other community partners to assist teachers in integrating STEM content across grade and disciplines.
3. Prepare more students for advanced study and careers in STEM disciplines, including underrepresented groups and women.

To reach these goals, the state will create a Stem Coordinating Council, which will manage the network stakeholder groups that are innovating in STEM and be responsible for overseeing STEM course content in schools. The Council will also work with the DDOE to conduct focused interventions to target women and other groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields to pursue STEM-related career pathways. In order to strengthen STEM teaching, the state will create a STEM Residency program for non-traditional candidates to work as assistant teachers in STEM subjects and earn their full-certification during the first year of teaching, as well as providing scholarships and loan forgiveness to encourage teachers to become certified in STEM fields.

The Race is far from over. The rest of the states have a chance to revise applications and compete for the remaining funds in Round 2, with applications due June 1st. States that chose not to participate in phase 1 will also have the opportunity to apply in the second round. To view the complete applications or to learn more about the Race to the Top, visit the Department of Education’s website.

The Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund is still seeking peer reviewers, extending the application deadline through April 1. Reviewers are sought from various backgrounds and professions: PK-12 teachers and principals, college and university educators, researchers and evaluators, social entrepreneurs, strategy consultants, grant makers and managers, and others with education expertise. Reviewers should have expertise in at least one of the following areas: education reform and policy, evidence, innovation, strategy, and application review. Reviewers will receive an honorarium and be able to conduct the reviews electronically from their location, except for one set of reviews that may be conducted in Washington, D.C.

i3 is designed to encourage and reward school districts, nonprofits, and consortia of schools that are developing fresh ideas, growing promising programs, and scaling what works in an effort to dramatically improve schools. The program received $650 million under the Recovery Act.

The i3 grant application and final priorities were released earlier this month and are available on the Department of Education’s website. For those interested in applying for the grant, the Department is currently holding a series of informational workshops accessible over the web, with the next one being held March 30th in Atlanta. Notice of Intent to Apply is due by April 1, applications are due May 11, and awards will be made in September.

In order to facilitate educational innovation and collaboration between entrepreneurs, education stakeholders of all types, and funders, the Department of Education has created an online community, the Open Innovation Portal. Through this portal, the Department hopes to encourage partnerships by convening like-minded individuals to accelerate the development of innovative products, practices, and processes to improve education in schools.

“As I have said many times before, the innovative ideas that will transform our education system will not come from Washington, D.C.” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “They will come from communities across the country. The Department of Education will play a role as convener of these diverse ideas and facilitator of partnerships. The Innovation Web Portal is the first of a number of initiatives that the Department will launch over the coming months as we work to build these partnerships that will drive innovation in education.”

To find out more information about the Investing in Innovation (i3) Fund, visit the Department’s website.  

Yesterday, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) released the official draft of the K-12 Common Core State Standards, which will be open to public comment for the next three weeks. The process of developing these standards has been state led by the governors and chief state school officers in 48 states, two territories, and the District of Columbia, with input from a wide range of stakeholders- including educators, researchers, content experts, national organizations, and community groups.

The standards cover mathematics, English-language arts, and briefly, literacy in history, social studies and science and lay out grade-level specific goals, as well as college- and career- readiness standards. The CCSSO and NGA Center have said that once these standards are finalized, they will develop a set of common core standards in science and potentially other subject areas.

The standards are based on the following criteria:

• aligned with college and work expectations;
• clear, understandable and consistent;
• include rigorous content and application of knowledge through high-order skills;
• build upon strengths and lessons of current state standards;
• informed by other top performing countries;
• and evidence-and research-based.

National standards and college- and career- readiness have been an ongoing theme across the current initiatives of this administration, including Race to the Top, the ESEA rewrite, and within the President’s budget. While the Obama administration did not have a role in the drafting of the standards, both the President and Secretary Arne Duncan have avidly pushed for the development of a common, higher set of standards as part of an overall education reform agenda.

This morning U.S Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan appeared before the House Education and Labor Committee in a hearing entitled “Building a Stronger Economy: Spurring Reform and Innovation in American Education.” Originally the hearing was to take place February 10th, but was rescheduled due to the blizzard in Washington, D.C.

However, with tomorrow’s upcoming announcement of the Race to the Top finalists and the ongoing hearings on the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization, timing couldn’t have been better. Both the hearing room and the overflow room were packed with spectators, interested in what Secretary Duncan had to say.

The Department of Education has laid out the following priorities for the next two years:
• supporting reform of struggling schools
• improvements in the quality of teaching and learning
• implementation of comprehensive statewide data systems
• simplifying student aid

While Duncan did not make any new announcements, nor did he make specific reference to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, his testimony echoed the Department’s predefined goals and priorities. Committee members questioned Duncan on President Obama’s education budget, the agenda for education reform, including the ESEA reauthorization, as well as on the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act. Other topics of discussion included charter schools, supplemental services, especially after-school programs, teacher quality and development, and assessment for special education and English language learners.

Overall, Duncan spoke positively about his outlook for this year’s agenda, stating, “As hard as this work is, it is also critically important; and for all the challenges, I’ve never been more optimistic.”

Alyson Klein of EdWeek also has a good wrap up of the hearing, which includes some of the specific questions that were asked.

Stay tuned for more from Duncan as the Race to the Top finalists are revealed tomorrow!

Photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/edlabordems/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0