Triangle Coalition For Science And Technology Education

The effort is being led by the CEOs of more than 100 major corporations, including six Triangle Coalition members, Verizon, Texas Instruments, Vernier Software and Technology, Merck Institute for Science Education, DuPont, and Ford Motor Company.

At the CTEq launch yesterday, President Obama acknowledged that our nation’s “success will not be attained by government alone.” He issued a call last year for scientists, business leaders, and non-profits to come to together to bring our nation from the middle to the top of the pack in the world in math and science education. As a result, CTEq was founded as a 501(c)3 by former Intel CEO Craig Barrett, astronaut Sally Ride, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, and Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez, with support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Its mission is “to create widespread literacy in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as an investment in our nation that empowers us all.” By committing financial support, as well as the time and expertise of their scientists, engineers, and other STEM employees, the member corporations are not only making an investment in the future of their businesses, but in our economy, national security, health, and the environment.

“Study after study has shown our decline,” said Craig Barrett, former CEO of Intel and chair of CTEq. “It’s now time to turn that around and I think Change the Equation, the private sector support rallying together for financial support, program support, and advocacy support, is the way to do this… it’s about the only way to do this.”

With $5 million in funding for this year, CTEq cites three critical goals to:

• Improve STEM teaching at all grade levels, with a larger and more diverse pool of highly-capable STEM teachers.
• Deepen student appreciation and excitement for STEM programs and careers, especially among females and underrepresented minorities.
• Achieve a sustained commitment to the STEM movement from business leaders, government officials, STEM teachers and other stakeholders.

These goals strongly correlate with those of the President’s Advisory Council on Science and Technology (PCAST), which were also released yesterday in a new K-12 STEM Education report.

“Our success as a nation depends on strengthening America’s role as the world’s engine of discovery and innovation,” said President Obama. “I applaud Change the Equation for lending their resources, expertise, and their enthusiasm to the task of strengthening America’s leadership in the 21st century by improving education in science, technology, engineering and math.”

CTEq plans to kick off its first year by cataloging a list of existing STEM investments within its member companies and creating an evaluation system to measure the effectiveness of these programs. The group also plans to assess the current conditions of STEM education in all 50 states. In addition, the member companies will launch several best practice STEM programs in 100 high-need communities around the country.

“‘I can’t do math has become an iconic excuse in our society,” said Linda Rosen, Chief Executive Officer of CTEq. “Many Americans have expressed it, but I don’t believe it’s an accurate reflection of who we are, or, more importantly, what we can do. If we don’t encourage our children and students to get excited about math as well as science, technology and engineering, we are denying them the chance to reach their potential and be prepared for a future filled with opportunity.”

Rosen will be speaking at Triangle Coalition’s Annual Conference on STEM Education Policy on October 22nd.

To learn more about Change the Equation, visit www.changetheequation.org or watch the video below (courtesy of Change the Equation).

For the last year, a committee of 20 individuals has been working on the report, entitled “Prepare and Inspire STEM Education for America’s Future,” which was initiated following President Obama’s national call to move our students from the middle to the top of the pack in the world. The committee cited previously written reports such as Rising Above the Gathering Storm and consulted with teachers, supervisors, government, and others in the STEM community in creating the draft.

Eric Lander, co-chair of PCAST, presented a preview of the report during the meeting and referred to the lack of a coherent K-12 stem strategy within the federal government. Included in the report is an analysis of precisely how much money the federal government spends on K-12 STEM education, which according to Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN), totals approximately $1 billion dollars annually for 150 different programs.

Lander also gave a preview to the recommendations within the report, including the following:
• The Federal government is strongly urged to support the state-led common core standards and assessments by providing financial and technical support, while continuing to grant local control to states and districts.
• Provide professional development and other programs to support teachers in order to ensure all STEM teachers possess deep content and pedagogical knowledge.
• Reward excellence in teaching through a master STEM teacher corps program.
• Increase learning in technology, (which requires doing more than putting computers in front of students, according to Lander). Scalable platforms for developing instructional materials are also needed.
• Students need opportunities to have personal learning experiences, which can happen, for example, through after-school programs, STEM contests, and other out-of-school activities.
• Additional specialized STEM schools are needed for more grade levels and in diverse locations.
• Strong leadership is needed, as well as strong partnerships between the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation. (Eric Lander commented that there is inspired leadership right now under Secretary of Education Arne Duncan; however more people should be assigned to work on STEM education.)

Brookings Institution Responds to the Report

On September 13,2010, the Brookings Center for Technology Innovation and Math for America held an event in response to the PCAST report, where a panel of leaders representing academia, Congress, and the administration weighed in on the key issues in STEM education.

Representative Bart Gordon (D-TN), chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Science and Technology declared that we don’t need any more reports now; we know what needs to be done; and now we need to do it. His solution to the current issues in STEM education lies within the potential reauthorization of the America COMPETES Act, which was passed in the House earlier this year, but is now stalled in the Senate. He asked everyone to urge the Senate to move COMPETES and to then follow it with funding.

Dr. Susan Hockfield, President of MIT, and Dr. Robert Birgeneau, chancellor for the University of California, Berkeley, both representing academia, discussed the need to support and inspire current and future teachers skilled with deep content knowledge, as well as pedagogical knowledge. “Developing teacher and leaders with advanced math, science, and engineering skills could not be more urgent or more central to America’s future,” said Hockfield. “I very much hope that we can use this new PCAST report as a powerful accelerant to our national resolve to develop an elite corps, a small army, of inspiring math and science teachers.”

Dr. Brian Greene, professor at Columbia University and co-founder of the World Science Festival, gave a dramatic speech about the wonders of science and the need to inspire students as well as adults to explore the world around us. He asserted that “we must embark on a radical cultural shift that takes science from the outskirts and puts it center stage.”

Noteworthy commentary was also made from some distinguished members of the audience. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, mentioned that she supports the prescriptions in the report because they solve the major problems of scaling up, capacity building, and sustaining.

In response to a question on teacher compensation, Dr. Birgeneau pointed out that the PCAST report documents that many K-12 educators, themselves, lack specialized STEM education. He said that raising the skills of educators in these subjects is connected to elevating salaries and stature in the teaching profession.

Craig Barrett, former board chairman of the Intel Corporation and committee member of Rising Above the Gathering Storm, pointed out that the university administrators have been remarkably absent from K-12 education debates. He also called attention to the fact that incoming specification to universities are disjointed with the outgoing requirements to K-12. Hockfield and Birgeneau similarly responded that schools like MIT and UC Berkeley typically do not accept students who require remedial courses, which is, perhaps, why they have been absent from these conversations. Rep. Gordon proposed involving higher education by engaging the public community colleges, as they are the schools offering most of the remedial courses.

Jay Labov of the National Research Council’s Center for Education said that the role of introductory college courses should be reevaluated and restructured because they often turn out to be terminal courses that turn students away from STEM.

The full video and audio recordings of the Brookings Institution event may be downloaded here.

More information about PCAST can be found here.