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July 7 - 10, 2008
NSELA Summer Leadership Institute, Asheville, NC

March 18, 2009
NSELA Professional Development Institute, New Orleans

March 19-March 22, 2009, New Orleans
NSTA Convention

NSELA Leadership Team

How many times have you heard and read that our nation's position as the global economic leader is being aggressively challenged by other nations? And to strengthen our nation's economic position, we, as a national priority, have a greater focus on education and robust investments in research and development? We constantly hearing how the U.S. is losing the global "skills race" because we are not graduating enough students in the fields of science and technology to meet the nation's workforce needs.

These statements are further highlighted usually with statistics like how one-third of all jobs in the United States require science or technology competency, but currently only 17 percent of Americans graduate with science or technology majors. The world average is 27 percent; Korea's average is twice ours; and in China, fully 52 percent of college degrees awarded are in science and technology.

When it comes right down to it, it is very hard indeed to make the changes necessary in the system that is going to educate our STEM students. In order to make any progress, you have to change all the parts, whether it is at the national, state level, or district level. And unfortunately when it comes to changing the educational system, everyone has an opinion, and everyone is an expert, because everyone went to school, and we are a country of local control!

Over two years ago the National Science Board, the governing board of the National Science Foundation, issued a policy statement to their bi-annual STEM Indicators that discussed challenges the Board observed in the Nation's STEM education system. This document entitled America’s Pressing Challenge – Building a Stronger Foundation identified priorities for ensuring a world-class education in STEM fields for all Americans. At that time, the Board said "Mathematics, science and technology education in our K-12 schools will only improve if we:

• Gain Public Support
• Develop and Retain a High Quality Mathematics and Science Teaching Profession
• Provide Students Opportunities to Learn
• Prepare Guidance Counselors to Provide Quality Career Guidance; and
• Use Assessments to Reinforce Learning.”

The goal of the Board in developing this action plan was to prioritize the most important actions that can be taken in order to make a significant impact on STEM education in the Nation. The Board relied heavily on previous reports and the input of a host of experts in STEM education. I would like to outline the priority recommendations for action. If you want a copy of the entire document, you can visit www.nsb.gov.

Priority Recommendations: In order to move STEM education forward in the Nation, the Board believes that two major issues must be addressed:

• ensuring coherence in the Nation’s STEM education system and
• ensuring an adequate supply of well-prepared and highly effective STEM teachers.

This recommendation of coherence comes up against the notion of local control through the local and state governments. The Board is well aware that the ultimate responsibility in the Nation's public education system is through these local and state systems and does not challenge this role; however, if we are to move this country forward, there has to be some coordination among all stakeholders, including, in particular, local and state education agencies and institutions of higher education.

Each year the Federal government spends an estimated 3 billion on STEM education activities which are currently scattered throughout the different agencies. These programs are directed toward a wide range of objectives and run the gamut of grades from pre-K through postdoctoral and across the fields of science and engineering. Without question, one place to start is for the Federal Government to do a better job of coordinating its own STEM education activities to better support local and state efforts.

To achieve coherence in the STEM education system, the Board’s central recommendation is the creation of something that does not currently exist and is without precedent—a National Council for STEM Education. The Board has recommended that Congress charter a new, Non-Federal National Council for STEM Education that would coordinate among all those involved in STEM education, not just those at the Federal level. The Council would be made up of representatives from local and state governments and organizations, professional STEM educators, the business community, higher education, private foundations, STEM disciplinary societies, informal STEM education, and other stakeholders. In a way, this council would be almost the national equivalent of a state P-20 Council, bringing together all the stakeholders.

Horizontal Coordination
Using the National Council for STEM education the Board recommends that all stakeholders work together to provide horizontal coordination of STEM education among states. This is particularly important in our highly geographically mobile society. A 2004 Census Bureau report estimates that 15 to 20 percent of school-aged children moved in the previous year, and a 1994 GAO study reported that one out of six students had attended three or more schools by the end of third grade. The Board recommends:

• Facilitating a strategy to define national STEM content guidelines that would outline the essential knowledge and skills needed at each grade level;
• Developing metrics to assess student performance that are aligned with national content guidelines;
• Ensuring that assessments under No Child Left Behind promote STEM learning; and
• Providing a forum to share and disseminate information on best practices in STEM teaching and learning.

• Improving the linkage between high school and higher education and/or the workforce; and
• Creating or strengthening STEM education-focused P-16 or P-20 councils in each state.

The Board feels strongly that serious national attention must be focused on attracting, preparing, and retaining qualified and committed teaching candidates. We have reiterated this need in every report we have issued on this subject, from our 1999 Preparing Our Children report in reaction to U.S. performance on international comparisons in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, to our report on the science and engineering workforce in 2003. In each, the Board has underscored not only the importance of STEM educators as a valuable national resource, but also the need to recognize STEM educators as part of the science and engineering professions. The board stresses the critical need for greater recognition by the science and engineering communities of the integral role of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers in precollege teaching for their communities and for the science and engineering workforce generally. Such professional recognition of STEM teaching in the earlier grades is needed if we are to attract the best and the brightest to consider pre-college STEM teaching as a profession.

Accordingly to meet this recommendation we must:

1. Develop strategies for compensating STEM teachers at market rates. Unless this issue addressed, it will remain difficult to recruit an adequate number of qualified STEM teachers, particularly at the middle and high school levels.
2. Provide resources for the preparation of future STEM teachers. This could include things like student loan forgiveness and scholarships.
3. Increase STEM teacher mobility between districts by creating national STEM teacher certification standards, so that teachers qualified to teach STEM subjects can more easily continue to teach those subjects when they move.
4. Prepare STEM teachers to teach STEM content effectively.

In summary, this action plan lays out a structure that will allow stakeholders from local, state, and federal governments, as well as non-governmental STEM education stakeholder groups, to work together to coordinate and enhance the Nation's ability to produce a numerate, scientifically, and technologically literate society and to increase and improve the current STEM education workforce.

Have the Stakeholders Listened?
As we all know, trying to move and/or change Congressional policy in any way is very difficult; however, there have been some very small changes which have come through the legislation of the America Competes Act, (COMPETES) Act (S. 761) America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education and Science.d Here are some of the examples where we are beginning to see the tide turning through the overlap between Action Plan and America COMPETES recommendations.

Department of Energy

• Appoint Director of STEM Education to coordinate programs (idea of coordination)
• Summer institutes for teacher professional development through national labs

There is a wonderful quote from Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland which says, “Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire cat. ‘I don't know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn't really matter.’"

I guess if we don't start getting some clear direction to our national STEM education system, then it won't matter where we go. My hope is that our leaders, who have the power to change policy, will take these recommendations to heart so we can rise to meet the looming challenges ahead of us.

Jo Anne Vasquez, Ph.D., is a member of the National Science Board. She is the director of professional development for the Center for Research on Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology at Arizona State University.