T C E B TRIANGLE COALITION ELECTRONIC BULLETIN JUNE 14, 2001 VOL. 7, NO. 23 _____________________________________________________ Published by the TRIANGLE COALITION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION _____________________________________________________ THIS WEEK'S TOPICS: U.S. SENATE REJECTS SCHOOL VOUCHERS PARTNERSHIP FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY RELEASES STUDY INTERNET ACCESS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS LOW IRON LINKED TO POOR MATH TEST SCORES NEW MATH AND SCIENCE RESOURCES ADDED TO FREE STATES TURN TO END-OF-COURSE TESTS TO BOLSTER HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM POWERPOINT INVADES THE CLASSROOM ____________________________________________________ U.S. SENATE REJECTS SCHOOL VOUCHERS (Source: AOL News, June 12, 2001) The new Democratic-led Senate rejected a bid for private school vouchers Tuesday as it neared passage of a White House-backed bill to upgrade schools and a showdown with President Bush over federal funding of education. On a 58-41 vote, the Senate defeated an amendment that would have provided $50 million to help up to 10 cities and three states create a pilot private school voucher program for students of low-income parents. Supporters said the proposal, a scaled-down version of Bush's rejected voucher initiative, would let these students escape failing public schools and get a shot at a good education by providing money to attend private institutions. But Democrats and some moderate Republicans argued the vouchers would take needed funds from cash-strapped public schools, leaving countless youngsters behind. The education bill, with broad bipartisan support, was expected to be approved by the Senate late this week after the chamber plows through a number of other amendments. Negotiators would then reconcile differences between this bill and a similar yet far less expensive one approved by the Republican-led House of Representatives in May. Bush had wanted included in the education bill a private school voucher initiative which would have given students in failing public schools up to $1,500 in federal funding to help them pay for private and religious schooling. But both the House and Senate rejected it. Instead, a compromise would allow students in failing schools to use federal funding to pay for private tutoring or transfer to other public schools. ************************************ PARTNERSHIP FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY RELEASES STUDY The Partnership for the Advancement of Chemical Technology (PACT) has released the PACT Research Profile Study which provides an in-depth examination of the learning and teaching styles, personalities, attitudes, and values of chemical technology students (233 from 16 institutions), teachers (60 from 49 institutions), and practicing technicians (197 from 33 states). The recommendations that grew from the study focus on recruiting and retaining students and developing curriculum and materials. Information was gathered and analyzed based on Profile and Demographic Surveys, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), Grasha-Reichmann Learning Styles Scales, and Grasha Teaching Styles Inventory. Rapid changes in technology are difficult for educational systems to keep pace with, yet industry relies on educational institutions to meet its fast-expanding needs. The study's Principal Investigator, Arlyne Sarquis, says, "This is the first study of its type to take a detailed look at who we are serving nationally through our chemical technology programs and who is providing the instruction. This knowledge, coupled with the information collected on chemical technicians in the workplace, can help us build more effective programs and better recruit and retain students in those programs." PACT is an NSF-funded industrial/academic collaborative committed to creating a well-educated chemistry-based workforce. Members of the PACT Consortium share the goal of bringing chemistry and chemical technology education into closer alignment with the skills, methods, problem solving, and content used in today's industrial and government laboratories. The PACT Research Profile Study with Recommendations and other PACT programming are initiatives of Miami University's Center for Chemistry Education (a Triangle Coalition member), which brings chemistry and the companion sciences to life for teachers and students of all levels through teacher/student programming, materials development, networking between industry and academia, and outreach. The study may be viewed at www.terrificscience.org/PACT/index.shtml. ************************************ INTERNET ACCESS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS "Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools: 1994-2000," released May 9 by the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, tells... - How much progress public schools have made in connecting to the Internet, - What the ratio of students to instructional computers is in public schools, - How public schools are connected to the Internet, - To what extent public schools are making the Internet available to students outside of regular school hours in 2000, and - How public schools are preventing students from accessing inappropriate material on the Internet in 2000. The report may be viewed at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001071. ************************************ LOW IRON LINKED TO POOR MATH TEST SCORES (Source: The Arizona Republic: June 5, 2001) New research linking even mild iron deficiency with low test scores could help explain why teenage girls tend to do worse than boys in math. The study found that compared with children with normal iron levels, iron-deficient youngsters were more than twice as likely to score below average on a standardized math test. The increased risk was found even in iron-deficient children who had not developed anemia. The difference in performance was most striking in adolescent girls, who also had the highest prevalence of iron deficiency. The study was led by Dr. Jill Halterman of the University of Rochester and was published in the June issue of the journal Pediatrics. Iron deficiency, sometimes due to blood loss or diets low in iron, is the most common cause of anemia. Adolescent girls are especially prone to iron deficiency because of their monthly blood loss from menstruation. Previous research has linked iron-deficiency anemia with lower developmental test scores in young children, but there is less information on older children and on iron deficiency without anemia. The study involved nationally representative data on 5,398 children ages 6 to 16 who participated in a health survey from 1988 to 1994. Iron deficiency was found in 3 percent of the children overall, representing 1.2 million school-age children. It occurred in 8.7 percent of the girls ages 12 to 16, including 7 percent without anemia. Average math scores for iron-deficient children with or without anemia were about six points lower than those with normal iron levels. Among adolescent girls, the difference in scores was more than eight points. The average math score for normal youngsters was 93.7. For iron-deficient children without anemia it was 87.4, and it was 86.4 for those with anemia. The highest score recorded was 151. ************************************ NEW MATH AND SCIENCE RESOURCES ADDED TO FREE Teachers, parents, students, and others may use FREE (www.ed.gov/free) to find teaching and learning resources from more than 40 federal organizations, including: "NCES's Fun Facts" (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/topics.html) highlights selected statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the main federal organization responsible for collecting and analyzing data on education in the U.S. and other nations. Fun facts appear in six areas: early childhood, elementary and secondary, postsecondary, international education, libraries, and assessment. "Multiwavelength Astronomy" (www.ipac.caltech.edu/Outreach/Multiwave) shows images of our own galaxy and sun, other galaxies and stars, and other heavenly bodies as viewed from different portions (or frequencies) of the electromagnetic spectrum. "NASAexplores" (www.nasaexplores.com) features new lessons each week on topics related to space. Articles, learning activities, and background information are offered with each lesson. Airport efficiency, motion sickness, housekeeping in space, the international space station, prevention of human error, seeing what can't be seen, asteroids, and use of light to speed recovery from illnesses are among the more than 30 topics. Lessons and materials support national education standards. ************************************ STATES TURN TO END-OF-COURSE TESTS TO BOLSTER HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM (Source: Education Week, June 6, 2001) High school students in Maryland saw a new addition to their coursework this spring: state-mandated end-of-course exams. The state administered about 300,000 field tests late last month in five subjects: English 1, Algebra 1, geometry, biology, and American government. Starting next year, the test results are slated to be reported on student transcripts, and eventually they could help determine whether students earn a diploma. Maryland is one of about a dozen states that either have or are preparing such curriculum-based exams as a way to strengthen the high school curriculum and ensure that all students have mastered a core body of knowledge and skills. Such exams are slowly starting to replace the basic-skills tests many states began requiring students to pass in the 1970s to graduate from high school. Experts on assessment and education policy argue that the newer tests are an improvement over the minimum-competency tests which, they say, are set at such a low level that they provide little incentive for students to work hard in school. What's more, the traditional exit exams often are not a good match for the course structure in high schools because they survey what students have learned in mathematics or English or science over several years of instruction, says Michael W. Kirst, a professor of education at Stanford University. In the United States, the best-known end-of-course tests are probably the Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams which are designed to gauge how well students have learned a particular syllabus. But those tests are taken by a relatively small group of college-bound students. And unlike the teacher-written finals that high school students are used to, the new end-of-course exams reflect statewide curriculum standards. As the term implies, end-of-course exams are administered toward the end of a particular course, such as Algebra 1 or chemistry, and the tests measure the content taught in that class. For that reason, proponents argue, the tests have the potential to send much clearer signals to both students and teachers about what students should be learning and how instruction can be improved. They can also offer students an incentive to work hard, particularly if the tests count toward their final grades. ************************************ POWERPOINT INVADES THE CLASSROOM (Source: New York Times, May 31, 2001) PowerPoint - the must-have presentation software of the corporate world - has infiltrated the schoolhouse. In the coming weeks, students from 12th grade to, yes, kindergarten will finish science projects and polish end-of-the-year presentations on computerized slide shows filled with colorful animation, bold topic headings, and neat rows of points, each introduced with a bullet mark. Software designed for business people has found an audience among the spiral notebook set. But just as PowerPoint has its detractors in the corporate world, some educators are disturbed by the program's march into the classroom. They are concerned that too many students will become fixated on fonts and formats without actually thinking about what they are typing next to all those bullets. Sandee Tessier, a kindergarten teacher at San Altos Elementary School in Lemon Grove, CA, has been using PowerPoint with her 5- and 6-year-old students for nearly four years, integrating it into her regular reading and math lessons. Sometimes, she said, she will take digital photographs of her pupils acting out scenes from a book, put the photos on slides, and ask the pupils to describe their actions in words. In the process, the children create their own books. According to figures from Microsoft, 69 percent of teachers who use Microsoft software use PowerPoint in their classrooms, an application second in popularity only to the workhorse of word processing, Microsoft Word. The software is not only a teaching aid, used by instructors as a substitute for a chalkboard. It has become a tool for students to use as well. Suddenly, magic markers and construction paper seem so Old Economy. Among elementary and secondary schools, Microsoft Office is the most popular software package for word processing, spreadsheets, and multimedia projects. More than 95 percent of public school districts in the United States are using or intend to purchase Microsoft Office this year, according to Quality Education Data, a market research company. Among individual schools, more than 75 percent are using the product. _____________________________________________________ This TCEB is made possible by a grant from E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. Please visit their web site at www.dupont.com for more information about their educational support programs. The TCEB is a newsletter provided to members of the Triangle Coalition. Members may forward individual articles or the issue in its entirety providing that credit is given to the Triangle Coalition, and all of the following contact information is included in any republication. For TCEB subscription or membership information, contact: Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005 phone: 800-582-0115 fax: 202-289-1303 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.triangle-coalition.org To submit information for possible inclusion in TCEB, contact: Joanne Van Voorhis, Target Marketing, Editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************ THE MISSION OF THE TRIANGLE COALITION IS TO FOSTER COLLABORATION AMONG LEADERS IN EDUCATION, BUSINESS, AND GOVERNMENT TO IMPROVE SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION. The Triangle Coalition membership includes business, labor, education, science, mathematics, technology and engineering organizations, and community and state-based alliances. ************************************ -- This is the ISTA-talk mailing list. To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://www.ista-il.org/ista-talk.asp> To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/ista-talk@lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
