T C E B TRIANGLE COALITION ELECTRONIC BULLETIN MAY 17, 2001 VOL. 7, NO. 20 _____________________________________________________ Published by the TRIANGLE COALITION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION _____________________________________________________ THIS WEEK'S TOPICS: U.S. SENATE REJECTS DEMOCRAT-BACKED CLASSROOM PLAN CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING SUPPORTS NEED FOR HIGH QUALITY MATH AND SCIENCE EDUCATION WISCONSIN TO JOIN NATIONAL SCIENCE TEACHER INITIATIVE FACTS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION VII: THE STATE OF AMERICA'S NEW WORKFORCE JUDGE CLEARS WAY FOR MATH TEACHER TESTS FUNDS FOR BRIDGING DIVIDE ARE DRYING UP HARVARD AND STANFORD MAY MERGE TO OFFER ONLINE COURSES TECHNOLOGY REPORT FINDS INEQUITIES ____________________________________________________ U.S. SENATE REJECTS DEMOCRAT-BACKED CLASSROOM PLAN (Source: AOL News, May 15, 2001) The Senate Tuesday rejected a multibillion-dollar plan for reducing crowding in the nation's classrooms, dealing a setback to Democrats in their drive to expand President Bush's education reform bill. Undeterred, Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said he would renew the fight for class size reduction and other school initiatives when the Senate debates Bush's tax cuts and other legislation. "We're going to hammer this issue ... again and again and again," said Kennedy, the ranking Democrat on the Health and Education Committee, after the Senate voted 50-48 against the class size amendment proposed by Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat from Washington state. The amendment would have called on Congress to dedicate a total of $7.1 billion over the next four years -- $2.4 billion in fiscal 2002 alone -- to help states and school districts hire a total of 100,000 teachers. Roughly 40,000 teachers have already been hired under the initiative, which was launched by former President Clinton in 1999 as a means of reducing class sizes and boosting student achievement, supporters said. Republicans countered that states and local school districts should have the leeway to use federal funding as they see fit, and warned that Murray's initiative would run afoul of Bush's budget plan for fiscal 2002. Tuesday's vote was a rare defeat for Democrats in their bid to add funding to the education bill, which would test students each year and hold states and school districts accountable for their performance -- signature issues for Bush during last year's presidential campaign. At the insistence of Democrats, the bipartisan education bills moving through the House and the Senate do not include the president's hotly contested voucher initiative, which would have given students in poorly performing schools up to $1,500 in federal aid to attend religious and other private institutions. Instead, the bills would allow students in failing schools to use federal funding to pay for private tutoring or transfer to another public school. The House is expected to approve its education bill Friday. Republicans will propose private school vouchers as an amendment on the House floor, but even supporters said it had little chance of passage. The Senate is expected to approve its own education bill next week, clearing the way for final congressional negotiations. ************************************ CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING SUPPORTS NEED FOR HIGH QUALITY MATH AND SCIENCE EDUCATION The Triangle Coalition along with Coalition members the American Chemical Society, the American Geological Institute, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the National Association of Biology Teachers, and the National Science Teachers Association recently cosponsored a Capitol Hill briefing as part of Global Science and Technology Week. Bill Nye the Science Guy and Representatives Vernon Ehlers (R-MI) and Rush Holt (D-NJ) were featured guests at the event. Representatives Ehlers and Holt both spoke of the need for high quality mathematics and science education. Nye discussed the need to instill a passion for and appreciation of the job of science in our young people and importance of good science education to our future. Following the presentation, a reception was held and guests were encouraged to participate in experiments that demonstrated how science was all around them. ************************************ WISCONSIN TO JOIN NATIONAL SCIENCE TEACHER INITIATIVE The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and ExxonMobil Foundation have announced the funding of a state-based education initiative to link Wisconsin teachers and education organizations in a nationwide science learning community. The project, Building a Presence for Science, is creating the Wisconsin Science Network and providing increased professional development opportunities for state science teachers. Wisconsin will receive $136,500 to implement the program. The Wisconsin Science Network, a partnership of 15 state-based science education organizations, will identify a cadre of 100 educators to serve as Key Leaders in the state who will, in turn, establish a network of Points of Contact in all 3,000 of Wisconsin's public and private schools. The Points of Contact will provide their school colleagues with professional development and other resources that emphasize state and national standards-based science teaching and learning. Partners in the Wisconsin Science Network include the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, the Milwaukee Urban Systemic Initiative in Science and Mathematics, the Wisconsin Society of Science Teachers, and the Wisconsin Elementary and Middle Level Science Teachers. Started by NSTA in 1996 and funded by ExxonMobil Foundation, Building a Presence for Science has been transforming the way teachers and students learn K-12 science. A primary objective of the program is to help science teachers implement state and national science education standards in their schools. A second goal is to create a network through which science teachers can share the latest ideas about effective science teaching. The program now includes 17 states and the District of Columbia. Six more states are slated to join over the next two years. For more information, see www.nsta.org/bap. ************************************ FACTS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION VII: THE STATE OF AMERICA'S NEW WORKFORCE The debate over what kind of workplace the U.S. education system should be preparing today's students for appears to be over. According to a new survey commissioned by Bayer Corporation and in cooperation with the National Science Foundation, the newest employees in America's workforce and their managers say that today's worker needs special skills to manage continuing change in the workplace. Both groups agree new employees need to be flexible and adaptable, able to solve unforeseen problems, and do their best work in teams. They differ primarily over how well equipped new employees actually are with these skills and how well their education has prepared them for their jobs. Moreover, both groups are concerned students in school today may not be adequately prepared for tomorrow's job setting and predict they will face increasing competition for jobs from countries where citizens have stronger science and math literacy skills. Those are among the central findings of The Bayer Facts of Science Education VII: The State of America's New Workforce, which uses the perspectives of both employees and managers to assess how well U.S. education has prepared the newest generation of American workers for the work environment. Specifically with regard to science education and science literacy, the report found that: - Managers (52%) and, to a lesser extent, new employees (42%) agree that better job opportunities would have been available to new employees if they had taken more math and science classes. This percentage goes up to 60% for managers who work in science, technology, or medical fields. - The majority (53%) of new employees say that when they were in elementary school, science education was given less priority than reading, writing, and mathematics. For today's elementary school students, however, the majority of both new employees (63%) and managers (63%) believe that science education should be given the same or greater priority as reading, writing, and mathematics. - Nearly all managers (93%) and new employees (88%) alike, feel the most effective way to teach science is by conducting hands-on experiments, forming opinions, discussing, and defending conclusions with others. Despite this belief, many new employees say that their science experience in elementary school (61%), middle school (59%), and high school (41%) more closely matched the traditional approach of reading textbooks, listening to lectures, and memorizing scientific information. Key survey findings are available from Bayer at www.bayerus.com/msms/news/summary01.html. ************************************ JUDGE CLEARS WAY FOR MATH TEACHER TESTS (Source: Boston Herald, May 8, 2001) The Bay State (Massachusetts) moved a step closer to giving competency tests to veteran teachers when a Superior Court judge quashed a move by two teachers unions to block a skills test for educators in districts where student math scores don't add up. Suffolk County Judge Patrick J. King issued a declaratory judgment that rejected the claims of the two unions that the Board of Education's math teacher testing plan overstepped its authority and violated the constitutional rights of the state's 120,000 teachers. The board voted to require the testing of math teachers in districts found to have "low performing" mathematics programs where more than 30 percent of the students -- minus non-English speakers or new arrivals -- fail the math section of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exam. On the 2000 MCAS, 45 percent of the 10th-graders failed the math exam, a startling number, since high-schoolers will need to pass both the math and English portions of the exam in order to graduate beginning in 2003. That same year (2000), 39 percent of the eighth-graders failed the MCAS math exam, revealing a stunning drop off from the skills of fourth-graders, who passed the math exam at a rate of 82 percent that year. ************************************ FUNDS FOR BRIDGING DIVIDE ARE DRYING UP (Source: San Francisco Chronicle, April 23, 2001) The new Republican administration in Washington and the slumping economy have digital divide programs worried that their government and corporate funding will dry up. The Bush administration has signaled that it won't offer as much support for digital divide programs as its predecessor did. Even the whole notion of a digital divide was recently dismissed -- the new Federal Communications Commission chairman, Michael Powell, compared it to a "Mercedes divide." "I'd like to have one; I can't afford one," he reportedly said. Powell succeeded William Kennard, who had used his FCC position to push for phone access on Native American reservations. A lot of the funding and equipment for digital divide programs comes from the same tech companies that have been announcing job cuts lately, a fact that sends shivers up the spines of some nonprofit leaders. ************************************ HARVARD AND STANFORD MAY MERGE TO OFFER ONLINE COURSES (Source: Ed.Net Briefs, April 23, 2001) Harvard and Stanford appear close to a landmark deal to merge part of their business school operations, according to a report in Business Week. The proposed plan may have the two schools combine the executive education arms of Harvard and Stanford into a separate entity that will design and deliver face-to-face and online programs to companies around the globe. The venture may even be run as a for-profit entity, which would allow it to operate outside university rules and to offer more incentives for faculty participation. But even if it remains attached to the universities, the alliance will mean revenues of $100 million-plus and the birth of a powerful new force in the management education world. Harvard and Stanford could use the allure and prestige of the combined brand to launch an executive MBA program, which neither currently offers but both are exploring. The proposed deal would also include Harvard Business School Interactive, the school's online course development arm, as well as the participation of Stanford University's engineering school. ************************************ TECHNOLOGY REPORT FINDS INEQUITIES (Source: Education Week, May 9, 2001) Despite the rapid infusion of computers into American schools, inequities persist in access to educational technology and how it is used to enhance learning, an Education Week report concludes. Technology Counts 2001: The New Divides, the fourth edition of the newspaper's report on the state of school technology, examines the disparities in access to, and the use of, such technology. The report reveals that the number of students per computer in the nation's poorest schools has dropped to an average of 5.3, just slightly above the national average of 4.9. But a package of stories in the report illustrates that disparities still exist -- especially for poor children, minority youngsters, girls, low-achieving students, rural students, students with disabilities, and children learning to speak English as a second language. Included in the report are results from a new national survey of 500 middle and high school students. The survey, which looked primarily at students who have access to computers at home and at school, found an evolving gap between technology's promise and the reality of how it is used to support student learning. For example, while 88 percent of the students surveyed said that having good computer skills is "somewhat" or a "great deal" important for career success, only 40 percent said that knowing about computers is "extremely" or "very" important to how well they do in school. The report is available at www.edweek.org/tc01. _____________________________________________________ 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. 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