What Happens to Our Best and Brightest?
Posted on September 20th, 2010 by ASEE
American educators too often fail to identify and cultivate potentially high-achieving students who could become tomorrow’s Thomas Edisons or Marie Curies, the National Science Board says in a new report. As a result, the country risks losing innovators key to U.S. economic growth and global competitiveness.
Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on What Happens to Our Best and Brightest?
Tags: Education Policy, Gifted and Talented, Honors Students, Public Policy, Research on Learning
There are 6.5 million teachers in the United States, but only 9 percent are black. Yet, in many urban areas, black students are, far and away, the single largest cohort. Does this matter? Some educators emphatically say it does.
With a new school year started and the White House pushing for school reform, a look at past reforms reveals little positive change. Why haven’t they worked? Will this attempt be any different? Student motivation may hold a clue.
How is Tennessee, one of two first round winners of the Race to the Top competition, spending its $501 million? $37 million is earmarked for creating innovative new ways of teaching STEM subjects. The state will use at least five test schools, including troubled Stratford High School in Nashville, to test the programs before other districts adopt them.
States across the country have long supported cutting classroom size to enhance learning. But given the tough economic climate and continuing state budget cuts, that trend is likely to be reversed, with class sizes expected to inch back up. A bad thing? Maybe not.
Principal Penelope Eucker worries that America no longer produces enough scientists and innovators. She hopes to counteract this trend at her magnet STEM school through a hands-on, science-based curricula designed with help from local business and technology experts.
The District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island have emerged as winners of the U.S. Department of Education’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant competition. The ten will divvy up $3.4 billion in education grants. Not surprisingly, the results were met with a wave of criticisms and finger-pointing.
A main education goal of the White House is for every American high school student to graduate career- or college-ready. New data from the ACT college entrance exam show just what an uphill battle that will be: fewer than 25 percent of 2010 high school graduates had the academic skills to pass college entry-level courses in all four categories tested.
Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen recently signed an executive order establishing the Tennessee STEM Innovation Network, which will work to promote and expand the teaching of STEM subjects in schools across the state. The network will operate out of the state’s Department of Education, which will work with local school districts to coordinate STEM education activities, including curriculum and professional development. 
