STEM Education: “Just Fine” or Needs Work?
Posted on June 7th, 2010 by Jaimie Schock
A survey conducted by Public Agenda and funded by the GE Foundation has found that Americans are conflicted when it comes to mathematics and science instruction. While a big majority say that strong math and science education is key to the country’s future, most parents think that the science and math classes that their kids take are “just fine.”
Filed under: K-12 Education News | Comments Off on STEM Education: “Just Fine” or Needs Work?
From helping impoverished trash workers in Argentina to transforming the way Canadian engineering students learn, Caroline Baillie has been a tireless champion of fostering social justice through engineering, challenging her colleagues and students to make ethics a core concern in their work.
When it comes to helping kids learn science, parents and educators agree that Mom and Dad are falling down on the job, according to a new survey of 500 science teachers and 506 parents. A whopping 98 percent of the teachers surveyed said that parental involvement is important to keeping students interested in science. And, 94 percent said they wish their students’ parents had more chances to engage in science with their children. Seventy-seven percent suspected that too many parents just don’t feel comfortable with science topics to be of much assistance.
Too many science teachers in the U.S. — especially at the elementary and middle school levels — aren’t fully qualified to teach the subject. For instance, more than 70 percent of middle school science teachers in Chicago schools do not have a degree or endorsement in science. To address that problem, Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry and the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) have teamed up to offer what they say is a first of its kind program to bolster the skills of middle school science teachers.
Digital technology’s reach into the classroom is complete. A new Department of Education report found that every single public school in the United States is in someway using computers for instruction. The mean number of students per computer is 3.1 and 76 percent of the computers are desktops. Only 2 percent of public schools are not connected to the Internet.
President Obama wants American high schools to graduate kids who are college- and career-ready. But, statistics on remedial education indicate that that’s not going to be an easy goal to meet. In 2007-08, a third of first-year college students required at least one remedial education course in either math, science or English.
A recent survey of 1,000 students ages 12 to 17 conducted for Junior Achievement and the Allstate Foundation found that 63 percent of respondents admitted that tight finances have forced them to change their college plans. How? By working more hours, opting for instate schools, delaying enrollment for a year or going to a community college.
Can intensive teacher-training courses help turn inadequate math teachers into classroom stars? Apparently not — at least not immediately. That’s the conclusion of a new Department of Education report, which found that intensive, state-of-the-art efforts to boost teachers’ skills don’t seem to lead to significant improvements in student achievement.
What’s the best way to fix America’s education system? Conservatives push voucher programs and charter schools. Liberals want to fix schools with more money and reduced class sizes. But columnist Steve Chapman says research shows that neither side has the right answers.
