Math and science education initiative proposed

In his State of the Union address Jan. 31, President Bush announced “the American Competitive Initiative.” The purpose is “to encourage innovation throughout our economy and to give our nation’s children a firm grounding in math and science.”

The plan proposes $5.9 billion for a variety of programs including more investments in research, job training, and permanent tax credits to support innovation and research.

For education, the plan includes $380 million “in new federal support to improve the quality of math, science, and technological education in our K-12 schools and engage every child in rigorous courses that teach important analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills.”

“We need to encourage children to take more math and science and to make sure those courses are rigorous enough to compete with other nations,” President Bush told Congress and the nation.

The initiative calls for training 70,000 high school teachers to lead Advanced Placement courses in math and science, bring 30,000 math and science professionals into classrooms to teach these subjects, and a new program, called “Math Now,” to promote promising and research-based practices in math instruction in elementary and middle schools and prepare students for more rigorous math courses in high school.

The initiative will “give early help to students who struggle with math so they have a better chance at good, high-wage jobs,” the President says. “If we ensure that America’s children succeed in life, they will ensure that America succeeds in the world.”

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings fleshed out these proposals a bit more at a press briefing after the President’s speech.

Spellings says the Administration is proposing a “national math panel” to ensure that the nation will invest its resources more effectively. The panel will “establish a research base -- a yardstick by which local educators can evaluate their practices to make sure that they have maximum effect.”

She says the “Math Now” proposal “will do for math what we’ve done for reading, and that is establish this research base and then put that into effective practices in elementary and middle schools so we’re assured that students show up in high schools with some of the high-order thinking skills that are necessary for them to do more rigorous coursework.”

According to Spellings, international comparisons show U.S. students “do fairly well in the early grades on arithmetic calculations.” But elementary schools need to improve their instruction in “higher-order thinking and problem-solving” so students will be ready for “rigorous math in middle and high school.”

The proposal for training 70,000 teachers to lead Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs is important to ensure all students have access to these courses, Spellings says.

“Advanced Placement has proven to be a very effective model to get teachers the full capability to teach more rigorous courses,” she says. “But unfortunately, that is not offered in many, many schools, particularly our inner-city schools.”

For example, she notes that the Fairfax County, Va., school district in suburban Washington, D.C., offers 21 AP classes, while Ballou High School in inner-city Washington offers just four. “We must do a better job of having these opportunities more widely available to all kids, because it is so necessary for ongoing success in life,” Spellings says.

While the budget details weren’t yet available, Spellings says, “We envision this would be a program we would do in partnership with philanthropic organizations, as well as states, so we could make maximum leverage out of these resources.” Some states already have similar programs, “and we want to do something that would be complementary to that.”

Acknowledging the current shortage of math and science teachers, Spellings says the idea is to train teachers already certified in one subject to teach AP courses. “If you’re certified in biology, this kind of training can get you prepared to teach AP algebra as well,” she says.

Spellings says AP courses prepare students to be successful in higher education, even when they don’t pass the AP test.

Data from the College Board shows that African American students who got a 1 or 2 on an AP exam [the highest score is 5] had a 22 percent higher college graduation rate than students who didn’t take AP exams, Spellings says. Those who took an AP course but didn’t take the exam had a graduation rate that was 16 percent higher.

The proposed “adjunct teacher corps,” to bring 30,000 professionals into math and science classrooms, is aimed at “high-need [subject] areas where we can’t produce enough teachers fast enough in the traditional way,” Spellings says. “We are going to have to access other resources in the community.”

“As a parent of a middle school student,” she says, “would I rather have a NASA scientist teaching my child science who’s had some pedagogical instruction to make sure he or she can communicate, or would I rather have a physical education teacher trying to teach that subject to my eighth grader?”

“It’s frustrating for public policymakers that only half of the minority kids get out of high school in this country,” she says. “Why is that? Is it because they lack reading skills? Is it because the curriculum is not challenging enough? Is it because the teachers aren’t trained? Is it some combination?” We lack the data and a rich resource base. “As the President says, until we diagnose a problem, it’s hard to prescribe a cure.”