February 09, 2010
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The Bellwether Sounds - The Role of CTE in S.T.E.M. Education



 
August 2008, Volume 1, Issue 2


The Bellwether Sounds - The Role of CTE in S.T.E.M. Education
by Jim Brazell, Consulting Analyst, The Schriever Institute

The Millennial Sputnik
On the evening of October 4, 1957, at 1912 Greenwich Mean Time, an R-7 intercontinental ballistic missile lifted off from the former Soviet Union carrying a 23-inch shiny steel orb with four metal antennas named Sputnik. The “Space Age” had begun and along with it a new age of educational reform in the United States.

Products of the ensuing space race include the National Science Foundation, Advanced Research Projects Agency (now DARPA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and large financial investments in human development. Investments included new curricula, student loans, scholarships, fellowships, and the purchase of scientific equipment for schools.

Today, the United States is facing a new Sputnik-namely the convergence of globalization, science, and technology acceleration and demographic shifts at home and in the world. Rather than a single object or a single military enemy, we now diffuse trends that combined have inspired a new call for educational reform similar to the Sputnik Era. The ascendance of second and third world countries in the economic order and the threats posed by terrorism, war, environmental degradation, poverty, and world hunger all create a new imperative for the United States to increase its production of human and intellectual capital. The Millennial Sputnik-global trends that form a similar imperative to the Sputnik Era-creates a mandate for US institutions to cooperate to increase U.S. and global capacity for knowledge creation, creative problem solving, educational innovation, and economic commercialization.

The 21st Century Mandate
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S.T.E.M.) are the life blood of the 21st century education, workforce, and economic innovation. Governors, mayors, CEOs, generals, and school superintendants are all under pressure to increase the quality of S.T.E.M. education, the opportunity for more people to excel in S.T.E.M. competencies, and the college and workforce readiness of all populations.

The conversation we are not having about S.T.E.M. reform in K-12 education today relates to the fact that science and mathematics have a place in the American K-12 education system; however, engineering, technology, and the arts are largely relegated to the nonessential (elective course curricula, few requirements for these subjects in the core curriculum, and little connectivity between these subjects and core academic subjects). The fundamental difference between technology, engineering, and arts courses is that these courses are applied in practice and not purely academic (theoretical). The placement of technology, engineering, and arts courses in a second tier track to academic learning represents a bias which inhibits American goals related to innovation and our leadership in the emerging globally integrated economy.

The ability to integrate S.T.E.M. topics, solve abstract and concrete problems, to think critically and creatively, and to communicate and work in teams are all fundamental requirements of civil society, the marketplace, and even our military. As such, the call to action for 21st century education is an echo from leaders of the Sputnik Era. The late George Kozmetsky (considered the “father” of science and technology commercialization education”) from the IC2 Institute and Gen. Robert F. McDermott (the “father” of military training) from the U.S. Air Force both advocated and practiced transdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinarity is the movement beyond disciplines to a systems approach to learning that  unifies thinking and doing (knowledge and skill) in the context of real world issues. Today, we should embrace this practice from the past rather than recreating the wheel of American education.

The Role of CTE in S.T.E.M. Reform – Shift from S.T.E.M. to TEAMS Integrated Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics, and Science (TEAMS) courses are available today within modern career and technical education (CTE). Rather than reform from external sources, rigorous CTE is the source of innovation from which K-12 schools are creating a fusion or merger of vocational and academic learning to engage students and teachers across the lines of academic specialization. This innovative practice is an important bellwether for how leading states and community leaders are preparing students for excellence in career, academic, and life goals.

Though not a panacea, there are pockets of innovation in CTE (Tech PREP) in places such as Texas that exhibit measurable performance on a state-wide basis which are congruent with S.T.E.M. reform goals including: increased high school graduation, increased matriculation, increased attendance, and increased commended-level passing rates of state standardized tests when compared to the general academics cohort. As such, states such as Texas, California, and New York are beginning to embrace CTE as a platform to deliver S.T.E.M. reform within the larger context of innovation to meet 21st century economic, workforce and education needs. The key to this strategy is it is scalable.

In 2008, Gov. Perry in Texas, Gov. Schwarzenegger in California,  and New York Mayor Bloomberg all announced support for education reform that places CTE at the center of strategies to increase excellence in their respective geographies. In Texas, Perry announced the recommendation to revise CTE course curriculum requirements to deliver college and workforce readiness standards. California has embraced an education reform strategy that connects workforce, education, and economic development into a coherent system to support life-long paths of excellence for young people and adults. And in New York,  Bloomberg announced “Next-Generation Career and Technical Education Reform,” which lays the foundation for leveling performance of CTE programs, increasing the academic rigor of CTE, and enhancing public-private partnership to achieve innovation and relevance in education reform.

What remains to play out, state by state, is the tension between general academics and applied learning practitioners and policy makers in the context of funding, curricula standards, and overall education reform. Based on initiatives and announcements in the bellwether states of Texas, California, and New York, CTE has now moved from a fringe actor to a central actor in U.S. education reform. Leaders across America are now tearing down the major inhibitors to engaging millennial learners, increasing academic performance of diverse student populations, and delivering graduates with knowledge and skills relevant to American prosperity. The organizing framework for this reform can be found within our existing schools, programs, teachers and students-a shift from S.T.E.M. to TEAMS-based academics that unify CTE, general academics, and the arts.

Lessons from our past
When our predecessors stood at the edge of the world and gazed at Sputnik orbiting, they did not respond with a narrow focus on science and mathematics (though rarely mentioned in historical accounts). The vanguard of military strategy-education, strategic weapons and technology forecasting-responded by advocating the expansion of military training, education, and learning to include unified classical and technical education.

Brigadier Gen. Robert F. McDermott, the founding dean of the U.S. Air Force Academy was the first teacher to use a computer to teach astronauts space physics. A student of classical education from the K-12 Latin School in Boston-to-Harvard, McDermott built the U.S. Air Force Academy programs on the integration of technical, scientific and mathematical education with classical studies such as philosophy, history, economics, and the arts.

Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, who gave the famous “space speech” prior to the launch of the Sputnik, and Francis X. Kane of the U.S. Air Force supported McDermott’s pursuits. The last survivor, Kane, who is president of the Schriever Institute, continues to advocate the importance of both technical and academic learning in his speeches about Mars and the imperative for an American educational renaissance to support human development necessary for the mission.

This renaissance, according to Kane, focuses on the integration of academic disciplines, the integration of thinking and doing in real world contexts, the integration of vocational and academic practice, and the integration of a global perspectives and languages into US curricula. Kane points out that competition is important; however, if there is to be hope for peace and prosperity-not to mention colonization of Mars-global collaboration will work hand-in-hand with technological innovation.
 
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