[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
INNOVATION IN EDUCATION THROUGH BUSINESS AND EDUCATIONAL STEM
PARTNERSHIPS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND LABOR
U.S. House of Representatives
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
HEARING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, JULY 22, 2008
__________
Serial No. 110-103
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Education and Labor
Available on the Internet:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/house/education/index.html
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43-470 PDF WASHINGTON DC: 2008
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COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR
GEORGE MILLER, California, Chairman
Dale E. Kildee, Michigan, Vice Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon,
Chairman California,
Donald M. Payne, New Jersey Senior Republican Member
Robert E. Andrews, New Jersey Thomas E. Petri, Wisconsin
Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott, Virginia Peter Hoekstra, Michigan
Lynn C. Woolsey, California Michael N. Castle, Delaware
Ruben Hinojosa, Texas Mark E. Souder, Indiana
Carolyn McCarthy, New York Vernon J. Ehlers, Michigan
John F. Tierney, Massachusetts Judy Biggert, Illinois
Dennis J. Kucinich, Ohio Todd Russell Platts, Pennsylvania
David Wu, Oregon Ric Keller, Florida
Rush D. Holt, New Jersey Joe Wilson, South Carolina
Susan A. Davis, California John Kline, Minnesota
Danny K. Davis, Illinois Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington
Raul M. Grijalva, Arizona Kenny Marchant, Texas
Timothy H. Bishop, New York Tom Price, Georgia
Linda T. Sanchez, California Luis G. Fortuno, Puerto Rico
John P. Sarbanes, Maryland Charles W. Boustany, Jr.,
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania Louisiana
David Loebsack, Iowa Virginia Foxx, North Carolina
Mazie Hirono, Hawaii John R. ``Randy'' Kuhl, Jr., New
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania York
John A. Yarmuth, Kentucky Rob Bishop, Utah
Phil Hare, Illinois David Davis, Tennessee
Yvette D. Clarke, New York Timothy Walberg, Michigan
Joe Courtney, Connecticut [Vacancy]
Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire
Mark Zuckerman, Staff Director
Sally Stroup, Republican Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on July 22, 2008.................................... 1
Statement of Members:
Altmire, Hon. Jason, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Pennsylvania, prepared statement of............... 6
McKeon, Hon. Howard P. ``Buck,'' Senior Republican Member,
Committee on Education and Labor........................... 4
Prepared statement of.................................... 5
McMorris Rodgers, Hon. Cathy, a Representative in Congress
from the State of Washington, prepared statement of........ 6
Miller, Hon. George, Chairman, Committee on Education and
Labor...................................................... 1
Prepared statement of.................................... 2
Additional submissions:
Prepared statement of the American College Testing
Program (ACT)...................................... 81
Prepared statement of Exxon Mobil Corp............... 82
Statement of Witnesses:
Chang, Dr. Ramona, director of curriculum, Torrance Unified
School District............................................ 14
Prepared statement of.................................... 16
Lovett, Melendy, senior vice president and president,
Education Technology, Texas Instruments.................... 47
Prepared statement of.................................... 49
Luce, Tom, chief executive officer, National Math and Science
Initiative................................................. 20
Prepared statement of.................................... 22
Mickelson, Phil, professional golfer and cofounder, Mickelson
ExxonMobil Teachers Academy................................ 9
Prepared statement of.................................... 11
Parravano, Dr. Carlo, executive director, Merck Institute for
Science Education.......................................... 31
Prepared statement of.................................... 32
Ride, Dr. Sally, president and CEO, Sally Ride Science....... 17
Prepared statement of.................................... 19
Sullivan, Patricia, education solutions executive, Global
Education Industry at IBM.................................. 37
Prepared statement of.................................... 39
Wells, Brian H., chief systems engineer, Raytheon Co......... 42
Prepared statement of.................................... 44
INNOVATION IN EDUCATION
THROUGH BUSINESS AND
EDUCATIONAL STEM PARTNERSHIPS
----------
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Education and Labor
Washington, DC
----------
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 2:04 p.m., in room
2175, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. George Miller
[chairman of the committee] presiding.
Present: Representatives Miller, Kildee, Hinojosa,
McCarthy, Holt, Susan Davis of California, Sarbanes, Yarmuth,
McKeon, Ehlers, Biggert and Kline.
Staff Present: Tylease Alli, Hearing Clerk; Alice Cain,
Senior Education Policy Advisor (K-12); Lynne Campbell,
Legislative Fellow for Education; Adrienne Dunbar, Education
Policy Advisor; Denise Forte, Director of Education Policy;
David Hartzler, Systems Administrator; Lloyd Horwich, Policy
Advisor, Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and
Secondary Education; Fred Jones, Staff Assistant, Education;
Deborah Koolbeck, Policy Advisor, Subcommittee on Healthy
Families and Communities; Ann-Frances Lambert, Special
Assistant to Director of Education Policy; Jessica Kahanek,
Press Assistant; Jill Morningstar, Education Policy Advisor;
Stephanie Moore, General Counsel; Alex Nock, Deputy Staff
Director; Joe Novotny, Chief Clerk; Rachel
Racusen,Communications Director; Meredith Regine, Junior
Legislative Associate, Labor; Dray Thorne, Senior Systems
Administrator; Margaret Young, Staff Assistant, Education; Mark
Zuckerman, Staff Director; Stephanie Arras, Minority
Legislative Assistant; James Bergeron, Minority Deputy Director
of Education and Human Services Policy; Robert Borden, Minority
General Counsel; Cameron Coursen, Minority Assistant
Communications Director; Alexa Marrero, Minority Communications
Director; Chad Miller, Minority Professional Staff; Susan Ross,
Minority Director of Education and Human Services Policy; and
Sally Stroup, Minority Staff Director.
Chairman Miller. The committee will come to order, a quorum
being present. Today we are conducting a hearing, and as soon
as we get the Chairman organized, we will continue. Today we
are conducting a hearing on Innovation in Education through
Business and Education STEM Partnerships. We will examine how
business-education partnerships are helping to drive innovation
and to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and math
education in our schools, fields that we know U.S. students
have been falling behind in for some time.
In May, this committee held a hearing on a recent report by
the National Mathematics Advisory Panel that found that our
Nation's system for teaching math is broken and must be fixed
if we are to maintain our competitive edge. During that hearing
we heard over and over again that we are not giving our
teachers the training and support needed to provide for
effective math instruction.
Simply put, we cannot expect our teachers to teach what
they themselves do not know. The panel recommends, among other
things, improving teacher training and professional
development, and providing ongoing support for teachers. I am a
firm believer that the best thing we can do to help our
children succeed in math, science, and every other subject is
to invest more in the success of their teachers.
One of our witnesses, John Castellani from the Business
Roundtable, captured it especially well. He said that expanding
the talent pool of Americans with a firm grounding in math and
science is a critical element to the innovation agenda that our
Nation needs to pursue in order to remain competitive in the
21st century.
The business community is playing an important role in this
effort, and today we will hear directly from some of the
business leaders who are paving the way in these and other
exciting initiatives to bring STEM education to the next level.
For example, Texas Instruments has created a Math Scholars
program that uses technology to improve the professional
development of math and science teachers.
ExxonMobil has partnered with Phil and Amy Mickelson to
work on closing the math and science achievement gap between
U.S. students and their international peers. The Phil Mickelson
ExxonMobil Teachers Academy provides teachers of third-,
fourth-, and fifth-graders with the professional development
training, knowledge, and skills needed to boost students'
interest in math and science careers.
The National Math and Science Initiative is working with
States to increase the number of students taking and passing AP
courses, and expanding the highly successful UTeach program,
which encourages math and science majors to become teachers. We
will hear from these and a number of other programs that have
been absolutely critical to improving and exposing teachers to
the best knowledge, to the best methods to help them teach
their students, and to provide the fundamental foundation and
the basis by which those teachers can then proceed--or those
individuals and teachers can proceed to a career in math,
science, and engineering, or in the teaching of math, science,
and engineering.
And I would like to welcome all of the witnesses to this
committee, and I would like now to yield to Mr. McKeon, the
senior Republican on the committee, for his opening statement.
[The statement of Mr. Miller follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. George Miller, Chairman, Committee on
Education and Labor
Good afternoon. Welcome to our hearing on ``Innovation in Education
through Business and Education STEM Partnerships.''
Today we will examine how business-education partnerships are
helping drive innovation and strengthen science, technology,
engineering, and math education in our schools--fields that we know
U.S. students have been falling behind in for some time now.
In May, this Committee held a hearing on a recent report by the
National Mathematics Advisory Panel that found that our nation's system
for teaching math is ``broken and must be fixed'' if we are to maintain
our competitive edge.
During that hearing, we heard over and over again that we are not
giving our teachers the training and support needed to provide
effective math instruction.
Simply put, we cannot expect our teachers to teach what they
themselves do not know.
The panel recommends, among other things, improving teacher
training and professional development and providing ongoing support for
teachers.
I am a firm believer that the best thing we can do to help our
children succeed in math, science, and every other subject is to invest
more in the success of their teachers.
One of our witnesses, John Castellani of the Business Roundtable,
captured it especially well. He said that expanding the talent pool of
Americans with a firm grounding in math and science is a critical
element of the innovation agenda that our nation needs to pursue in
order to remain competitive in the 21st century.
The business community can--and should--play a key role in this
effort.
As he went on to highlight, there are many innovative examples of
how businesses are teaming up with the education sector to bolster math
and science education.
For example, Texas Instruments has created a Math Scholars program
that uses technology to improve the professional development of math
and science teachers. The company has also partnered with the CBS
television show NUMBERS, which features a mathematician working with
his FBI agent brother to solve crimes.
ExxonMobil has partnered with Phil and Amy Mickelson to work on
closing the math and science achievement gap between U.S. students and
their international peers.
The Phil Mickelson Exxon Mobil Teachers Academy provides teachers
of third, fourth, and fifth graders with the professional development
training, knowledge and skills needed to boost students' interest in
math and science careers.
And the National Math and Science Initiative is working with states
to increase the number of students taking and passing AP courses, and
to expand the highly-successful UTeach program, which encourages math
and science majors to become teachers.
Today we will hear directly from some of the business leaders who
are paving the way for these and other exciting initiatives that will
bring STEM education to the next level.
At a time when other countries are stepping up to the plate to
challenge our nation's global leadership, the National Math Panel's
Report was a sobering wake-up call.
Over the past two years, this Congress has taken important first
steps to invest in and strengthen math and science education.
Last year we enacted the America COMPETES Act, which improves
teacher education in STEM fields, and establishes public private
partnerships between colleges and businesses to educate and train
mathematicians, scientists and engineers, among other things.
We also enacted TEACH Grants that provide up-front tuition
assistance of $4,000 each year for outstanding students who commit to
teaching math, science, and other high-need subjects in high need
schools--a benefit that students will start receiving this fall.
But, as the math panel's report reminds us, there is still a great
deal of work ahead.
For starters, both the business community and Congress must re-
double our efforts to do all we can to make strong math and science
education a focal point in our schools.
I hope that today's hearing helps continue to drive the
comprehensive, systemic reforms and investments that we know are needed
to truly improve math and science education in this country.
Thank you.
______
Mr. McKeon. Good afternoon, Chairman Miller, and let me
extend a warm welcome to our distinguished panel of witnesses
here today.
In May of this year, our committee held a hearing on the
important findings of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel.
Today's hearing is the natural successor to what we learned in
May, because business and education partnerships are essential
to carrying out the math panel's recommendations on how best to
advance the teaching and learning of mathematics. Even more
broadly, these business partnerships are critical to enhancing
educational opportunity in all the STEM fields, which include
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The No Child Left Behind Act was built on one simple goal,
that every child in America must be able to read and do math at
grade level. We recognize that proficiency in reading and math
are necessary in order for our students to thrive in more
advanced subjects, including physics, engineering, computer
science, and all the STEM fields. Unfortunately, too few
American students are getting the strong educational foundation
they need to succeed in a technology-driven economy. A large
majority of secondary school students fail to reach proficiency
in math and science, and many are taught by teachers lacking
adequate subject matter knowledge.
Worse still, we are falling behind our international peers.
In a recent international assessment of 15-year-old students,
the U.S. ranked 28th in math literacy, and 24th in science
literacy. The U.S. ranks 20th among all nations in the
proportion of 24-year-olds who earn degrees in natural science
or engineering.
Here in Washington, we clearly recognize the need to
enhance student achievement in the STEM fields. In fact, there
seems to be no shortage of Federal programs and funding streams
focused on STEM advancement. A 2005 study by the Government
Accountability Office found that 207 distinct Federal STEM
education programs appropriated nearly $3 billion in fiscal
year 2004.
We are creating the programs and spending the money, but
student achievement is not yet where we need it to be. What
this tells me is that Federal investment alone is not enough to
spur innovation and advancement. We need buy-in from
stakeholders at all levels, from States and local school
boards, to nonprofits and business leaders.
Today I am pleased we have the opportunity to hear directly
from one group of stakeholders I just mentioned, the business
community. In schools all around the country, business leaders
are at the forefront in building a strong educational system.
From providing resources for individual schools to mobilizing
community support for policy initiatives, to training teachers
and students in new skills and technologies as they arise,
today's business leaders can and do play a vital role.
What business leaders have come to recognize is that
America's future economic competitiveness and long-term success
depends on our students receiving a high-quality education from
elementary, middle, and high schools to postsecondary schools.
This will enable our country to produce a skilled workforce,
continue as a leader in research and development, respond
effectively to globalization and technology changes, and grow
economically. America's business community deserves a great
deal of credit for recognizing the importance of education and
investing accordingly.
I look forward to hearing about some of the specific
approaches being used today, and exploring opportunities for
expanded partnerships into the future. Once again, I want to
thank our witnesses for being here to discuss this important
topic, and I look forward to your testimony.
Thank you, Chairman Miller, and I yield back.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. McKeon follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon, Senior Republican
Member, Committee on Education and Labor
Good afternoon Chairman Miller, and let me extend a warm welcome to
our distinguished panel of witnesses.
In May of this year, our Committee held a hearing on the report and
findings of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. Today's hearing is
a natural successor to what we learned in May, because business and
education partnerships are essential to carrying out the Math Panel's
recommendations on how best to advance the teaching and learning of
mathematics.
Even more broadly, these business partnerships are critical to
enhancing educational opportunity in all the STEM fields, which include
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
The No Child Left Behind Act was built on one simple goal: that
every child in America must be able to read and do math at grade level.
We recognize that proficiency in reading and math are necessary in
order for our students to thrive in more advanced subjects, including
physics, engineering, computer science, and all the STEM fields.
Unfortunately, too few American students are getting the strong
educational foundation they need to succeed in our technology-driven
economy. A large majority of secondary school students fail to reach
proficiency in math and science, and many are taught by teachers
lacking adequate subject matter knowledge.
Worse still, we're falling behind our international peers. In a
recent international assessment of 15-year-old students, the U.S.
ranked 28th in math literacy and 24th in science literacy. The U.S.
ranks 20th among all nations in the proportion of 24-year-olds who earn
degrees in natural science or engineering.
Here in Washington, we clearly recognize the need to enhance
student achievement in the STEM fields. In fact, there seems to be no
shortage of federal programs and funding streams focused on STEM
advancement. A 2005 study by the Government Accountability Office found
that 207 distinct federal STEM education programs were appropriated
nearly $3 billion in FY2004.
We're creating the programs and spending the money, but student
achievement is not yet where we need it to be.
What this tells me is that federal investment alone is not enough
to spur innovation and advancement. We need buy-in from stakeholders at
all levels, from states and local school boards to non-profits and
business leaders.
Today, I'm pleased that we have the opportunity to hear directly
from one group of stakeholders I just mentioned, the business
community. In schools all around the country, business leaders are at
the forefront in building a stronger educational system.
From providing resources for individual schools, to mobilizing
community support for policy initiatives, to training teachers and
students in new skills and technologies as they arise, today's business
leaders can and do play a vital role.
What business leaders have come to recognize is that America's
future economic competitiveness and long-term success depends on our
students receiving a high quality education, from elementary, middle,
and high schools to post secondary schools. This will enable our
country to produce a skilled workforce, continue as a leader in
research and development, respond effectively to globalization and
technology changes, and grow economically.
America's business community deserves a great deal of credit for
recognizing the importance of education and investing accordingly. I
look forward to hearing about some of the specific approaches being
used today, and exploring opportunities for expanded partnerships into
the future
Once again, I want to thank our witnesses for being here to discuss
this important topic. I look forward to your testimony. Thank you
Chairman Miller, and I yield back.
______
Chairman Miller. And all Members will be entitled to submit
a written statement as part of the committee record.
[The statement of Mr. Altmire follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Jason Altmire, a Representative in Congress
From the State of Pennsylvania
Thank you, Chairman Miller, for holding this important hearing on
ways to promote innovation in education through business and education
STEM partnerships.
Today's 21st century economy requires increased levels of
understanding of engineering and technology fields. The foundation for
this learning is math and science, but the U.S. is falling behind. In
2006, the average score of American students on the Program for
International Student Assessment (PISA) was below that of 31 other
countries. For our country to remain competitive in the global economy,
we need to provide every student with, at the very minimum, a basic
understand of math and science. If we prepare our kids now, then they
will have the skills and interest to go on to careers in technology and
engineering. We made a good first step when this Congress passed the
COMPETES Act. Now we must ensure that the programs it created are fully
funded and implemented.
I am encouraged by the formation of partnerships between the
business and education communities that focus on strengthening STEM
education and support programs for teachers and I look forward to
learning more about them at today's hearing.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing. I yield
back the balance of my time.
______
[The statement of Mrs. McMorris Rodgers follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Representative in
Congress From the State of Washington
Thank you Chairman Miller and Ranking Member McKeon. I thank our
many witnesses for being here today to discuss the importance of
partnerships between the business community and education system to
strengthen the impact of Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) education.
Our economy is growing more diverse and increasingly global.
American competitiveness and ingenuity depend on a skilled workforce
that reflects the needs of our economy. I am pleased groups like the
National Math and Science Initiative, IBM, and the Mickelson ExxonMobil
Teachers Academy are reaching out to our nation's students to grow
their interest in math and science.
In order for our nation to remain competitive, our schools must
continue to cultivate female scientists, technologists, engineers, and
mathematicians from every background and neighborhood to cultivate the
innovations of tomorrow. There are, unfortunately, a disproportionately
low number of female students pursuing careers in STEM fields and it is
crucial we focus special attention on increasing the participation of
women. I applaud Dr. Ride for her time and work in motivating young
girls and women so hopefully one day we can increase the numbers of
women who make vital contributions in STEM fields.
This process must start in the schools, making sure students have
been taught adequate skills before entering the workforce. In order to
do so, we need to work collaboratively with the education and business
communities to ensure students are prepared to enter the workforce with
the necessary education, skills and training to be successful. We also
need to improve the connection between what is taught in our classrooms
and how it impacts our every day life. Unfortunately today, most kids
in the United Stated graduate from high school with little
understanding of how they will use math or science outside the
classroom. That needs to change if we are to produce the next
generation of innovators.
I am pleased the College Opportunity and Affordability Act will
include a program to allow qualified professionals, as adjunct content
specialists, to bring their real world experience into the classroom.
Adjunct content specialists are a critical step in making this
practical application connection. This program would make it easier for
qualified individuals to take time out from their career to go into the
classroom to share their expertise and real world experience. This will
show students how what they learn is critical to their future. This is
made possible when successful people like Bill Gates come into the
classroom to teach computer science to the next generation of young
minds.
Adjunct content specialists could be hired to address one or more
subject areas on a part-time basis through distance learning
arrangements, or provide instruction full-time while on leave from
their jobs. This kind of flexibility will allow school districts to
address specific needs within their schools to bolster math, science,
and foreign language education.
To meet the demands of an increasingly technologically advanced,
global marketplace we must improve the skills and training of our
nation's workforce. We must do all we can to prepare our kids for the
opportunities life presents them. If we equip them with skills in high
demand fields, America will continue to lead in innovation and
excellence.
Thank you and I look forward to hearing from the witnesses about
these partnerships that are being fostered around the country.
______
Chairman Miller. With that, I would like to introduce our
panel. I want to again thank you for your time and for your
expertise in coming before this committee. First, I would like
to introduce Phil Mickelson, who is known throughout the world
and to, I think, everybody in this room as one of the all-time
leading golfers on the PGA Tournament. And he ranks second
among active players and 13th all time with 34 career wins, and
has given us a lot of excitement on Saturday and Sunday
afternoons. And thank you so much for taking time out of your
busy schedule to be here.
But he is here because he and his wife Amy have partnered
with ExxonMobil to create the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers
Academy. They have also created the Phil and Amy Mickelson
Foundation, which focuses on children and families in need. In
September, Phil and Amy will host their fourth annual
SmartStart program, which invites 5,000 San Diego elementary
children on a back-to-school shopping spree. The foundation
donated $750,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts relating
to education.
Ramona Chang began her educational career in 1982 as a
special education elementary teacher in grades K through five
in southern California. She later served as the assistant
principal and then principal, and she focused on using student
data to guide teachers' classroom practices. In 2004, Dr. Chang
became the Director of Curriculum for the Torrance Unified
School District, overseeing professional development and
curriculum implementation for both teachers and administrators.
Dr. Chang has participated in the Mickelson ExxonMobil Math and
Science Teachers Academy, I think, for 4 years. Is that
correct, Dr. Chang? And we welcome you to the committee.
Sally Ride almost needs no introduction. She is an amazing
woman, with amazing credentials and achievement. She was the
first American woman to travel in space. Selected as an
astronaut candidate in 1978, Ms. Ride served as a mission
specialist on several space shuttle flight crews, and Special
Assistant to the Administrator for Long-Range and Strategic
Planning at NASA. As a longtime advocate of science education,
she founded Sally Ride Science in 2001 to motivate girls and
young women to pursue careers in the STEM fields. This company
creates engaging science material for elementary and middle-
school students, parents and teachers, and partners with
leading universities to offer innovative hands-on science camps
for girls entering fourth through the ninth grade. Ms. Ride has
also written five science books for children, and has served on
a number of boards, including the President's Committee of
Advisors on Science and Technology. She is also the recipient
of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, and has been
inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
Tom Luce is the CEO of National Math and Science
Initiative. Mr. Luce previously served as Assistant Secretary
of the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at
the U.S. Department of Education, Chair of the Texas National
Research Laboratory Commission, and chief of staff for the
Texas Select Committee on Public Education. He was cofounder of
the National Center for Education Accountability, the sponsor
of the Just for Kids School Improvement Model, and has served
as chairman of the board until 2005. He also founded the
Communities Just for the Kids. He is the recipient of the
Center for Nonprofit Management Social Entrepreneur Award and
the Dallas Historical Society Excellence in Community Service
Award.
Carlo Parravano will be introduced by my colleague from New
Jersey, Mr. Holt.
Mr. Holt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And joining our
distinguished panel today is Carlo Parravano, who has had a
distinguished career as a researcher, educated at Oberlin
College, and with a Ph.D. from the University of California at
Santa Cruz. He has applied physical chemistry techniques to the
solution of biochemical and environmental problems. For the
past 15 years, I have gotten to know him as the head of one of
the best corporate science programs in the United States, the
Merck Institute for Science Education.
Merck, a leading research company, understands that its
future depends on the skills and talents of a trained
workforce. And going beyond its own workforce, Merck has taken
the challenge of general science education, understanding that
investment in science is important not just to--to improve the
quality of the lives of Americans and to improve the overall
economy and our ability to meet the future. Merck has focused
on developing curiosity in children, developing the science
education to build on that curiosity, and to prepare children
to deal with the modern world.
Carlo Parravano has done an excellent job, and I think we
will benefit from hearing about the experience of the Merck
Institute.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Ms. Patty Sullivan is the Education Solutions Executive for
IBM's Global Education Industry. Her responsibilities include
overseeing IBM's partnership with both higher-education
institutions and K-12 school districts. She leads efforts to
create offerings responsive to the education industry's needs
which combine IBM's products and services with those from other
companies and public organizations. Ms. Sullivan joined IBM in
1982 as a sales trainee in Anchorage, Alaska, and has held
various technical and marketing positions since then.
Brian Wells is the Raytheon Chief Systems Engineer and
Senior Principal Engineering Fellow within the Raytheon
corporate engineering organization. Prior to this assignment,
he was the technical director of the Future Naval Capabilities
organization and the Raytheon Chief Engineer for the next
generation aircraft carrier warfare systems development
program. You don't have to repeat that too often, do you? He
has held a number of management positions, including manager of
the Systems Engineer Center for the PATRIOT systems engineering
manager, and manager of the Missile Concept and Design
Department. So you are deep into engineering and math. All
right. Thank you for being here.
Melendy Lovett is a Senior Vice President of Texas
Instruments and President of the company's worldwide Education
Technology business, which focuses on market-leading
educational technology to improve teaching and learning of math
and science. Previously Ms. Lovett was the vice president of
the company's human resources organization, where she was
responsible for Texas Instruments' worldwide compensation and
benefits program. Ms. Lovett has established and leads an
initiative of women who work for Texas Instruments, women who
are working to improve math and science education for girls in
elementary and high school.
Thank you all for being here.
We are going to begin, Mr. Mickelson, with you. And when
you begin speaking, a green light will go on in front of you.
That will tell you you have 5 minutes. We will be a little
liberal with that time, because we want to hear what you have
to say. Your written statements will be put in the record in
their entirety. To the extent to which you can summarize them,
we will keep you within that 5 minutes. After 4 minutes, an
orange light will go on. That might suggest you might want to
sum up unless you think it is terribly valuable to keep going.
But at some point I am going to rein you in because a couple of
people do have--have been nice enough to make their time
available, and they do have flight commitments, and we want to
hear from the entire panel. It has taken us some time to
assemble this panel. We are delighted that you have all joined
us.
And, Mr. Mickelson, we will begin with you.
STATEMENT OF PHIL MICKELSON, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER AND COFOUNDER,
MICKELSON EXXONMOBIL TEACHERS ACADEMY
Mr. Mickelson. Well, thank you, Chairman.
Chairman Miller. And your microphone is--you got to click
it once.
Mr. Mickelson. Thank you, Chairman Miller, and members of
the committee.
Chairman Miller. Excuse me, before we start, some might
wonder why you are here. So we are going show a video. One
minute. [Video played.]
That is why you are all here today. I was watching this
commercial, and I said, damn, there must be something I can do
with this. And it wasn't about improving my golf swing. I just
thought that--if kids could start to understand the concepts
that were involved there, and that could engage them in some
way to think about how to figure this all out, not only would
they be on the PGA tour, but they would then hopefully have
some doors, some windows opened into mathematics and science
and all that it presents to us in our daily lives. So you are
here.
Mr. Mickelson. Well, if you could help inspire them in the
math and sciences as opposed to your golf game, that would be
appreciated.
Chairman Miller. I have never inspired anything with my
golf game. Everybody wants to play with me because they know
they will do better.
Mr. Mickelson. Chairman Miller and members of the
committee, I want to thank you for the opportunity for my wife
and I to be here to discuss the importance of math and science
education in America. This is a very important topic for us. It
means a lot to us because of our great love that we have for
our children and our great love that we have for our country.
And we have been fortunate that our parents and our teachers
instilled the importance in education in us as youngsters.
So I think this was most evident for me personally when I
was a junior in college. I won a PGA Tour event, and I had an
opportunity to go out on the tour right away and sign lucrative
contracts, but instead I chose to finish the last year and a
half of school to get my degree. And I think that this
importance of education was instilled in me, again, by my
teachers and by my parents.
But a few years ago I was playing golf, and the people I
was playing with made me aware of this report that showed the
alarming trend and told me, explained to me how serious this
trend was in the declining graduates that we have in the math
and science, engineering fields. In fact, in the last 3 years
our graduates, only 15 percent were in the science and
engineering field, as opposed to Singapore with 67 percent, and
China with 50 percent. And so this is a very alarming trend
because it threatens us as a global leader.
And so Amy and I wanted to set out to try to reverse this
trend, and it worked out perfectly because the ExxonMobil
Foundation has had a long history and commitment to education.
And so we formed a partnership to form the Mickelson ExxonMobil
Math and Science Teachers Academy. And the goal here was to
target third- through fifth-grade teachers, where the kids are
still wide-eyed and open to new ideas; they are not set on math
isn't cool. They are still open to these ideas. And we wanted
to give these teachers new, innovative ways, innovative tools
to inspire their children. And so we bring them in for a week-
long session with the National Science Teachers Association and
Math Solutions providing the curriculum as well as the staff,
and we are able to give these teachers the techniques they need
to go back to the classroom and inspire their kids.
And so we are proud to say that this is our fourth year. We
have had 1,400 teachers go through this program, and of that
1,400, they can reach obviously their own students, but they
are also going and reaching their fellow teachers, sharing with
them these new techniques. And in addition, we have set up a
platform where they can interact with each other, share ideas,
share stories, and share new information and techniques as
well. So we feel like this has a far-outreaching platform.
Amy and I have been stealing some of these techniques for
our own kids, because it is important that we again lead by
example. And so we have an opportunity to take advantage of one
of the biggest challenges of playing the PGA Tour, which is
travel, and turn it into a positive. And we do this with my
wife. My wife Amy takes our kids--we have two girls and a boy,
and she takes them to every educational opportunity that each
city has to offer. So we will go to museums, the natural
history museum, we will go to aquariums, we will go to zoos,
science exhibits, and inspire our kids in the sciences this
way. In fact, the ``Bodies'' exhibition, where you see the
internal organs, the internal parts of your body, was a great
way for us to deter our kids from difficult social challenges.
So we showed them what a healthy lung looks like relative to a
smoker's lung, and what a healthy liver looks like relative to
an alcoholic's liver. And so they walked out of that exhibit
saying, I will never drink or smoke. And so we have been able
to use science as a way of incorporating difficult social
issues and helping them make great decisions.
I would like to share one story, because I think it is
funny, and it encompasses how we use science and math every
day, whether we are aware of it or not. And my favorite story
is about my caddy Bones. And Bones was going through college,
and he had a difficult time passing this math class. And he
studied for weeks because he needed to pass this math class to
get his degree. He studied for weeks for the exam, hours and
hours, and he got to the exam, opened the book and realized
after seeing the first two questions there was no way that he
was going to pass this test. So he implored his teacher with
this heartfelt note talking about how he promises that if he
can find it in his heart to give him a D, he will never use
math in his job again.
Well, as I came out on Tour a couple years in, I was
playing the Atlanta Classic, and I am walking down the fairway,
and this guy starts yelling at me from the gallery, saying,
``you lied to me, you lied to me.'' Only he wasn't yelling at
me, he was yelling at Bones because Bones was adding up the
yardage, and it was his math teacher.
So whether we are aware of it or not, we use math and
science every day. And that is why Amy and I have become so
passionate about this program, and why we are so excited about
the success we have had. Although it is not immediate and we
don't see the results right away, we know that 15, 20, 30 years
down the road, these young students will be our solvers of
today's problems.
Thank you.
Chairman Miller. Thank you very much.
[The statement of Mr. Mickelson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Phil Mickelson, Professional Golfer and
Cofounder, Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy
Congressman Miller, members of the committee, thank you for having
me here today to discuss the importance of math and science education.
While it may be my role as a professional golfer that got me an
invitation to this witness table today, it's my role as a parent that
drives me to support math and science education and tackle the growing
need to prepare the next generation of scientists and engineers.
Parents play a crucial role in underscoring the value of education
to their children. Since I can remember, my parents instilled in me the
importance of my education while showing an unwavering support of my
golf career. They were there to share with me the thrill of winning my
first major title at the Northern Telecom Open in 1991 as an amateur,
while continuing to insist that I complete my degree in psychology.
As a parent now, my wife Amy and I recognize the role we play in
instilling in our kids the value of education while inspiring their
natural curiosity about the world around them. And it's largely through
math and science that our children explore their surroundings and
discover what interests them.
Several summers ago, our daughter Amanda was given the opportunity
to choose what summer camp she wanted to attend, and living in southern
California, her possibilities were endless.
She chose to go to science camp and she had the greatest week of
her life. She ended up being the only girl in the entire camp and had
the opportunity to dissect a squid and write her name in the ink. It
was an experience that has propelled her interest in science, and we
hope that she will continue to embrace it.
As we travel across the country for the PGA tournament, we often
visit museums along the way, stopping to visit exhibits like Bodies--
The Exhibition in Phoenix, the Rainforest exhibit at the Dallas World
Aquarium and the Rose Center at the American Museum of Natural History
in New York. We continue to find ways to encourage our children's
education, and strive to take advantage of the teachable moments with
math and science.
And I recognize that it's my role as a professional golfer that has
given me the opportunity to give back and support education initiatives
across the country. Amy and I support a broad range of educational
programs through our foundation, but math and science education are at
the forefront our of education support.
A few years ago, I was playing golf with some key business leaders
who told me that the number of science and engineering graduates had
been dropping in the United States, while rising rapidly in other
countries. Recognizing that our status as a scientific leader in the
world is at jeopardy unless something is done to address this issue, my
wife Amy and I committed ourselves to finding a way to way to help
develop the next generation of science-savvy citizens and reverse this
trend.
After doing some additional research about the conversation we'd
had on the golf course that day, Amy and I were startled by the
statistics.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
had ranked the math skills of students in Hong Kong, Finland and South
Korea at the top of the list, while U.S. teens ranked 28th out of the
40 countries evaluated.
According to National Center for Education Statistics, 93%
of students in grades 5-9 were taught physical science by a teacher
lacking a major or certification in the physical sciences (chemistry,
geology, general science, or physics).
According to the National Center for Education Statistics,
less than \1/3\ of U.S. 4th and 8th grade students performed at a
proficient level in mathematics and even \1/3\ of 4th graders and \1/5\
of 8th graders lacked competence to perform basic math functions.
Additional studies, including the National Academies of Science
report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, illustrated the immense
challenges we face in order to bolster our education in math and
science to maintain our competitive advantage.
In their report, the blue-ribbon panel with the National Academies
of Science found that:
Only 29 percent of 4th grade students, 32 percent of 8th
grade students, and 18 percent of 12th grade students performed at or
above the proficient level in science;
Almost 30 percent of high school mathematics students and
60 percent of those enrolled in physical science have teachers who
either did not major in the subject in college or are not certified to
teach it;
The U.S. ranks 16th of 17 nations in the proportion of 24-
year-olds who earn degrees in natural science or engineering as opposed
to other majors; and,
Those undergraduates who switch from science and
engineering majors to other majors ``are often among the most highly
qualified college entrants, and they are disproportionately women and
students of color.''
Amy and I knew we wanted to do something to support math and
science education, but we also knew that in order to have the impact we
were looking for, we couldn't do it alone. We wanted to find partners
that had taken the lead in supporting math and science initiatives and
were committed to developing the next generation of science-savvy
citizens.
At the time, I was in discussions with ExxonMobil regarding their
sponsoring me as a PGA player. As I learned more about the company that
I would be working with, I was encouraged to hear more about
ExxonMobil's long-standing commitment to supporting education and their
dedication to developing opportunities to contribute to education
initiatives, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and math
(STEM) from pre-school through college.
As a company, ExxonMobil has been a pioneer in developing and
supporting math and science programs through such influential
organizations as the National Science Teachers Association and the
Mathematics Association of America.
And as the employer to more than 14,000 scientists and engineers, I
knew that ExxonMobil had a vested interest in encouraging the next
generation to pursue careers in math- and science-related fields. So as
part of my sponsorship, we began to discuss ways we could work together
to develop a program to address this critical issue.
While there are a broad range of areas that we could support, we
wanted to address one of the most importance pieces of the education
picture: teachers. As parents, Amy and I believe that continually
improving the methods by which teachers are trained will have a great
impact on the science and math education students receive--and as a
result, their future employment prospects.
Along with ExxonMobil, we enlisted the support of the National
Science Teachers Association and Math Solutions to develop a program
and curriculum to address critical needs in math and science education.
As the program began to take shape, we knew we wanted the program to
accomplish several key objectives.
Our key goal was to support elementary-level teachers to ensure
they were equipped and prepared to establish a solid foundation of math
and science education for students at an early age. Third- through
fifth-grade is a crucial stage in educational development of children.
Children in this age group begin to form ideas mentally and group
things together. In addition, their next level of mental development is
sequencing and ordering, preparing the way for math skills, and making
them an ideal group to focus on in order to inspire interest in math
and science.
So we worked together with NSTA and Math Solutions and designed a
professional development program that gives teachers the opportunity to
take a fresh look at math and science by designing a curriculum that
helped them fully understand math and science concepts through hands-on
learning. Hands-on demonstrations and exercises not only help to bring
math and science concepts to life, but also work to pique the teachers'
natural curiosity and awaken their sense of inquiry and problem-
solving, also helping them to see these concepts through their
students' perspective.
We developed a program to allow teachers to network with teachers
like themselves and share best practices; to give them a forum to build
off of each other's passion for teaching.
We designed a program that helps teachers relate math and science
to students' everyday lives and help them to recognize that math and
science is everywhere.
Because math and science is everywhere. Even in my golf game. I use
math and science every day, and it's not just adding yardages to the
pin. I actually practice based on statistics. I use course management
based on numbers.
For instance, I know that my margin of error is plus or minus 5 or
6 percent. So if I have a 200 yard shot, 6 percent of that is going to
be 32 yards off line--that's going to be my margin of error.
And there's even more science involved in equipment I use. Launch
angles, spin rate, loft, deflection, initial velocity, the transfer of
energy. I continually work with companies like Callaway and some of the
most technical design processes to optimize the performance of my
clubs.
And in our goal to equip teachers with effective tools they could
take back to their classrooms, I also enlisted the support of my short-
game instructor and former NASA engineer, Dave Pelz. Dave worked with
the Academy to develop a DVD of short classroom math and science
demonstrations that teachers could use to bring these subjects to life
for their students. Using commonly found objects, such as basketballs,
tennis balls, wood blocks and buckets, Dave was able to demonstrate how
kids themselves can build on their natural curiosity to learn math and
science concepts.
With these objectives in place, we launched the Academy in 2004 as
a week-long, all-expenses-paid professional development program to hone
the skills of teachers across the country. Since then, Amy and I have
received tremendous feedback from teachers to tell us what an
incredible impact the Academy had on their teaching.
We've heard stories about how the teachers have a newfound
confidence in their teaching based on their deeper understanding of the
math and science principles the Academy teaches. And when teachers are
confident about the material they are teaching, their students are more
comfortable in absorbing these concepts and principles.
Based on the overwhelmingly positive response to the Academy and
the demonstrated the need for these types of professional development
programs, within the first two years of the Academy, we expanded the
Academy from one, week-long academy to three week-long Academies: one
in Houston, one in Baton Rouge and this year, one in Jersey City New
Jersey at the Liberty Science Center.
To date, the Academy has prepared more than 1000 teachers to return
to their classrooms as ambassadors for math and science and inspire
their students in these subjects the same way that they themselves were
inspired at the Academy.
This year, we also expanded the opportunities for teachers from
across the country to attend the 2009 Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers
Academy in Liberty Science Center by launching sendmyteacher.com
At sendmyteacher.com, students can recognize their teacher for the
impact they have had on their lives and recommend that their teachers
apply for next summer's Academy. I would encourage students and third-
through fifth-grade teachers across the country to log on to
sendmyteacher.com to learn more about how they can work with us to
improve math and science education with a chance for those teachers to
attend next year's Academy.
Working with ExxonMobil and with organizations like the National
Science teachers Association and Math Solutions, we are continually
working toward improving math and science education in elementary
schools across this great country.
But so much more remains to be done.
We want to create a groundswell of passion for math and science
across America. To encourage teachers to inspire their students, to
pique their interest in the math and science so that they study, learn
and are interested in becoming an engineer, a scientist, a leader of
tomorrow. To ensure we are keeping our talent at home and keeping
America competitive.
While public-private partnerships are helping to pave the way to
improved math and science education across the country, I would
encourage congressional leaders to fund additional programs that
strengthen math and science education, provide teachers with additional
professional development opportunities and help ensure that the United
States remains the most innovative nation in the world.
It will take all of us working together to reverse this trend. Amy
and I have found great partners with ExxonMobil, the National Science
Teachers Association and Math Solutions, and I'm here today to
encourage more folks to get involved in supporting math and science
education
Thank you for your time.
______
Chairman Miller. Dr. Chang?
STATEMENT OF RAMONA CHANG, DIRECTOR OF CURRICULUM, TORRANCE
UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
Ms. Chang. Congressman Miller and honorable members of the
committee, it is with great pleasure that I am here today to
speak to you about the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy.
My name is Dr. Ramona Chang, and I am the Director of
Curriculum for Torrance Unified School District in Torrance,
California.
Our district, as well as other districts throughout the
country, face a difficult challenge. The curriculum standards
for our students have become more rigorous, and accountability
for both teachers and schools has increased exponentially.
Teachers must provide high-caliber learning experiences for our
students; however, all too often our teachers rely on scripted
textbook instructional outlines or uninspiring labs. If our
students are to become our future engineers, computer
scientists, mathematicians, and environmentalists, we need to
change the way we approach the teaching of math and science.
A systemic change in teaching requires ongoing powerful,
professional development in math and science. And through the
collaborative efforts of Phil and Amy, ExxonMobil, National
Science Teachers Association, and Math Solutions, an exemplary
professional academy for elementary educators has beenrealized.
As I reflect back on the past 3 years and 1 day, because I
had that yesterday, of our involvement with the academy, I am
amazed by the dynamic and exciting results that have been
achieved through the process. During our week at the academy,
our teachers, together with teachers from all over the United
States, collaboratively work together to focus on math and
science curriculum, with the resulting successful outcomes of
our students. With the academy week as our starting point for
our Torrance team, our teachers are able to continue their
professional development at their individual school sites as
they apply their new knowledge in their daily work with our
students.
An additional benefit of the academy has been the
development of teacher leadership. Their skills when they
return have been exercised in a variety of roles in terms of
district curriculum committees in fields that connect
themselves to math and science as well.
As an ever-growing team of academy teachers in Torrance, we
continue to meet at the district level in order to build new
learning experiences for each other. If you were to drop by one
of our sessions, you would see teachers experimenting with new
teaching strategies, all with the focus of continuously
increasing their effectiveness with science and math
instruction. Academy teachers have been taught to plan
creatively, teach constructively, and reflect objectively.
These skills rank in the proverbial priceless category for
educators.
Creating change one grade level at a time, although
commendable, could not ensure positive student outcomes through
an extended period of time. We learned that we needed to tap
into our academy experts in order to create a district-wide
math and science fervor. The first year cadre got that process
started by working together as a district leadership team,
focused on the alignment of State math content standards. We
meet on a regular basis for the purposes of learning, lesson
planning, and problem solving together. Since we already
represented several grade levels, these are third- through
fifth-grade teachers, we felt the next step was to develop more
vertical grade-level articulations, which we believed was
essential in laying the necessary groundwork for success in
subsequent math courses.
What we quickly realized was that our discussions needed to
include both middle and high school teachers. This resulted in
the development of a kindergarten to 12th grade--and that is
advanced placement calculus--teachers with us in the one room,
and we called ourselves the Math Achievement Committee.
Teacher committee members focus their attention on
examining the standards students are required to master,
planning more effective lessons, and solving the new challenges
of teaching. As a team, they determined which additional
professional learning would be helpful to assist them in
acquiring the necessary knowledge or skills. This has resulted
in a districtwide common focus and clear direction for
professional and student improvement in math and science.
At the end of this year's academy, we will have 36
educators that have had this wonderful experience. We have
enjoyed learning in wonderful facilities as well, such as this
year's academy at the Liberty Science Center. The quality
professional development that the academy provides is key for
supporting significant improvements in student learning and
professional learning of teachers.
Inquiry and reflection with other academy teachers has
changed the culture of our schools and district. As a group, we
have developed a mind-set that educators build intellectual
strength through a high level of rigor and depth. The
experience of the academy helped build that mind-set, and it is
that mind-set that will nurture and support our citizens of
tomorrow, our students of today.
Thank you.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Chang follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Ramona Chang, Director of Curriculum,
Torrance Unified School District
Congressman Miller and honorable members of the committee, it is
with great pleasure that I speak to you about the Mickelson ExxonMobil
Math and Science Teacher Academy. My name is Dr. Ramona Chang and I am
the Director of Curriculum for the Torrance Unified School District in
Torrance, California.
Our district, as well as other districts around the country, face
an extraordinary difficult challenge. The curriculum standards for our
students have become more rigorous and the accountability for both
teachers and schools has increased exponentially. Teachers must provide
high caliber learning experiences for our students, however all too
often our teachers rely on scripted textbook instructional outlines or
uninspiring labs. If our students are to become our future engineers,
computer scientists, mathematicians, and environmentalists, we need to
change the way we approach the teaching of math and science. A systemic
change in teaching requires on-going powerful professional development
in math and science.
Through the collaborative efforts of Phil and Amy Mickelson,
ExxonMobil, National Science Teachers Association and Math Solutions,
an exemplary professional academy for elementary educators has been
realized. As I reflect back on the past three years of our involvement
with the academy, I am amazed by the dynamic and exciting results that
have been achieved through the process!
During our week at the academy, our teachers, together with other
teachers from all over the United States, collaboratively work together
to focus on math and science curriculum and the resulting successful
student outcomes. With the academy week as our starting point, our
teachers are able to continue their professional learning at the
individual school site level, as they apply their new knowledge into
the daily work of their students. An additional benefit of the academy
is the development of teacher leadership skills as evidenced by
returning teachers assuming work on curriculum committees or site
professional development planning teams.
As an ever-growing team of academy teachers, we continue to meet at
the district level in order to build new learning experiences for each
other. If you were to drop by one of our sessions, you would see
teachers experimenting with new teaching strategies, all with a focus
of continuously increasing their effectiveness with science and math
instruction. Academy teachers have been taught how to plan creatively,
teach constructively, and reflect objectively. These skills rank in the
proverbial ``priceless'' category for educators.
Upon returning from the academy, one school team was so
enthusiastic that they wanted to create an institute similar to the one
they experienced the previous summer for all the third through fifth
grade students in their school (200 students). To do this they needed
funding, so they applied for, and were awarded, a Science Technology
Engineering and Math Pegasus grant from our local ExxonMobil Torrance
Refinery. In their application the teachers wrote, ``We are
enthusiastic and want to recreate a Science Institute similar to the
one experienced this summer where wonderment is encouraged and the
possibility of pursuing a career in Science is made a realization. If
the teachers are this excited, imagine how the students will feel!''
At this newly, teacher created, Future Scientists of America
Institute, the students have the opportunity to learn science content
and make connections between science and their own experiences in a
hands-on meaningful way. Each experience begins by engaging students in
a large group demonstration to pose an inquiry that will foster
scientific literacy. After each kickoff demonstration, students have
smaller sessions with their individual classroom teachers in order to
conduct further experiments, while recording their own reflections and
findings in their science journals. The Future Scientists of America
Institute will lead to further science exploration and the extension of
concepts and skills to new situations. By planning collaboratively
across the grade levels, teacher colleagues will be involved in the
selection of different experiments to conduct each year. Through the
Future Scientists of America Institute, the original Mickelson academy
teachers, together with eight other colleagues, will experience
firsthand the instructional approaches they will be using with their
own students. This project both improves the science learning of all
the students and deepens the teachers' content knowledge resulting in
better meeting the rigorous science academic standards.
However, creating change one grade level at a time, although
commendable, could not ensure positive student outcomes through an
extended period of time. We needed to tap into our academy ``experts''
in order to create a district-wide math and science fervor. The first
year cadre got the process started by working together as a district
leadership team, focused on the alignment of state math content
standards and math performance objectives. We met on a regular basis
for the purposes of learning, lesson planning and problem solving
together. Since we already represented several grade levels we felt the
next step was to develop vertical grade level articulation, which we
believed was essential in laying the necessary groundwork for success
in subsequent math courses. What we quickly realized was that our
discussions needed to also include middle and high school teachers.
This resulted in the development of a kindergarten to 12th grade
(Advance Placement Calculus) group of math teachers known as the Math
Achievement Committee. Teacher committee members focused their
attention on examining the standards students are required to master,
planning more effective lessons and solving the new challenges of
teaching. As a team, they determined which additional professional
learning would be helpful to assist them in acquiring the necessary
knowledge or skills. This has resulted in a district-wide common focus
and clear direction for professional and student improvement in math
and science.
At the end of this year's academy we will have 36 educators that
have had this wonderful experience. The quality professional
development that the academy provides is the key for supporting
significant improvements in student learning and professional learning
of teachers. The shared academy experience has fostered professional
collaboration throughout the district. Inquiry and reflection with
other academy teachers has changed the culture of our schools and
district.
As a group, we have developed a mindset that educators build
intellectual strength through a high level of rigor and depth. The
experiences of the academy helped build that mindset, and it is that
mindset that will nurture and support our citizens of tomorrow--our
students of today.
______
Chairman Miller. Dr. Ride?
STATEMENT OF SALLY K. RIDE, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER, SALLY RIDE SCIENCE
Ms. Ride. Mr. Chairman, distinguished Members, thank you
for the opportunity to testify today.
I would like to say a few words about the importance of
STEM education, the importance of encouraging girls and young
women to pursue their interests in STEM, because they do have
those interests, and briefly describe some of the STEM
education programs that my science education company, Sally
Ride Science, has undertaken, often in partnership with the
business community, many of whom are represented here today.
Carl Sagan once said it is suicidal to create a society
that depends on science and technology in which no one knows
anything about science and technology. And he was right, and
that is what we are approaching today. Science and technology
are the engines that drive our economy, and it is really ironic
that our society, that relies so much on science and technology
and got to be a world leader really through our ability to
innovate, to engineer, and to explore, now puts so little value
or emphasis on science education.
And you could ask why STEM education is important. It is
important, actually, for a variety of reasons. Of course, it is
critical that we inspire the next generation of rocket
scientists and environmental engineers and innovators, but it
is also critical to prepare the core of the future workforce,
whether they are caddies or whether they are people who work
for IBM and Raytheon, because the basic living-wage jobs
increasingly require STEM skills. And we need to prepare the
workforce of the future for the TIs, for the ExxonMobils, for
the Raytheons of the country.
But more broadly, it is critical to create a scientifically
literate citizenry. The issues that we deal with today, and are
increasingly surrounded by, increasingly have their roots in
science and technology, whether these are issues of the
environment, of climate change, of medical issues, medical
developments, whatever they might be. To be a responsible
citizen, to be able to vote intelligently and responsibly, and
to be able to make good decisions that affect your lives, the
kids of today are going to need a good background in science
and math, and we need to give them that background. We owe that
background to them.
Now, do we have a problem? Yes, we do. We have heard the
statistics. They are well documented. We are not graduating
enough scientists or engineers. Furthermore, we are not
graduating enough students with basic backgrounds in science
and math. And the number of women is still lagging behind the
number of men, particularly in physics, which is my field, and
engineering. Not enough are coming out of high school and
expressing interest as college first-year students in those
majors. So the problem starts before high school.
But the good news is, and I think Phil alluded to this, in
elementary school kids, still love science. There have been
studies, repeated about every 10 years by NCES, that survey
fourth graders, and consistently they find that 68 percent of
fourth-grade boys self-report that they like science; 66
percent of fourth-grade girls self-report that they like
science.
Now, there are two wonderful messages there. One is that in
fourth grade fully two-thirds of our kids still like science.
The schools haven't beaten it out of them yet. And the second
good message is that it is as many girls as boys. But then
starting at about fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, we
start to lose both the boys and the girls, but we lose girls in
greater numbers than boys. And it starts right there, and that
trend continues. By eighth grade, two times as many boys as
girls are likely to say they are considering careers in
science, and by 12th grade, five times as many boys as girls
are likely to consider--to say they will consider a career in
engineering.
So you can see that the drop-off begins there. And why? It
is not because of aptitude. It is not because of interest. It
tends to be the messages that our society sends to our kids
that science and math aren't cool; that maybe an 11-year-old
girl who says she wants to be an electrical engineer, still
today, even though there are no obstacles to her, gets a
different reaction from an 11-year-old boy who says the same
thing. And these are the things that kids at that age start to
internalize, and it starts to turn them away from science. They
may still be good at it, they may still like it, but they may
think it is not cool to pursue a career in science or math.
And that is what we need to change. We need to make it cool
again. We need to show them examples of a diverse group of
scientists and engineers, normal people, real people, men,
women, ethnic minorities who are involved in science and
engineering, who enjoy those careers. And we have to make the
connection to them that science is relevant to their daily
lives. And if they are interested in having an impact on their
world, and we know that many of the kids today are interested
in that, that they need--that science and engineering are an
excellent way to have an impact and to make a difference in the
world that we live in.
Thank you very much.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
[The statement of Dr. Ride follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Sally Ride, President and CEO,
Sally Ride Science
Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the Committee, thank you
for the opportunity to testify today. I would like to say a few words
about the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
(STEM) education; the importance of encouraging girls and young women
to pursue their natural interests in STEM; and some of the STEM
education programs that my company, Sally Ride Science, has
undertaken--often in partnership with both the public sector and
companies like those represented here today.
Carl Sagan once said ``It's suicidal to create a society that
depends on science and technology in which no one knows anything about
science and technology''. He was right. It's ironic that our society--a
society that relies on science and technology and achieved a position
of world leadership through its willingness and ability to innovate,
engineer, and explore--now puts so little value on science and so
little emphasis on science education.
Our schools and communities are developing the workforce that will
fuel our economy in the future. It's critical to provide that workforce
(today's students) the skills in science, math and technology that they
will need to compete globally.
Why is STEM education important? First, of course, it is essential
in inspiring and educating the next generation of rocket scientists,
environmental engineers, and innovators. But STEM education is also
important to prepare the core of our future workforc. Good, basic,
living wage jobs will increasingly require STEM skills. Even more
broadly, STEM education is critical to the creation of a scientifically
literate citizenry. The issues that we deal with on a daily basis are
increasingly rooted in science and technology. The students of today
will have to have a background in STEM simply to understand issues
related to health care, the environment, energy resources, etc.; their
understanding of these issues will affect their ability to make
decisions that affect their lives and communities directly.
Do we have a problem? The answer, which is well-documented
elsewhere, is ``yes''. We're not graduating enough scientists and
engineers in this country; nor are we graduating enough students with
even knowledge of science. Furthermore, the numbers of women graduating
in fields like engineering, computer and information sciences, and
physics are still lagging well behind the numbers of men. Though there
is progress to be made in retaining students (especially female
students) in those subjects in college, the problem clearly starts
earlier. Not enough high school students, particularly young women,
express interest in pursuing STEM careers. In fact, the problem begins
before high school--and it's a problem of interest, not of aptitude.
There is good news, however. In elementary school, students
generally like science. And that's true of girls as well as boys. In
NCES surveys of 4th graders (going back to at least 1996), 68% of boys
and 66% of girls self-report that they ``like science''. There are two
positive messages in these numbers. First, in 4th grade fully two-
thirds of students in this country like science! Second, in 4th grade
as many girls as boys are interested in and enjoy the subject.
But then in 5th or 6th grade we start to lose those students. We
lose both boys and girls, but we begin to lose girls in greater
numbers. By 8th grade, boys are twice as likely to express an interest
in a career in science; by 12th grade, boys are 5 times more likely
than girls to express an interest in a career in engineering. Why are
we losing more girls than boys? It's not for reasons of aptitude--
that's been amply demonstrated in math and science grades and test
results. It's not for lack of inherent interest--in 4th grade they were
interested!
Though there are many reasons that we lose boys and girls from
sciences, a significant factor--and one that affects the girls more
than the boys--is the messages that our society sends to kids about
science and scientists. Science is not cool; math is irrelevant;
engineering is geeky. Ask an 11 year old to draw a scientist, and he or
she is likely to sketch an old wild-haired male who looks like Einstein
and wears a lab coat and pocket protector. This is not an image that 11
year old girls (or many boys, for that matter) aspire to! Society
surrounds kids with outdated stereotypes of what science is and what
scientists look like.
Further, there are still lingering stereotypes, often
subconsciously held, that math isn't as important for girls as for
boys, and that math and science may not be girls' ``strong suits''.
Imagine a 12 year old girl who says she wants to be an electrical
engineer. Though there are no barriers to her anymore, and there are
now many female electrical engineers, that girl is apt to get a
different reaction from her friends, her peer group, and perhaps her
teachers and parents, than a 12 year old boy who said the same thing.
Girls begin to internalize these messages in upper elementary and
middle school, and the messages begin to shape girls' views of their
``normal place'' in society.
Another problem is that students, particularly girls, don't view
science as relevant to them or to their world. They know that, in the
abstract, science is important; but they don't think it's important
``for me''.
But remember the good news: in 4th grade, our students like
science. That means that we don't need to convert them to science; we
just need to sustain and support their interest through middle and high
school. This is our philosophy at Sally Ride Science. We focus
primarily on 4th-8th grade, because that is where students start to
drift away from science. And if we lose them there, we're not going to
get them back in high school or in college. We also place a special
emphasis on girls--through our programs, publications, and professional
development. We aim to illustrate and emphasize the relevance of
science, making the connections between science and engineering and
their lives. And we provide examples of role models--at our events, in
our classroom materials, and in our teacher training. The message to
the girls (and their teachers) is that scientists are normal people,
who come from all walks of life, have interests similar to theirs, and
are having an impact on their world through their work.
Our programs (science festivals, engineering competitions, after-
school programs, professional development, and classroom materials) are
possible because of partnerships with both the public sector and the
private sector--including some of the companies represented at this
hearing today. Many companies, and not just classic technology or
engineering companies, have realized that STEM education in this
country is in disarray, and that it's in their self-interest to help
solve the problem. If things stay the way they are today, these
companies will not have access to the workforce they need to compete in
the future.
In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world's first
satellite. That launch shocked the United States, and was widely viewed
as an indication of Soviet world technological leadership. Our
immediate response was to create NASA and the civilian space program,
create the congressional committees on science, and put a national
priority on science and math education. The goal was to produce a
generation of scientists and engineers, supported by a skilled
workforce, who could lift us to the moon and beyond. Kids dreamed of
building rockets to the stars and contributing to something that
mattered. The public was informed, engaged, and supportive. It was
``cool'' to be a scientist; ``cool'' to be an engineer. We need to make
science and engineering cool again. Our future in an increasingly
competitive global economy depends on our ability to inspire and
educate today's students.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today.
______
Chairman Miller. Mr. Luce, welcome back to the committee.
STATEMENT OF TOM LUCE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, NATIONAL MATH
AND SCIENCE INITIATIVE
Mr. Luce. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And it is a pleasure to
be here today.
I am going to skip over all the data portion, you have
covered it quite well, except I will point to something we just
discovered last week, and that is the amount of two Chinese
universities that produce more American Ph.D.s than Cal-
Berkeley.
Chairman Miller. I am sorry, your microphone,
Mr. Luce. Am I on now?
Chairman Miller. It is just that southern drawl, it just
doesn't work.
Mr. Luce. I am from New Jersey.
Chairman Miller. Start over again.
Mr. Luce. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I am going to skip over the data portion of my presentation
except for one fact that I think you would find interesting
that came out last week, and that is that there are now two
Chinese universities that produced the number one and number
two proportion of American Ph.D.s. In other words, those two
universities produced more American Ph.D.s than any United
States university.
That is what is happening to us and the rest of the world.
We used to rank number one in high school graduation. We now
rank 14th. You can go on and on. I think what is unique, and
what we need to talk about today is that, as you all know, we
have truly a national crisis, but so often we have addressed
that national crisis with a series of pilot programs. I like to
say that we have lit 1,000 pilots, but we have never lit the
central heating system. And we have to find out ways to take
successful programs to scale, because we are dealing with 55
million public school children. So efforts must be undertaken
to impact a lot of children.
That was what was unique about the formation of the
National Math and Science Initiative. It was a partnership of
ExxonMobil, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Gates
Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. IBM
participated, Perot Systems. We started with an initial capital
of $140 million to take two programs to national scale. I want
to show those--the first of those programs has already been
funded by Congress, the Advanced Placement Incentive program.
But just since we started giving grants a year ago, we have now
replicated the Advanced Placement Incentive program in six
States. In 1 year we have taken the UTeach program to 13
universities.
What the next map will show you is what we could do in a
public-private partnership. We had applications for those two
programs from 40 States. So right now there is a waiting list.
There were 28 States that applied for the AP Incentive program.
There were 52 universities that applied to replicate the UTeach
program. And if we could bring together the public sector and
the private sector, then the scarce resources the Federal
Government has to deal with would be tremendously leveraged.
Congress, as you know, has not appropriated the America
COMPETES Act. If it were to appropriate additional funding for
the AP Incentive program and the UTeach program, the private
sector is ready to step up and match that investment. In
addition, we require of our grantees that they get local
matching. So all of a sudden we could go to national scale if
Congress decides to appropriate additional funding for AP
Incentive and for the UTeach program.
What can happen? I will show you one example. In the AP
program, now in six States, at the end of 5 years we will be in
close to 500 schools across the country. We will have increased
the number of students who are enrolled in AP math and science
courses by 350 percent in those 479 schools, and we will have
increased the passing AP math and science scores by 267
percent.
In the UTeach program in 13 universities, including two in
your State, we will have increased the number of teachers
graduating with math and science content degrees to 500 from,
for instance, in Maryland, 2 years ago I think there was one
physics teacher who graduated with a content degree.
So I think what we really need to talk about is how can we
take successful programs, whether it be TI's, Raytheon's,
Merck's, or the two we are working on, and come together and
take those to scale in partnership with the public sector and
the private sector, because we can't waste another generation.
And we do know that there are programs that work in every
school district in every State, but we have got to start saying
we are going to take these to scale. So we are here to say that
if the Federal Government is willing to increase their
investment, so is the private sector.
I want to show you some of the results on the AP passing
scores that justify the estimates I gave you. The numbers I am
going to show you are the AP passing scores in 10 Dallas public
schools, in an urban school district, with African American and
Hispanic enrollment at 88 percent. Prior to the start of the AP
Incentive program there was a total of 157 students that were
passing AP math, science, and English courses. There are now
1,468 in those 10 schools.
You go to the next chart, it will show you that in that
group of students there, there is now 89 students out of 1,000,
on the average across those schools, who are now passing
scores, whereas the national average is 24. The Texas average
is 27. In other words, almost four times as many students.
So what we have here is a simple but, I think, critical
concept, which is take the programs, take them to national
scale, and get the job done now.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Luce follows:]
Prepared Statement of Tom Luce, Chief Executive Officer, National Math
and Science Initiative
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the honor of testifying here today and
for your longtime leadership on education issues. I know you are proud
to be the grandfather of five, as I am proud of my seven grandchildren.
My wife Pam refers to them as ``The Magnificent Seven.'' They are a
constant reminder to me of why the work of this committee on education
is so important--and why we must act now to keep our country from
sliding further behind in math and science.
This truly is a ``Paul Revere Moment'' for our country--we must
spread the alarm that our country is falling behind in math and science
achievement and we must get moving with all possible speed to shore up
our system. Paul Revere warned ``one if by land, two if by sea''--I
would add ``three if by Ethernet.'' America is rapidly losing its
dominance in the high tech fields where the jobs of the future are: 80
percent of the jobs in the future will require some form of math and
science skills, according to the National Science Foundation.
American students are increasingly at a global disadvantage because
the rest of the world is becoming more educated while we are focusing
less and less on critical skills like math and science.
Thirty years ago, a third of the students attending
college worldwide were Americans. Today, the U.S. can claim only 14
percent.
During most of the 20th century--when today's high tech
innovations were being incubated--Americans were considered the best
educated in the world. But foreign countries now have more high school
graduates in their workforces--and the U.S. has dropped to 17th.
Put another way, the U.S. won the Cold War--but that opening has
unleashed millions of new capitalists who are eager to learn and invent
and compete. We now have millions more competitors at a time when
American students are ranked 15th in reading, 19th in math and 14th in
science by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Just last week, you may have seen the news story that graduates of
Chinese universities have now taken the lead in earning American PhDs.
Tsinghua and Peking Universities now have moved ahead of the University
of California at Berkeley as the top sources of students who go on to
earn doctorates at American universities. Seoul National University in
South Korea was third. Cornell University now is fourth and Berkeley
has dropped to fifth.
While we can't begrudge the outstanding students from other
countries from seeking higher education and a better future, we must be
concerned that Americans students are not keeping pace.
This is something that we must come to grips with as a country and
a culture. As the former NASA Astronaut Sally Ride, who serves on our
NMSI board, explains it, we are like the Wile Coyote character in the
old roadrunner cartoons--we have run right off a cliff and our legs are
still churning, so we don't realize we are hanging in mid-air, about to
plummet.
What can we do now? We cannot attack this problem with more pilot
programs--quite frankly, time is running out too fast. We have already
lighted a million pilot programs in this country, but we haven't
ignited the central heating system. Programs that help 1,000 kids in
one site are wonderful and I mean that sincerely, but remember, we have
55 million students in American public schools that we must reach. We
must take programs that already have a proven track record of success
and give more of our young people the chance to benefit from them.
That's where the National Math and Science Initiative comes in. The
beauty of the NMSI approach is that it takes good, proven programs and
multiplies their reach. As some of you may know, NMSI was created in
response to the landmark report, ``Rising above the Gathering Storm''
in 2005. That report by the National Academies, our nation's top
science advisers, warned in stark terms that the U.S. was falling in
math and science achievement and that it is beginning to harm our
ability to compete in the global arena.
To its credit, Congress responded by passing the America COMPETES
Act, proving that our elected Representatives can join in a bi-partisan
way to respond to a pressing national need. The private sector
responded by funding the National Math and Science Initiative, with
ExxonMobil, the Gates Foundation and Dell Foundation leading the way.
NMSI is unique in that it offers a new kind of philanthropy--
bringing the private sector together with the public sector to take
worthy projects to a national scale. NMSI has started by replicating
two projects that were commended by the ``Rising above the Gathering
Storm'' report:
The Advanced Placement Training and Incentives program--
which brings more rigorous math and science coursework to more
students.
And the UTeach program--which produces more of the math
and science teachers our country desperately needs by allowing them to
earn an undergraduate degree in math and science at the same time they
earn their teaching certificate at no extra charge.
Since this is a time of scarce resources, I think you will be glad
to know that these two programs offer tremendous leverage for a
relatively small federal investment--your federal dollars will be
immediately multiplied by private dollars at a national and state
level. That means programs in your states will immediately benefit--the
money can be having an impact in schools in your districts within a
semester.
In our first year, NMSI has launched AP Training and Incentive
programs in six states and UTeach programs in 13 states. But we had
applications from more than 40 states. With additional funding, we
could reach many more students before another class graduates.
Within the next five years, we could have AP Training and Incentive
programs in 25 states, impacting students in more than 2,000 American
high schools. We could have UTeach programs replicated in as many as 50
universities, boosting dramatically the number of highly qualified math
and science teachers in the U.S.
Our goal eventually is to take other successful programs and follow
this exact process of replication, because you cannot address the math
and science crisis in this country unless we start taking successful
programs to a national scale. We must work our way out of this problem
by growing a national workforce that is more science and math literate.
Math and science are the new foundational literacy for everyone.
That's the bottom line. It is a daunting task. It is a scary task.
But there is no other way to accomplish what we all in this room
understand is needed as rapidly or as effectively.
Reinforcing math and science is the most common-sense way for our
country to grow economically and to maintain our competitive leadership
in the world. And again, this can't just apply to the top 5 percent,
the top 1 percent of students--this has to apply to 55 million students
in public schools in order for everyone's kids to a chance at the jobs
of tomorrow. They have to reach a higher standard than they are
reaching today and the only way to do that is on a national scale.
To use an analogy we're familiar with in America, we're on the one-
yard line. The only problem is it may be our opponent's and we have 99
yards to go. But that's what we are here about today--to move the
agenda so we can reach that goal line.
To move forward, the next step is up to you. Congress must complete
the work begun with the passage of the America COMPETES Act and approve
a significant infusion of funds for more rigorous math and science
programs in our schools. More support is urgently needed to train the
math and science teachers who can educate tomorrow's workers and
thinkers and inventors. You can make a major difference by providing
more funding for the AP Inventive and the Teachers for a Competitive
Tomorrow program--both of which were authorized under America COMPETES.
I can assure you that in this time when resources are hard to come
by, your support will be leveraged many times over by the contributions
from the private sector--and your constituents will be able to apply
for those grants immediately. If you act this fall, you will see the
benefits to math and science in your district schools by the spring
semester.
As my friend Norm Augustine, who chaired the ``Rising Storm''
committee, says, ``If we continue to ignore the obvious task at hand
while others beat us at our own game, our children and grandchildren
will pay the price.''
I thank you for focusing on this urgent challenge for our country
and I look forward to answering your questions.
______
Chairman Miller. Dr. Parravano?
STATEMENT OF CARLO PARRAVANO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MERCK
INSTITUTE FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
Mr. Parravano. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member McKeon, and
members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity to
testify on business and education STEM partnerships.
Over the last two decades, many companies have become
involved with schools in increasingly complex ways. Departing
from the more passive forms of business support common in the
past, some corporate leaders are challenging schools to
improve, and are willing to work with the schools to make
improvement happen. These leaders are sharing their expertise,
their resources, and their political capital. And these school-
business partners are setting high, but achievable, goals,
working together to reform key elements of the school system,
mobilizing community support for reform, and setting the agenda
for education reform at the State and national levels.
This proactive approach is what Merck envisioned in 1993
when it created the Merck Institute for Science Education, a
nonprofit organization funded by the Merck Company Foundation.
The institute began its work by focusing resources on improving
science education in grades K through 8, and by establishing
partnerships with public school districts in communities where
Merck has major facilities. Our strategy at the institute has
been to strengthen all aspects of the school district science
education system. We have focused on enhancing teachers' and
administrators' knowledge and skills; providing access to
instructional materials; and creating local, State, and
national policy environments that support the partnership's
vision of an effective science education.
According to our external evaluators from the Consortium
for Policy Research in Education and Horizon Research, our work
has taken hold. First, science has become a priority in our
partner school districts. District leaders are actively
supporting the implementation of a coherent science curriculum.
Second, we have learned to provide high-quality professional
development, and to do so at considerable scale. And third, the
bottom line, student performance has improved.
We have learned many lessons from our experience, and among
them are, first, professional development that combines intense
engagement with on-the-job opportunities for dialogue and
revision has the strongest effects on teachers' practice. It is
not either/or; rather, both types of experiences are needed.
Second, better assessment tools are needed in science. Existing
measures do not adequately show the effects of better science
instruction. And third, the State policy context on incentives
for change can play a pivotal role in stimulating educational
reform.
There are certain key elements of our programs that we
believe are critical to our success. Examples of these are
significant changes in the classroom require a long-term,
sustained effort. Persistence and patience pay off. Second,
just as the most effective corporations rarely stray from their
core mission, so, too, does the institute believe that
maintaining its focus is critical. And third, a constant
emphasis on evaluation and benchmarking of results is
paramount.
Over the past 2 years, the focus of the institute has
expanded to include initiatives at the college and graduate
level. We partner with a number of organizations, including the
United Negro College Fund and the National Alliance for
Hispanic Health. In both cases our initiatives are aimed at
transition points, where students tend to leave the STEM
fields: seniors entering college, undergraduate students
entering their final academic year, and graduate students who
are midway through their dissertation research.
The UNCF program was launched in 1995, and each year 37
undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students are selected
as fellows from a national pool of applicants. To date, 443
fellowships have been awarded to students from over 35 States
and the District of Columbia. Similarly, our new program with
the National Alliance for Hispanic Health will annually provide
10 scholarships and internships to high school seniors entering
college, and 25 scholarships to college students.
In conclusion, we must be prepared to undertake a serious
commitment far beyond what we are doing now to make our STEM
programs truly world class. This calls for action by government
at every level, by business of every kind, by the education
profession itself, and by all of us individually and
collectively. Above all, this calls for collaboration,
collaboration through partnerships.
Thank you.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Parravano follows:]
Prepared Statement of Dr. Carlo Parravano, Executive Director, Merck
Institute for Science Education
In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education
released its scathing report entitled A Nation at Risk. In the
introduction, the Commission wrote, ``We report to the American people
that while we can take justifiable pride in what our schools and
colleges have historically accomplished and contributed to the United
States and the well-being of its people, the educational foundations of
our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity
that threatens our very future as a nation and a people.'' In
particular, the report detailed the steady decline in science
achievement scores by U.S. high school students.
More recently, the National Commission on Mathematics and Science
Teaching for the 21st Century (the Glenn Commission), the National
Science Board, and the National Academies have underscored the urgency
for education reform in a series of reports to the nation. In the Glenn
Commission's words, ``our students' performance in mathematics and
science is unacceptable.''
To address these issues, schools and businesses have been entering
into partnerships with increasing frequency over the past two decades.
Many companies have become involved with schools in increasingly
complex ways, moving from their initial instincts to provide materials
and money, or to ``adopt'' schools, toward more lasting and
comprehensive partnerships. These partnerships represent a substantial
commitment on the part of American business to improve the quality of
public education.
Departing from the more passive forms of business support common in
the past, some corporate leaders are challenging schools to improve,
and are willing to work with the schools to make improvement happen. To
promote education reform, these leaders are sharing their expertise,
resources, and their political capital. These school-business partners
are setting high but achievable goals, working together to reform key
elements of the school system, mobilizing community support for reform,
and setting the agenda for education reform at the state and national
levels.
This proactive approach is what Merck envisioned when in 1993 it
created the Merck Institute for Science Education, a non-profit
organization funded by the Merck Company Foundation. A year earlier,
Merck had undertaken an in-depth study of the problems related to
student performance and participation in science before making a long-
term commitment to address this issue. Based on the results of the
study, Merck leadership decided to focus resources on science education
in grades K-8. The Institute's charge was to collaborate with teachers,
administrators, parents, community members, and Merck employees to
improve the teaching and learning of science, beginning in local
schools.
The Merck Institute for Science Education
The Institute's overall goal is to raise the levels of
participation and performance in science for all students in
kindergarten through 12th grade. The Institute began its work by
establishing a partnership with four public school districts in New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, and more recently has added school districts
in New Jersey and Massachusetts, and an international site. These sites
were chosen because Merck has major facilities in or near these
communities. Initially we sought a full partnership with the school
districts, working collaboratively to align and strengthen all aspects
of their systems. Over time, the partnership was viewed as not just
another funded project, but offered a new way of doing business in
which district leaders worked closely with teachers and the Institute
to develop and implement a carefully planned, focused vision of
teaching and learning in science.
The Institute is guided by a vision of high-quality instruction in
which inquiry is a regular part of the classroom experience of all
students. In other words, science teaching and learning parallel the
methods used by scientists to understand the natural world. Student
investigations of natural phenomena are at the heart of this approach,
and the purpose of these investigations is to develop the skills and
habits of mind that are central to scientific inquiry.
This type of instruction requires teachers to possess a relatively
sophisticated knowledge of science and the teaching skills to guide and
manage inquiry. In addition, teachers need long-term support in and
outside of the classroom. Corresponding changes must be made in
curriculum, instructional materials, assessment, professional
development, resource allocation, and other district policies. To enact
such changes, policymakers and administrators must give science greater
priority, and they must be willing to invest more to provide teachers
with the time, support, training, and materials required. Similarly,
parents must learn about and support the new instructional approach.
Only training teachers, however, is not sufficient; a systemic strategy
is necessary to achieve such fundamental changes.
Accordingly, our strategy at the Institute is to simultaneously:
Enhance teachers' knowledge and skills,
Provide access to instructional materials to support
reform,
Build strong professional communities within and across
schools, and
Create local, state, and national policy environments that
support our vision.
Measuring results
In 1992, even before the official launch of the Institute, we
engaged the services of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education
(CPRE) at the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a long-term
evaluation of our work. Each year through 2003, CPRE assessed the
progress of the Institute using a range of measurable criteria: student
performance and course selection; quality of professional development;
and changes in classroom teaching, school culture, and district policy.
Since 2003, the impact of the Institute's programs has been being
measured by an external evaluator, Horizon Research, Inc. Institute
programs are continually modified in response to the evaluator's
recommendations, the considerations of the Institute's national
advisory board, and feedback from teachers and administrators in the
partner school districts.
The different roles, perspectives, and resources that businesses
can bring to the task of education reform are important, but ultimately
results are what really matter. According to analyses by our external
evaluators, our work has taken hold. Their reports state:
First, the Merck Institute's systemic approach has worked.
Science has become a priority in the partner districts. There is an
inquiry-centered curriculum in place, and district leaders are actively
supporting its implementation. The districts have made changes in
policy, organization, and assignments in support of our vision of
science instruction.
Second, the Institute and its partners have not only
learned how to provide high-quality professional development, they have
learned how to provide it at considerable scale, and they have learned
how to attract high proportions of teachers to participate.
Third, participation matters. The more professional
development teachers receive, the more their classroom instruction
resembles the vision of good practice advanced by the Institute.
Fourth, it appears that when a critical mass of teachers
in a school has received professional development and begun to change
their practice, the practice of non-participants also begins to shift
in the same direction.
Fifth, the districts have become increasingly active in
promoting the Institute's vision instructional reform. District staffs
are now more attentive to how their policies and procedures affect
progress. There are signs that the partner districts have internalized
some key lessons drawn from this experience and, within their resource
limitations, are applying what they have learned in language arts and
mathematics.
Sixth, all of this has been made easier because Merck's
reputation, expertise, and commitment to public education have enabled
the Institute to influence state policy and create an environment more
supportive of the reforms.
The seventh and final conclusion concerns the bottom line--the
improvement of student performance. Analyses of student performance on
standardized tests reveal that students who have received science
instruction over several years from teachers who have participated in
the partnership professional development outperform students who have
been taught by non-participants. These data suggest that, in the long
run, as more and more teachers participate in the workshops, there will
be a positive and significant impact on student performance in science.
Lessons learned, lessons confirmed
In the course of our work with partner school districts and beyond,
the following lessons have become clear:
If you build good professional development programs,
teachers will come. We have learned that they will voluntarily take
advantage of opportunities to learn and to improve their teaching
practice--if the opportunities are seen as worthwhile. Respect for
teachers' professionalism, expertise, and experience results in a
growing commitment by teachers to improvement.
Teachers' knowledge and skills are critical factors in the
classroom learning experience, but not the only ones. Good curriculum
materials are also essential. Teachers need access to and support in
implementing standards-based curricula and teaching materials. They
need the support and knowledgeable involvement of school and district-
level administration, parents, and the community. The Institute
addresses these needs through resource centers featuring exemplary
science education materials, Merck employee volunteer programs, and
parent involvement programs, in addition to its support of long-term
professional development.
Professional development that combines intense engagement
with curriculum content with on-the-job opportunities for observation,
dialogue, reflection, and revision has the strongest effects on
teaching practice. It is not either/or, rather both types of
experiences are required.
Research has repeatedly shown that principals play key
roles in instructional change in their schools. Their level of
involvement often dictates whether attempts to change instruction
succeed or not. Providing professional development for school
administrators is critical in helping the principals become a force for
sustaining and deepening the work of instructional improvement.
Better assessment tools in science are needed. Existing
measures do not adequately show the effects of better science
instruction. Right now, teachers see improved student work in their
classrooms and a higher level of student interest in science, but the
available measures do not adequately demonstrate this change to
parents, school leaders, or the public. In addition to assessments that
provide good diagnostic information for teachers' instructional
planning, we need assessments that are persuasive to the public and
policymakers as well.
The state policy context on incentives for change can play
a pivotal role in stimulating instructional reform, and the Institute's
role in shaping state policy has had a high payoff. The Institute has
helped lead statewide efforts to establish science content standards,
and professional development and teaching standards.
Numerous businesses have made a commitment to work with
educators to build a strong and viable education system. While there
are multiple roles business can play to achieve this goal, each company
must put in place the systems and structures that will make it possible
to deliver on its commitments over time. In addition, greater
coordination among businesses working with educators is needed.
Key elements of success
There are certain salient features of the Institute's programs that
we believe are critical to our success:
Long-term commitment. Significant changes in the classroom
require a long-term, sustained effort on the part of corporations
involved in education reform. Increased teacher mobility, high turnover
in administrative personnel, and changes in district priorities and
policies threaten the reforms that have been accomplished. Scaling up
is difficult because of the intensity of the work and the long
timeframe for institutionalizing it. Persistence and patience pay off.
Corporate reputation. Merck's corporate reputation for
high-quality scientific work and high ethical standards brings
credibility to the Institute's work in science education. Merck's
corporate image and record of success have enabled us to raise
difficult issues and to push hard for change.
Maintaining focus. The Institute's core capabilities
include providing high-quality technical assistance to teachers,
maintaining constructive and collaborative relationships with partner
school districts, addressing systemic issues that influence curriculum
and instruction, aligning desired changes with state and national
standards, and accepting accountability for its efforts. These
strengths represent the Institute's focus, and just as the most
effective corporations rarely stray from their core mission, so too
does the Merck Institute believe that maintaining its focus is critical
to success.
Capacity-building. Rather than do for the school districts
or give to the school districts, we look for ways to help them use
available resources to improve and then to build upon these successes.
Of course, we provide some funding and a great deal of technical
assistance--but always with the consideration of how school leaders may
sustain and institutionalize the changes we have helped to effect. When
teachers train other teachers--and support and advocate for the reform
efforts--local capacity is increased.
Disseminating lessons learned. Our narrow geographic focus
has provided us with the opportunity to develop significant expertise
in science education reform and in continuously improving our core
capabilities. We impact a far greater number of school districts
through widely-distributed publications, direct technical assistance
and our website. This has greatly broadened the reach of the Institute.
Sustaining the work. Right from the start, we include
strategies in our plans to sustain the reform efforts. For example, we
try to make full use of existing management routines and align our work
with national, state and local policies. We make every effort to
provide evidence to support the work to garner public support for the
reform and gain access to sustainable financial resources. In addition,
building a culture of continuous improvement leads to a sense that the
work is never ``done,'' but instead requires ongoing attention.
Leveraging resources. We leverage resources and encourage
our school district partners to do likewise. We help link them to
regional and national sources of expertise in science education,
including the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 1996 and again in
2003, NSF awarded the Institute and its partner districts grants to
extend and intensify its programs for teachers and administrators. In
addition to the monetary benefits, this award also serves to provide
valuable technical assistance and external validation of the quality of
our programs.
Evaluation and benchmarking of results. An external
evaluation team assesses the progress of the Institute through
measurable criteria on an ongoing basis. Each year, after receiving
feedback from the team and others, we revise our strategies to work
more effectively within a changing landscape.
Expanded focus
Over the past two years the focus of the Institute has expanded to
include college and graduate-level education to build capacity in the
biomedical sciences through partnerships with higher education
institutions. Examples of these partnerships are the United Negro
College Fund (UNCF)/Merck Science Initiative and the American
Association for the Advancement of Science/Merck Undergraduate Science
Research Program. In addition, the Institute recently initiated a
partnership with the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, the
Alliance/Merck Ciencia Scholars Program. These programs have provided
the Institute with unusual opportunities to build synergy and ensure
coherence across Merck's K-20 education portfolio. Each of these
initiatives has as its mission to develop scientific talent, a long-
standing key priority for Merck.
As an example, the UNCF/Merck Science Initiative (UMSI) was
launched in 1995. The program makes scholarship and fellowship awards
at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels to outstanding
African American students pursuing studies in biomedical research.
Each year, 37 undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral students are
selected as Fellows from a competitive pool of applicants. To date, 443
fellowships have been awarded.
The initiative incorporates a number of features that we feel have
been critical to its success:
First, it is aimed at transition points where students
tend to leave the STEM fields: undergraduate students entering their
final academic year; graduate students who are midway through their
dissertation research; and post-graduate students entering their
postdoctoral training. We now have a number of Fellows who have
received multiple fellowships--two have received all three awards and
22 have received two awards.
Second, the research is robust in pointing to two
experiences that make a significant difference in engaging and
retaining students: an opportunity to do meaningful and independent
research, and a chance to work with a mentor. All undergraduates are
provided with funds to complete two summers of research at the Merck
Research Laboratories. And each Fellow is assigned a Merck scientist as
a mentor. The mentors serve as teachers, career advisors and friends.
They ensure that the Fellows move seamlessly from one educational level
to the next.
Third, all of the current awardees are brought together
for three days of scientific symposia and poster sessions, as well as
activities centered on relationship-building and networking with one
another and the scientists at Merck.
Results from a comprehensive evaluation of the initiative indicate
that in addition to the financial support, the Fellows found the non-
financial benefits important as well. Fellows benefited from the
award's prestige; the exposure to the pharmaceutical industry; the
mentoring by Merck scientists helped the Fellows in their research and
increased awareness about career directions; the internships helped the
undergraduates become more confident in themselves and enhanced their
research skills; and participation in the event when all the new
Fellows are brought together, provided a highly beneficial networking
experience.
What are the Fellows doing now? They are pursuing careers in
academia, government, and industry--with a number of Fellows choosing
to pursue their careers at Merck. The Fellows are working in a wide
range of scientific disciplines from biochemistry and microbiology to
pharmacology, neuroscience, biophysics and bioengineering. One of the
Fellows has been selected to be one of NASA's newest astronauts,
another Fellow was selected a Rhodes Scholar. One Fellow's research has
led to 16 patents and two biotechnology companies, and another Fellow--
a female African American--has an endowed chair in the Department of
Chemical Engineering at MIT.
We also found that Merck scientists benefited from their experience
as mentors. They derived both personal and professional benefits from
their mentoring activities; many mentors remain in contact with the
Fellows after the fellowship is completed; and many have mentored more
than one Fellow.
Conclusion
Noted author Seymour Sarason has written: ``The failure of
educational reform is the failure to touch deeply and profoundly the
entrenched culture of schools. Thus, despite the millions of dollars
poured into changing schools and the endless hours educators have
devoted to adopting and adapting new practices, the fact is that the
educational landscape in this country remains largely unfazed.''
The Merck Institute for Science Education has demonstrated its
ability to row against this stubborn current. Science education in our
partner school districts is no longer in the wings; instead it occupies
center stage, as an emotionally engaging and intellectually challenging
experience for students. Based on the lessons we have learned about
science education reform and the power of collaboration, we will
continue to build partnerships to improve student performance and
participation in science until high-quality science education is indeed
the standard for all students.
______
Chairman Miller. Ms. Sullivan.
STATEMENT OF PATTY SULLIVAN, IBM EDUCATION SOLUTIONS EXECUTIVE,
IBM CORPORATION
Ms. Sullivan. Thank you, Chairman Miller, Ranking Member
McKeon, and members of the House and Labor Committee. My name
is Patty Sullivan, and I am honored to add my testimony to
those with my esteemed panelists here regarding this important
issue of STEM education in America. In my oral testimony I will
show the importance of improving our education system,
particularly in the STEM fields, to better prepare the next
generation and the Nation. I will then highlight the innovative
approaches that companies like IBM are taking to promote STEM
education among our Nation's youth. I will end with actions
Congress can take to help foster these initiatives.
Chairman Miller, and Ranking Member McKeon and other
California Members, it may interest you to know that IBM is
working in California at the State level and with several
school districts, including Clovis Unified, to improve STEM
outcomes through better access to learning resources and better
data management.
IBM, like many U.S.-headquartered companies, has become a
globally integrated enterprise. As our economy becomes more
globally integrated, and competition becomes more intense for
management and employees, there is growing recognition that
innovation is the key to being able to effectively compete. The
question we face is what needs to be done to create an
environment that will foster innovation?
An important criterion will be the quality of education in
order to equip students with the needed skills for the 21st
century workforce. STEM education is a critical skill in this
equation, and we need to focus on the earliest stages of K
through 12.
So what are some of the specific programs that IBM has
under way to improve STEM outcomes in K through 12? In 2006,
IBM announced Transition to Teaching, our initiative to address
K-12 issues and encourage young people to enter science and
engineering careers by utilizing our mature workers who are
interested in a second career in teaching, providing guidance,
support, and funding to help them transition into teaching as
their next career move. Specifically, IBM provides each
participant with up to $15,000 for tuition reimbursement and
stipends during their time gaining practical teaching
experience in the classroom. Today there are 100 IBMers
participating in Transition to Teaching.
We have further leveraged our greatest asset, our IBM
employees. More than 100,000 have signed up for volunteer
assignments through our On Demand Community. Moreover, the
majority of the IBMers who volunteer do so at every level of
pre-K through high school, whether as one of the legions
visiting schools for e-Week, engineering Week, showcasing IBM's
new 3-D Internet multiplayer game, Power Up, which focuses on
solving problems related to energy and the environment. They
also lead after-school programs for middle school students, and
coach high school students for science fair and robotics
competitions through our TryScience program.
On May 5th and 6th, 2008, IBM held a successful summit
entitled ``America's Competitiveness: Hispanic Participation in
STEM Careers,'' which focused on developing an action plan that
would encourage more Hispanic students to consider STEM
careers.
IBM is working with schools to make STEM learning materials
and resources more accessible. IBM believes that through
common, open-source learning systems, built on open standards,
these programs, curricula and tools can become interoperable,
allowing access to resources at every level of a student's
academic experience.
Transition to Teaching and similar efforts are not a
panacea, but they are part of a unique and real solution to the
math and science teacher shortage. IBM is proud to demonstrate
our corporate commitment to implementing solutions to the math
and science teacher problem in our country, and we are working
with other companies to encourage them to adopt a similar model
for their transitioning workforce.
So what can Congress do? With overwhelming passage of the
America COMPETES Act last year and its enactment into law,
Congress demonstrated a partial commitment to the principles of
advancing math and science education, as well as basic research
in the physical sciences. The unfortunate reality is that the
authorized programs in the COMPETES Act were not funded. This
is a critical issue that must be addressed as soon as possible.
We strongly encourage Congress to fulfill the promise of the
COMPETES Act by appropriating the funding necessary to support
both education and research. Funding these programs will enable
us to train math and science teachers, provide scholarships to
keep students in these fields, enable graduates to seed our
economy, and push the frontiers of knowledge through university
research, and promote diversity in the STEM fields.
In conclusion, we believe that a national dialogue is
needed. Public and private sector representatives, parents and
teachers have to be increasingly focused on developing
stronger, rigorous, relevant preparation for K-12 students to
get them ready for STEM courses in college or to enter a
knowledge-based workforce focused on increasing teacher
excellence, curriculum quality, and offering tutoring and
mentoring services to students. Unless we capture more minds,
more hearts, more souls, and more passion for math and other
STEM disciplines, the innovation leadership and global
competitiveness of the United States will be extremely
challenged, if not threatened, in the foreseeable future.
Thank you very much.
[The statement of Ms. Sullivan follows:]
Prepared Statement of Patricia Sullivan, Education Solutions Executive,
Global Education Industry at IBM
Chairman Miller and members of the House Education and Labor
Committee, my name is Patricia Sullivan and I am Education Solutions
Executive within the Global Education Industry at IBM. IBM appreciates
the opportunity to participate in this hearing to highlight the many
initiatives the business community is doing to promote STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education among our nation's
youth.
IBM, like many US-headquartered companies, has become a globally
integrated enterprise. As our economy becomes more globally integrated
and competition becomes more intense for management and employees,
there is growing recognition that innovation is the key to being able
to effectively compete. Localities, states and nations are striving to
become places where knowledge is generated and transformed into new
commercial and societal value. They recognize that an innovative,
knowledge-based society creates jobs, raises living standards and
generates growth that competitors can't duplicate rapidly.
The question we face is what needs to be done to create an
environment that will foster innovation? An important criterion will be
the quality of education in order to equip students with the needed
skills for the 21st century workforce. STEM education is a critical
skill in this equation.
A report recently released by the U.S. Department of Labor suggests
that over the next 10 years, the need for technical people in this
country is going to grow not by 30 percent, but 50 percent! While the
demand for these jobs is increasing, the supply of talented workers
isn't keeping pace. A skilled and talented workforce is a fundamental
requirement to attract investment, foster real wealth creation and spur
innovation in this country. It is critical for our continued
competitiveness.
We are firm believers in the need to build the base of scientists
and engineers and prepare the next generation of innovators. It is
clear that if we are going to have a constant flow of talent in science
and engineering, we need to raise the standards and expectations for
what knowledge and skills students need to acquire earlier in the K-12
pipeline. We also must ensure that students, from elementary school all
the way through graduate school, are having the experiences that will
generate enthusiasm about math and science and their ability to solve
problems. They also must complete a rigorous and relevant curriculum so
that they have the option of pursuing scientific, technical and
multidisciplinary degrees in college or being adequately prepared to
enter the 21st century workforce.
What needs to happen to prepare students to participate in a
knowledge-based economy?
First, our children need to be prepared to discover new
things every day using a focused, coherent progression of math and
science learning;
Schools should implement a STEM curriculum in grades pre-K
through 8 that is rigorous and streamlined, with an emphasis on
proficiency of key concepts;
Students need reinforcement that achievement in math and
science comes from effort and isn't a skill that only results from an
inherent talent.
Education is a part of IBM's DNA. We consistently play an active
role in promoting and boosting education efforts at both national and
local levels. For many decades, IBM has been one of the leading
corporate contributors of funding, technology, and talent to non-profit
organizations and educational institutions across the U.S. and around
the world. We are committed to applying our skill and ability as an
innovator against the challenges that exist in communities, addressing
both educational and societal concerns, and doing so in a fundamental
and systemic way.
Why does IBM believe this is such a critical issue? The number of
students taking advanced math and science classes and choosing
engineering or technical careers is declining, yet the U.S. needs to
grow its population of qualified, technically proficient workers in
order to remain competitive.
This is a tall order and goes well beyond mastery of math and
science skills and knowledge. Fundamentally, this requires a cadre of
incredible math and science teachers in our schools, teachers who have
the content expertise, the real world experience, an understanding of
problem-based learning and the pedagogic practice to launch the next
generation of innovators.
Did you know that nearly three quarters of our middle school
children in this country are taught math and science by teachers who
have never graduated with a math degree or who have never been
certified in teaching math? It is no wonder we have trouble promoting
careers in engineering and science.
Studies have shown that over the next 10 years we need 2 million
more K-12 teachers in this country; and, in addition, we need a quarter
of a million math and science teachers in the next two years. Nearly 80
million baby boomers are going to leave the workforce some time soon.
That's a huge problem for the U.S. In addition, over 40 percent of the
same population of teachers are 50 years or older. This underscores the
importance of this issue and the fact that our country must invest in
improving and enhancing our teacher recruitment, education and
professional development.
Classroom teachers with strong knowledge about math and science
have a central role in education. We agree that rigorously evaluated
initiatives for attracting and appropriately preparing prospective
teachers and evaluating and retaining teachers are critical to our
students' success. The math and science preparation of elementary and
middle school teachers must be strengthened to improve teachers'
effectiveness in the classroom. This includes: pre-service teacher
education, early career mentoring and professional development.
IBM initiatives
IBM's leadership in school reform has grown steadily since we first
launched Reinventing Education in 1994, a global program, working with
more than 100,000 teachers. Our most recent partnerships with school
districts focus almost exclusively on professional development because
if we want great schools, we must have great teachers. In 2006, IBM
announced Transition to Teaching, our initiative to address the K-12
STEM teacher pipeline issue to help encourage young people to enter
science and engineering careers.
We established the Transition to Teaching initiative by leveraging
our greatest asset--IBM employees. Of course, most IBMers have
backgrounds in math and science, whether they are currently working in
software development, research, consulting or management. IBMers are
also great volunteers; more than 115,000 have signed up for volunteer
assignments through our On Demand Community, contributing about 5
million hours of service. Moreover, the majority of IBMers who
volunteer do so in a school, whether as: one of the legions visiting
schools for e-Week (engineering Week); showcasing IBM's new 3D internet
multi-player game, Power Up, focused on solving problems related to
energy and the environment; as one of our 8,000 eMentors providing
online academic assistance to students; or one of those working with
children in a Head Start or daycare program that has a KidSmart
program. They also lead after-school programs for middle school
students and coach high school students for science fairs and robotics
competitions through TryScience.org.
These IBMers tell us repeatedly that they have a passion for
education, young people and for giving back to the community.
Recognizing that there is a national teacher shortage in math and
science and that there is large group of IBM employees who are eager to
continue being productive and contributing to their communities, we
created the Transition to Teaching program. Transition to Teaching
specifically targets our mature workers who are interested in a second
career in teaching, by providing guidance, support and funding to help
them transition into teaching as their next career move.
Specifically, IBM provides each participant with up to $15,000 for
tuition reimbursement and stipends during their time gaining practice
teaching experience in the classroom. Each participant chooses his or
her own teacher certification model, but we encourage colleges of
education to develop flexible programming, involving both online course
work and more traditional courses with flexible scheduling. The IBMers
also participate in online mentoring, both while they are still working
and going to school, and once they graduate and begin teaching. We have
a special social networking site for them at www.ibm.com to enable them
to share and learn from their experiences. Finally, we have designed a
special leave of absence program that provides each participant to
conduct up to a year of student teaching while they maintain their
benefits.
Today, there are 100 IBMers participating in Transition to
Teaching. IBM designed the Transition to Teaching program after a
careful review of the research, the experience of second career
teachers, best practices in teacher preparation and our own focus
groups with IBMers. We have a few program essentials.
First, teachers must have a strong, in-depth background in the
subject area. Our criteria focus on IBMers who already have a Bachelors
degree or higher in a math or science discipline.
Second, we believe that IBMers need to learn the craft and skill of
teaching, classroom management, and instructional practice to be
effective. Thus, we are reimbursing their tuition costs for education
preparation.
Finally, we believe that it is absolutely essential for an
individual to have practical K-12 classroom experience, observe good
teaching and then practice good teaching BEFORE taking responsibility
for a class of children. Therefore, we provide support for them to do
student or practice teaching. We know there is a huge gap between
mastery of a subject and the ability to teach that subject to others.
We owe it to our IBMers and to our students to give them all the
preparation they need, and we have designed Transition to Teaching to
meet that standard.
Transition to Teaching and similar efforts are not a panacea, but
they are part of a unique and real solution to the math and science
teacher shortage. IBM is proud to demonstrate our corporate commitment
to implementing solutions to the math/science teacher challenges in our
country, and we are working with other companies to encourage them to
adopt a similar model for their transitioning workforce.
On May 5-6, 2008, IBM held a successful summit titled ``America's
Competitiveness: Hispanic Participation in STEM Careers,'' which
focused on developing an action plan that would encourage more Hispanic
students to consider careers in STEM. We had more than 130 leaders in
education, business, government and not-for-profit organizations attend
this summit, which featured Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and New York State
Secretary Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez as speakers.
In response to the need to provide mentors for Hispanic students,
IBM commits to expanding the MentorPlace program to focus on school
districts in the U.S. with a significant number of Hispanic students,
and matching them with IBM employees who can serve as their online
mentors.
Additionally, IBM will expand its cascade mentoring
program--currently at the University of Arizona at Tucson--to at least
3 universities in California, New York and Texas.
The cascading mentoring program is an internet based
system that enables professional mentors, university students, and K-12
students to engage in a three-way mentoring relationship through secure
online discussions. These discussions focus on past academic
experiences and exploration of what could be in terms of future goals
and opportunities.
This program completed its third year in Tucson, Arizona
and involved IBM employees, the University of Arizona SHPE (Society for
Hispanic Professional Engineers) Student Chapter, and students from two
high schools.
In addition, IBM is making further commitments aimed at bolstering
early education resources with innovative technology tools for the
classroom:
IBM also will make a donation of 1,000 KidSmart units at
early childhood centers in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and New
York--in neighborhoods that support the Hispanic community.
IBM commits to expanding the Reading Companion grant
program--a web-based, voice recognition technology that helps adults
and children gain literacy skills--to any school district in the U.S.
that is interested, with a special focus on school districts with a
significant number of Hispanics.
Addressing the challenge of investing in math and science
education, preparing teachers and exciting students are
responsibilities not only of parents and businesses, but also of
government. With the overwhelming passage of the America COMPETES Act
last year and its enactment into law, Congress demonstrated a partial
commitment to the principles of advancing math and science education,
as well as basic research in the physical sciences. The unfortunate
reality is that the authorized programs in the COMPETES Act were not
funded. This is a critical issue that must be addressed as soon as
possible. We strongly encourage Congress to fulfill the promise of the
COMPETES Act by appropriating the funding necessary to support both
education and research. We need tangible results. Funding these
programs will enable us to: train math and science teachers; provide
scholarships to keep students in these fields; enable graduates to seed
our economy and push the frontiers of knowledge through university
research; and promote diversity in STEM fields.
Lastly, it is important to note that with the challenges facing the
US to meet the needs of the STEM skills for the 21st century workforce,
education must become more open, providing more access to learning
across age groups, economic levels, abilities and personal history. The
tools and resources available to teachers and students for STEM
education is evolving rapidly and provides new opportunities and
resources for innovation in learning. Coursework from traditional
textbook providers is being enhanced through supplementary materials
and resources on the Web, informal learning programs through museums
and institutes and, outreach programs from universities and
corporations, among others. The wealth of STEM material available
enables the creation of a more student-centric learning environment,
where a child's learning style, preference and ability are aligned with
the desired proficiency outcomes.
The challenge created by the abundance of learning materials is
that many of these resources are independent, stand-alone and require
the student, teacher or parent to be the point of integration. We
believe that through common, open source learning systems built on open
standards, these programs, curricula, and tools can become
interoperable--allowing access to resources at every level of a
student's academic experience.
Open Standards and Open Source Applications--IBM is an active
participant and contributor to the open standard and open source
application communities in the US and abroad for learning. We are
active participants in the Instructional Management Systems (IMS)
standards setting body, which has defined standards for on-line
learning objects--such as Common Course Cartridge, Content Packaging,
and Question and Test Interoperability (QTI). We have made
contributions to the Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM),
which has defined a collection of standards and specifications for web-
based e-learning. IBM is also actively working with open source
development communities who are creating the collaborative and learning
management systems. We are members of the Sakai community, which
provides a no-charge, collaborative and learning system which provides
the tool for teachers and students to take advantage of emerging
technologies, knowledge and resources.
Community Collaboration--In the area of STEM education, information
about the latest discoveries in science help to make the information
more vibrant and tangible for students. Open source learning systems
help foster greater collaboration between educators and learners, and
provide the opportunity for the latest information, techniques and
insights to be integrated into the curriculum on a real time basis.
Emerging on-line tools--such as social networking, virtual worlds, and
gaming technologies--provide new avenues for people to connect,
irrespective of space and time. Exciting new tools allow teachers to
access the latest knowledge through reference to open, digital sources,
such as Wikipedia, within learning modules.
To become more student-centric, schools must provide teachers with
a variety of alternatives for STEM education. We believe open source
teaching and learning systems provide a compelling platform for
addressing the long term challenges of STEM education in the United
States, and we are committed to working with the open source community
in a collaborative way.
In conclusion, we believe that a national dialogue among math and
science education stakeholders needs to remain an important priority.
Public and private sector representatives, parents and teachers have to
be increasingly focused on developing stronger, rigorous, relevant
academic preparation for K-12 students to get them ready for STEM
courses in college or to enter a knowledge based workforce, focusing on
improving teacher quality, curriculum quality and offering tutoring and
mentoring services to students. Unless we capture more minds, more
hearts, more souls and more passion for math, science and other STEM
disciplines, the innovation leadership and global competitiveness of
the United States will be extremely challenged, if not threatened, in
the foreseeable future.
______
Chairman Miller. Mr. Wells, welcome to the committee.
STATEMENT OF BRIAN WELLS, CHIEF SYSTEMS ENGINEER, RAYTHEON
Mr. Wells. Thank you, Chairman, Ranking Member McKeon, and
members of the committee. I am personally honored to be here
today, and Raytheon is honored be to represented. We are glad
to be here today to speak about a subject that is so important
to our country, which is improving the education system. Thank
you for the opportunity to share with you how Raytheon is
trying to help.
Raytheon has a stake in the discussion because we are a
technology company that depends upon the expertise of our
people to provide innovative solutions to meet our customers'
important needs. Our company employs 72,000 people worldwide,
in over 40 States and the District of Columbia, with over
12,000 people in the State of California alone. About half of
our employees are engineers, mathematicians, scientists, and
technicians.
We believe it essential to secure the technical talent
pipeline of the future. With great generational transition on
the horizon, as baby boomers grow near retirement, we believe
it is imperative to help our students prepare now for skills
they will need later to enter careers in science, technology,
engineering, or math, or STEM as we call it.
Raytheon has a multipronged approach to education, both
internal and external. Externally, our most visible activity is
our MathMovesU program. MathMovesU is designed to engage middle
school students on their own terms and make the connection
between math, their interests, and cool careers. The program's
cornerstone uses their favorite medium, an interactive Web
experience.
Since its inception, the MathMovesU Web site has attracted
over 600,000 visitors from every State, the District of
Columbia, and from 107 countries. The program awards more than
1 million annually in scholarships and grants to students,
teachers, and schools nationwide. Over the last 2 years,
Raytheon has invested a total of over 6 million in our
children's education through the MathMovesU program.
In addition to MathMovesU, Raytheon is a national sponsor
of MATHCOUNTS, which is a nonprofit organization that promotes
math excellence among U.S. middle school students by providing
financial and volunteer resources.
More than 4,000 Raytheon employees volunteer to support
math and science education in their communities each year
through MathMovesU, MATHCOUNTS, FIRST Robotics, and other
activities, and we hold more than 100 events annually to engage
middle school students in math and science.
But Raytheon is taking a new approach to examine potential
solutions to the challenge of increasing the number of STEM
graduates. Our CEO, Bill Swanson, believes that the same
systems engineering methods used to create complex aerospace
and defense systems for the U.S. Government can be applied to
the U.S. education system.
As a result, in June 2006, in support of this work as
cochair of the Business-Higher Education Forum's initiative to
strengthen STEM education, he initiated an educational systems
engineering and modeling project.
Our approach is centered on developing a dynamic systems
engineering model of the U.S. P-through-16 STEM education
system.
Of the many proposed improvements to the education system
that we have examined, we found that some have the potential
for providing large gains in the number of STEM graduates.
It was also clear from the research we performed that there
are many areas where additional research is needed to build
data sources and to quantify behavior, and ultimately to make
the model more robust. To accomplish this, a larger integrated
community that includes researchers, system modeling experts,
policymakers and practitioners will be required.
As a result of our 2 years of work on this project, we have
concluded that modeling is a viable and promising approach for
assessing educational policy changes. It helps discover
unintended consequences, such as the shortage of teachers when
class size is reduced. It provides a means of thinking through
the problem for a system that is too complex for human
understanding. Modeling helps to identify data collection
requirements and missing parts of the research puzzle. And
finally, we believe it can provide guidance to policymakers to
allow them to compare alternatives and to examine combinations
of solutions integrated together.
While Raytheon and BHEF have taken the initial steps in
this area, there is much more to be done. We are working with
the Ohio State University and Kathy Sullivan at the John Glenn
School of Public Affairs to form a community of researchers and
modelers to expand the effort. It is our belief that supporting
this effort can provide great benefit to the U.S. education
system, and we would welcome your support to help us build the
community of researchers and modelers who will continue this
work.
Thank you.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
[The statement of Mr. Wells follows:]
Prepared Statement of Brian H. Wells, Chief Systems Engineer, Raytheon
Company
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member McKeon, members of the
committee. I am honored, and Raytheon is honored, to be here today to
speak about a subject that is so important to the future of our
country: improving our educational system. We thank you for the
opportunity to share with you how Raytheon is trying to help.
Raytheon has a stake in this discussion because we are a technology
company that depends on the expertise of our people to provide
innovative solutions to meet our customers' important needs.
Specifically, Raytheon specializes in defense, homeland security,
and other government needs throughout the world. We provide state-of-
the-art electronics, mission systems integration and other capabilities
in the areas of sensing; effects; and command, control, communications
and intelligence, as well as a broad range of mission support services.
Our company employs 72,000 people worldwide, in over 40 states and
the District of Columbia, with over 12 thousand people in the state of
California alone. About half of our employees are engineers,
mathematicians, scientists and technicians.
We believe it essential to secure the technical talent pipeline for
the future. With a great generational transition on the horizon--as
``baby boomers'' grow nearer to retirement--we believe it is imperative
to help our students prepare now for the skills they will need later to
enter careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
(STEM).
Raytheon has a multi-pronged approach to education, both internal
and external.
Like many employers, we provide educational assistance to our
employees through tuition reimbursement. In 2007, we provided more than
$14 million in assistance to about 3,800 employees attending college.
In addition, we expect to provide our employees with about 1.8 million
hours of in-house training in 2008 to improve their skills and
capabilities.
Externally, our most visible activity is our MathMovesU(r) program.
MathMovesU is designed to engage middle school students on their own
terms and make the connection between math, their interests, and
``cool'' careers. The program's cornerstone uses their favorite
medium--an interactive web experience.
The website is ``immersive,'' designed to create ``aha'' moments by
presenting math in its relation to some of the topics middle school
students care most about--music, sports and fashion. It uses a variety
of puzzles and games to encourage the development of math skill in fun
and creative ways. If someone in your family is in the target age
group, you may want to encourage them to check out MathMovesU.com and
pick an ``avatar.'' If you're not sure what an avatar is, believe me,
they'll know!
The goals of MathMovesU are to:
Transform math's image among middle school students.
Motivate American students to meet their potential in math
and science education.
And to help create and sustain a strong, talented and
diverse workforce by supporting math and science education.
Since its inception, the MathMovesU website has attracted over
600,000 visitors from every state and the District of Columbia, and
from 107 countries. The program awards more than $1 million annually in
scholarships and grants to students, teachers and schools nationwide.
This includes 900 MathMovesU scholarships awarded to students along
with matching grants awarded to their schools, and 65 ``Math Heroes''
(teachers and tutors) who each received $2,500 grants.
Over the last two years, Raytheon has invested a total of over $6
million in our children's education, through the MathMovesU program.
In addition to MathMovesU, Raytheon is a national sponsor of
MATHCOUNTS(r), which is a nonprofit organization that promotes math
excellence among U.S. middle school students by providing financial and
volunteer resources. Raytheon serves on the board of MATHCOUNTS,
supports 6 MATHCOUNTS chapters and 5 state championships, and is the
Title Sponsor of the MATHCOUNTS National Competition for 2009-2011.
Raytheon supports as many as 29 FIRST Robotics high school teams
across the nation and provides scholarship money to students who have
participated in the FIRST Robotics program.
FIRST Robotics enables high school students to experience science
and engineering through the building of robots and competing against
teams from other schools. The excitement at these competitions is
intense.
More than 4,000 Raytheon employees volunteer to support math and
science education in their communities each year through MathMovesU,
MATHCOUNTS, FIRST Robotics and other activities. And we hold more than
100 events annually to engage middle school students in math and
science.
In addition to these activities, Raytheon is partnering with the
Business-Higher Education Forum to provide corporate leadership to
strengthen STEM education and to promote college readiness, access and
success for underserved populations, particularly in the STEM
disciplines. BHEF is an organization of Fortune 500 CEOs and senior
executives, college and university presidents, and foundation leaders
working to advance innovative solutions to our nation's education
challenges in order to enhance U.S. competitiveness.
Raytheon's Chairman and CEO Bill Swanson has been a member of the
Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) since January 2004. Mr. Swanson
currently is vice chair of the organization, which is chaired by
Cornell University President David Skorton.
To remain competitive in the global economy, the American education
system must provide an ever expanding and highly talented pool of STEM
workers. The downward trend in U.S. science and engineering degree
attainment, unless addressed, threatens to significantly affect the
size and quality of the workforce available to industry.
In projecting forward from 2002 to 2012, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) estimates the need for science and technology workers
will increase by 26 percent compared to 15 percent for all occupations.
They predict the need for computer/mathematical scientists will
increase by 39 percent and the need for post-secondary teachers will
increase by 37 percent.
Defense contractors in many instances need highly skilled employees
who are also U.S. citizens to meet program clearance requirements. So
we are acutely aware of the problems that a reduction in the number of
highly skilled American STEM workers will create. In addition, the
retirement of the baby boom generation will lead to an increase in
demand for workers to fill the positions these highly valued employees
vacate.
To address this problem, the BHEF launched a multi-year initiative,
``Securing America's Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics,'' to develop a strategy to double the number of the
U.S. STEM college graduates by the year 2015. The initiative is co-
chaired by Bill Swanson and Warren Baker, President of California
Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo.
The BHEF initiative investigates a variety of problems that exist
in today's education system, such as low student participation and
declining achievement in STEM subjects relative to other countries, the
shortage of qualified STEM teachers, and the lack of participation by
women and minorities in many STEM disciplines.
Last year, under the leadership of its STEM working group, BHEF
produced a seminal report about how the US could improve the quantity
and quality of our nation's math and science teacher workforce.
Entitled, ``An American Imperative, Transforming the Recruitment,
Retention and Renewal of the Nation's Mathematics and Science Teaching
Workforce,'' the report contained over 100 recommendations for state
and federal government, K-12 and higher education, and business. A
number of recommendations from the report were adopted in the America
COMPETES Act.
Raytheon is taking a new approach to examine potential solutions to
the challenge of increasing the number of STEM graduates. Our CEO, Bill
Swanson, believes that the same systems engineering methods used to
create complex aerospace and defense systems for the U.S. government
can be applied to the U.S. education system.
As a result, in June 2006, in support of his work as co-chair of
the Business-Higher Education Forum's initiative to strengthen STEM
education, he initiated an educational systems engineering and modeling
project.
After nearly two years of work that included consultations with a
number of education experts, we believe that we have demonstrated the
utility and potential of educational systems engineering and modeling.
The overarching goals of the modeling activities are to:
Assist policymakers, educators and researchers in
understanding the complex nature of the U.S. education system.
And to assess potential solutions that will strengthen
U.S. STEM capabilities.
Our approach is centered on developing a dynamic systems
engineering-based model of the U.S. P-16 STEM education system.
The first project began in September 2006 and was completed in May
2007. Four teams of 5 to 6 experienced systems engineers competed to
see which could create the best model of students' progression through
the educational system. The model created examines the flow of the
students through the education system and calculates how many receive a
STEM bachelor's degree.
A second set of projects began in July 2007 and was completed in
March 2008. Five teams of 5 to 6 experienced systems engineers worked
together to update and improve the initial model. The teams modeled the
different outcomes between men and women, and advantaged and
disadvantaged students. They improved the higher education aspects of
the model and created a California state version of the model. To
create the California version we worked with the California Council on
Science and Technology (CCST), led by Susan Hackwood and with SRI
International.
The total effort expended on the U.S. educational system modeling
over the past two years is approximately 12,000 hours by more than 60
experienced engineers. The work we did using systems dynamics
techniques has taken the initial steps to help the STEM education
effort and has enabled our team to further develop their systems
engineering skills.
Of the many proposed improvements to the education system that we
examined, we found that some have the potential for providing large
gains in the numbers of STEM graduates. Improving the capabilities and
experience levels of teachers has a large effect. Improving the
networking of college students with others in their field of study
through cohort and bridge programs that help them to work together and
to share knowledge has a substantial effect. Increasing interest on the
part of women and convincing the many capable disadvantaged students
that they can and should attend college through mentoring programs can
have a large effect.
The modeling effort makes it clear that no single effort will
produce a doubling of the college graduates in 10 years. A combination
of several coordinated approaches will be required. Systems engineering
and system dynamic modeling provide a means of determining what the
combination should be and how many resources should be applied to each.
It was also clear from the research we performed that there are
many areas where additional research is needed to build data sources
and to quantify behavior and, ultimately, to make the model more
robust. To accomplish this, a larger integrated community that includes
researchers, system modeling experts, policymakers, and practitioners
will be required.
For example, we found that additional data is necessary relative to
teacher attrition in their first five years. Approximately 50 percent
of new teachers quit in the first 5 years. What is not clear from the
current data and research is if the most capable are leaving the
profession or not. Additional research data in this area will improve
the model and allow us to better understand what approach will be most
effective at improving student performance.
Our data collection efforts found that there is a great deal of
research and analysis on teacher pay and its effects on performance,
but very little data on STEM teacher pay. The modeling of proposed
changes in STEM teacher pay could not be performed due to lack of data.
Also the effects of pay on STEM teacher attrition could not be modeled.
We found that the data sets collected across the 50 states are very
different and typically incomplete. We examined California in detail
and created specific recommendations for improved data collection.
Better data improves understanding; it enables better modeling and
analysis and will allow us to arrive at better conclusions.
Improvements in the area of data collection and standardization will
provide the information necessary for nationwide comparison and
improvement.
As a result of our two years of work on this project, we have
concluded that modeling is a viable and promising approach for
assessing educational policy changes.
It helps discover unintended consequences.
It provides a means of thinking through the problem for a
system that is too complex for human understanding.
Modeling helps to identify data collection requirements
and missing parts of the research puzzle.
And finally, we believe it can provide guidance to policy
makers allowing them to compare alternatives and examine combinations
of solutions integrated together.
While Raytheon and BHEF have taken the initial steps in the area,
there is much more to be done. We are working with the Ohio State
University and Kathy Sullivan at the John Glenn School of Public
Affairs to form a community of researchers and modelers to expand the
effort. It is our belief that supporting this effort can provide great
benefit to the U.S education system and we would welcome your support
to help us build the community of researchers and modelers who will
continue this work.
Thank you.
______
Chairman Miller. Ms. Lovett.
STATEMENT OF MELENDY LOVETT, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND
PRESIDENT OF EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY, TEXAS INSTRUMENTS
Ms. Lovett. Chairman Miller, Ranking Member McKeon, thank
you for the opportunity to be here to testify on this important
topic. TI has a critical interest in the development of science
and engineering talent, and our education technology business
is focused on math and science student achievement.
American innovation is a top policy priority for our
company, as well as investing in basic research, welcoming the
world's brightest minds, extending the R&D tax credit, and,
most importantly for the long term, improving math and science
education.
I want to talk with you today about TI's STEM workforce
needs, our education efforts, some of which we are in the
process of scaling, and some specific STEM policy
recommendations.
Horace Mann defined education as the great equalizer, and
STEM education is the new great equalizer for today and for our
future workforce. At TI, STEM skills are needed from entry
level all the way through our engineering ranks. Semiconductor
manufacturing is very complex, integrating billions of
transistors on a tiny piece of silicon. And our manufacturing
employees do use their math and science skills every day.
The electrical engineers who design and develop the latest
chips are our lifeblood, and a bachelor's degree in electrical
engineering requires three modules of calculus, differential
equations, linear algebra, statistics, and applied math. In
2007, half of the master's degrees and over 70 percent of the
Ph.D.s in electrical engineering from U.S. universities were
awarded to foreign nationals. TI strongly supports bipartisan
legislation to exempt advanced STEM degree recipients from U.S.
universities from green card quotas. And thank you, Chairman
Miller, for sponsoring this legislation.
TI's education efforts focus on STEM excellence and equity,
reaching out to women and underrepresented minorities. We
emphasize student achievement and measurable success that can
be replicated. Our programs support closing access and
achievement gaps, as well as accelerating the most talented
students to achieve their full potential and full world-leading
innovation.
TI works with policymakers, education stakeholders to
pilot, implement, and then scale education programs such as
early childhood education, high school engineering education,
and Advanced Placement incentive programs.
TI's education technology business is focused on improving
math achievement for all students. Research provides the road
map for the creation of all of our products, and we conduct
ongoing effectiveness studies for products that are currently
deployed in classrooms.
I want to highlight a couple of TI initiatives that we are
now working to scale. One is a policy framework called Finding
Common Ground, and the other is an algebra readiness and
algebra program that we call MathForward. We recognize that a
divisive issue in math education had to be addressed, and that
is the dispute over conceptual understanding versus
computational fluency, also known as the math wars. Richard
Schaar, a Ph.D. mathematician and former head of TI's education
technology business worked closely with experts across the
spectrum of views to publish Finding Common Ground,
highlighting key areas of agreement.
Too many students today are unknowingly making a middle
school decision that could limit their access to college, a
STEM career, or a 21st century job at any level. All students
in America should enter high school algebra-proficient or at
least algebra-ready with all of their career options open to
them.
Our interests in addressing algebra readiness and algebra
rigor led us in 2005 to work with Richardson, Texas school
district to create MathForward. It is a systemic intervention
program grounded in research and aligned to State standards.
MathForward consists of eight integrated components, including
extensive use of formative assessments and ongoing teacher
professional development. The program has successfully raised
the passing rate and test scores of students who previously
failed State math assessments at rates far exceeding the
control group.
The first program was launched with a student population
that was largely African American and Hispanic and mostly from
economically disadvantaged backgrounds. MathForward has
assisted in closing the achievement gap in math from double
digits to single digits for these groups.
TI has implemented additional MathForward sites in Texas,
Ohio and Florida that are also successfully improving student
achievement. With finding common ground TI's policy work brings
a way to move past the math wars. We support the algebra
readiness and algebra rigor recommendations from the Math Panel
and we have real life classroom experience with MathForward to
know that these methods can work to help all students succeed
in algebra.
In conclusion, business, government and education need to
keep working together to address these challenges around STEM
education. TI urges Congress to fulfill the promise of America
COMPETES by providing key funding for STEM education.
Particularly we would like to see it targeted to algebra and
algebra readiness. Of the $3.1 billion spent in Federal STEM
programs, only 1 percent today is dedicated specifically to K-
12 math.
TI also encourages Congress to reauthorize NCLB while
protecting the integrity of the original law.
Finally, TI will continue to work with policymakers and
math education stakeholders to scale proven initiatives that
accelerate STEM education and the goals of NCLB, ensuring all
students develop the essential math literacy needed to enter
STEM fields and succeed in a 21st century job.
Thank you.
[The statement of Ms. Lovett follows:]
Prepared Statement of Melendy Lovett, Senior Vice President and
President, Education Technology, Texas Instruments
Chairman Miller, Ranking Member McKeon, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today on the important topic of science,
technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. Today, I am going to
speak from two perspectives: as an officer of Texas Instruments which
has a critical interest in the development of a pipeline of engineers
and scientists and also as the President of TI's Education Technology
business unit whose business is focused on math and science
proficiency. My testimony will address TI's STEM workforce needs as
well as our activities to advance STEM education. Then I will highlight
MathForward, a promising program TI's Education Technology business has
implemented to advance student achievement in algebra.
Texas Instruments (TI) has a 78-year history of innovation. While
our products have changed many times over the years, we have always
fundamentally been a company of engineers and scientists. Based in
Dallas, TI is the world's third largest semiconductor company.
Semiconductors are the enabling technology driving everything from
computers, cell phones, MP3 players, GPS systems, HDTVs, automotive
safety, and medical devices. TI develops chip technologies for new
electronics that make the world smarter, healthier, safer, greener and
more fun.
While semiconductors comprise 96% of TI's revenues, many people
still associate TI with the calculator. Indeed, TI's Education
Technology business is responsible for the other 4% of revenue, with
products including graphing calculators for middle school and high
school. TI's Education Technology business is focused on improving math
achievement for all students by fostering quality instruction and
learning in mathematics. Research provides the roadmap for the creation
of all of our education technology products and programs and we conduct
ongoing effectiveness studies for products deployed in classrooms.
TI'S focus on innovation
American innovation is a top policy priority for TI. The key
elements needed for the U.S. to sustain its technology leadership are:
investing in basic research, welcoming the world's brightest minds,
extending the R&D tax credit--and perhaps most importantly for the
long-term--improving math and science education. We view these as
inter-related parts of an innovation ecosystem and our policy
objectives and corporate citizenship focus heavily on these priorities.
Many in the business community have become very passionate about this
set of priorities and rightly so. It is our future.
Education is the highest priority for corporate philanthropy at TI.
Each year, TI makes financial contributions totaling millions of
dollars in grants and other gifts to schools, colleges and educational
programs. To help foster our next generation of high-tech innovators,
TI efforts have focused increasingly on STEM, particularly reaching out
to women and under-represented minorities. TI's involvement in
education places a heavy emphasis on student achievement, closing the
achievement gap, and developing programs with measurable success that
can be replicated elsewhere. I describe some of these programs later in
my testimony
TI's former CEO, Tom Engibous, served as a corporate co-chair of
the business coalition to pass No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and TI is a
member of the Business Coalition for Student Achievement that calls for
making science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, and
readiness for college and the workplace priorities in NCLB
reauthorization.
STEM workforce needs
As a former Vice President of Human Resources at TI, I know first-
hand about the math and science skills required at the company. TI
hires employees with skills at different levels. Because of the
continuing complexity of the semiconductor design process and other
technological advances, we are expecting more from engineering
graduates in terms of the breadth of their engineering coursework
exposure and experiences at all levels of higher education--BS, MS, and
Ph.D.
The semiconductor industry depends on electrical engineers to
design and develop the latest chips. A bachelor's degree in electrical
engineering requires three modules of calculus, differential equations,
and linear algebra, and often additional coursework in probability/
statistics and applied mathematics. For advanced degrees in electrical
engineering, coursework is often required in Math Modeling, Statistics,
and Linear Algebra.
In 2007, half of the master's degrees and 71% of the PhDs in
electrical engineering from U.S. universities were awarded to foreign
nationals. This is a source of great concern for TI both because the
nation is not producing sufficient numbers of indigenous EEs but also
because under current visa polices our ability to hire and retain the
product of U.S. universities is limited. TI strongly supports the
bipartisan legislation (H.R. 6039) co-sponsored by Reps. Lofgren and
Cannon as well as Chairman Miller and Rep. Sanchez that would exempt
U.S. advanced STEM degree recipients from the green card limitations.
TI also supports two other employment-based measures to recapture
unused visas (Lofgren-Sensenbrenner H.R. 5882) and eliminate country
limits (Lofgren-Goodlatte H.R. 5921).
Semiconductor manufacturing has migrated from the era of placing a
high value on manual dexterity on the assembly line to one of mental
dexterity on the clean room floor. A TI manufacturing specialist must
have a basic knowledge of math and science skills, such as performing
addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, calculating
fractions, decimals, and percents without the use of a calculator.
Our technicians must have an associates' degree in semiconductor
manufacturing technology and pass a comprehensive test that covers
basic electronics, applied physics and basic chemistry. They must be
able to apply mathematical formulas, perform basic algebraic functions,
and in some jobs apply algebra, geometry or trigonometry functions.
Finding individuals with the right skills set, particularly at the
engineering level is a challenge. This will soon be exacerbated as the
baby boomer generation retires. This one demographic change is expected
to reduce the U.S. science and engineering workforce by half.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that
employment in science and engineering (S&E) occupations will grow 70
percent faster than the overall growth for all occupations.
Mathematical literacy is critical for a range of occupations in today's
economy.
We need to address student interest and skills in STEM at all
stages of the pipeline, from K-12 through university and graduate-
level. Strong math skills are a gating factor for majoring in science
or engineering.
TI'S activities in STEM education
TI and the TI Foundation support a range of STEM education
activities from elementary to graduate school designed to enhance
student interest and achievement in these key disciplines. A few
programs relevant to math are highlighted below:
I led the effort to establish the Women of TI Fund, which sponsors
activities to close the gender gap in STEM fields. In early 2002,
several senior women leaders at Texas Instruments formed the Women of
TI Fund to expand math, science, and technology education for girls in
elementary, middle, and high schools. The fund leverages personal
contributions of TI executives with funds from the TI Foundation, TI
corporate giving, and the Dallas Women's Foundation by providing
targeted grants to achieve this goal.
The fund also supports girls taking and passing the AP tests in
math, science and computer science courses. The good news is that girls
are taking and passing AP calculus exams at roughly the same rate as
boys. However, the largest gender gap appears in physics. The Fund and
the TI Foundation have now sponsored nine summer AP physics camps in
the Dallas area for girls to facilitate success in this subject. In
2007, 134 girls took the AP Physics exam, a 132% increase over year
2000. 43% of girls taking the AP Physics exams pass the test in 2007, a
290% increase over 2001. The Fund also supports counselor and teacher
education on engineering careers to encourage girls to explore these
fields.
TI became an early supporter of the Advanced Placement Incentive
Program, designed to encourage students to take more rigorous college-
level course work in high school. It provides incentives to both
teachers and students for their successes. As a result of the AP
Incentive program operated in the Dallas Independent School District,
the original 10 Dallas ISD Incentive Schools have seen the number of
passing scores for all students in math and science grow 1,220 percent
from pre-incentive program levels (from 71 students passing in 1995 to
937 passing in 2007).
TI has been a national sponsor of MATHCOUNTS, an exciting
competition that gives thousands of seventh and eighth grade
``mathletes'' a chance to race against the clock to solve challenging
mathematics problems. In addition to providing major funding, TI
supplies the TI handheld technology required annually to support local,
state and national MATHCOUNTS competitions. TI is also a sponsor of the
International Mathematics Olympiad, an annual mathematics competition
for high school students.
In 1999, in collaboration with Southern Methodist University (SMU),
TI helped design a math and science-based engineering curriculum for
high school students called the Infinity Project. The class uses
devices such as MP3 players and cell phones to teach engineering
concepts. Infinity is now offered in nearly 275 schools in 37 states
and is showing impressive results in changing student attitudes toward
engineering and technology disciplines.
The TI Math Scholars program at the University of North Texas
Dallas Campus aims to add to the pool of qualified math educators by
offering full scholarships with book stipend, to students pursuing
their Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics with Secondary
Certification at the UNT Dallas Campus. The students will teach in
Dallas ISD or select neighboring school districts for a minimum of two
years in return for this scholarship opportunity.
The TI Foundation's Innovations in Science, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics (STEM) Teacher Awards were established to recognize
instructors at the secondary level who are enhancing student
achievement and increasing interest in high school classrooms in the
Dallas, Plano and Richardson independent school districts (ISD). As
STEM fellows, the teachers participate in a unique annual professional
development day at TI's facility designed to expose them to
interesting, everyday uses of math and science in the technology
business world. Recipients also each receive $10,000, of which $5,000
is directly awarded to the teacher. The other $5,000 is to be used at
the teacher's discretion for professional development or instructional
technology.
Finding common ground in the math wars
Math competency is at the heart of TI's Education Technology
business. Research on student learning and effective teaching is
central to our efforts. We recognized that before there could be
agreement on what and when students learn key math concepts, a divisive
issue in math education had to be addressed. The ``Math Wars'' over
conceptual understanding versus computational fluency have long
prevented progress on K-12 math curricula.
In 2004, Richard Schaar, formerly head of the Education Technology
business at TI, and PhD mathematician, worked closely with experts from
across the spectrum of views, specifically respected mathematicians
such as Jim Milgram and Wilfred Schmidt, and well-known mathematics
educators such as Deborah Ball, Joan Ferrini-Mundy, and Jeremy
Kilpatrick on a project funded by the NSF through MAA, with support
from the Department of Education and TI. In a paper entitled Finding
Common Ground published in 2005, the group found key areas of agreement
around areas in mathematics that have traditionally been in dispute
between the two factions. The group agreed that students need to be
able to:
1. Perform basic number skills
2. Reason about precisely defined objects and concepts
3. Formulate and solve problems
TI Education Technology submitted extensive written comments to the
Math Panel. Our submissions presented the Finding Common Ground work as
well as lessons learned from TI's extensive engagement in education and
related research. One of the key findings is the effectiveness of the
``systems approach,'' meaning that elements in math education such as
teacher content knowledge and professional development, aligned
curriculum, research-based instructional and learning techniques,
ongoing assessments, and administrative support must be addressed in a
coherent, integrated way. There are no silver bullets in a single
system element. The MathForward intervention that I will describe
shortly embodies the systemic approach.
Dr. Schaar provided additional written and oral testimony, on the
research around calculator use and on the MathForward program.
The Finding Common Ground work and related recommendations from the
Math Panel provide a basis for moving forward to improve K-12 math
teaching and learning. TI applauds the emphasis on rigorous research
and building research capacity recommended by Math Panel.
Algebra is essential
The Math Panel report notes that many educational policy experts
see algebra as a central concern. Drops in U.S. math achievement start
in late middle school. The National Math Panel report recommends a
strong grounding through Algebra II due to the high correlation with
access to college, graduation from college, and income potential. Among
African American and Hispanic students completing Algebra II, the
disparity in college graduations rates with the overall student
population is halved compared to those who do not complete Algebra II.
TI supports the Panel recommendations on the critical foundations
for algebra (fluency with whole numbers and fractions and aspects of
geometry and measurement) and the major topics of algebra (symbols and
expressions, linear equations, quadratic equations, functions, algebra
of polynomials, and combinatorics and finite probability). Further, TI
endorses the recommendation that all school districts prepare students
to access an authentic algebra course by eighth grade.
MathForward
In 2005, TI developed and implemented MathForward, an algebra and
algebra-readiness program grounded in research done by a prominent
professor of education.\1\ Our efforts embraced the NCLB view that
interventions be research based and aligned to state standards. The
intervention program has proven successful in significantly raising the
passing rate and test scores of students who previously failed state
math assessment tests.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Carnine, D. (2002) The Ten Components of High Achieving, High
Poverty Schools. Unpublished manuscript. Eugene, OR: University of
Oregon. Summary available from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/math/
TenComEffSch.htm
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MathForward was created with the intent of eliminating the
achievement gap between African American and white students, and
Hispanic and white students, in middle school mathematics. In the pilot
Richardson school district, from 2004 to 2008, the gap for African
American 7th graders versus all students on the Texas math exam closed
from -24% to -8% and from -20% to -11% for 8th graders. For Hispanic
students, the gap closed from -10% to -4% in 7th grade and from -16% to
-4% in 8th grade. While it is critical to eliminate the gap, we
designed MathForward with the intent to increase the learning
opportunities for all students, and improve student achievement results
for all students, regardless of ethnicity or socio-economic status.
The eight integrated components of the intervention include:
Teacher training focused on content knowledge and using
data to drive instruction
Ongoing professional development
Increased classroom learning time
Common, aligned assessments and benchmarking tools to
track student progress real-time
Integration of technology to provide real-time feedback
and enrich classroom instruction and assessment.
Use of an accelerated curriculum
Establishment of high expectations for all students
Increased support of math teaching and learning from
parents and school administrators
These elements are consistent with the National Math Panel's
emphasis on algebra and recommendations on learning and instructional
research and teacher content knowledge.
Increased Teacher Content Knowledge
Participating teachers meet regularly with a mathematician or use
online video modules to build content knowledge for curriculum lessons
they will be teaching in the coming weeks. Teacher's content knowledge
is assessed prior to the start of the program and at the conclusion
using the University of Michigan's Content Knowledge for Teaching
Mathematics measurements.
Ongoing Professional Development
At the beginning of the project, teachers are trained on the use of
the extended classroom time, appropriate integration of technology,
data driven decision making and setting high expectations, all in the
practical context of daily math teaching.
Teachers are given a common, duty-free, planning time at least a
few times a week. The time is used to plan lessons for the week,
discuss teaching strategies, analyze student work, and discuss
underlying math concepts. Coaches/Implementation Specialists
participate regularly in these sessions to provide guidance and
feedback.
Extended Learning Time
Schools implement the MathForward program in two block-scheduled
mathematics class periods per day. The daily mathematics class is
partitioned into three distinct sections: daily skills warm-up,
district curriculum (lesson), and problem solving (task or lesson). The
additional time spent in the mathematics classroom allows teachers to
use problem solving and collaborative learning strategies necessary to
improve deep understanding and develop skills.
Integration of Technology
In Math Forward, teachers use technology daily to enhance district
lessons, provide students with immediate feedback about learning, and
reinforce mathematics content through a wide variety of pedagogical
mechanisms. Formative assessment is enabled through the use of graphing
calculators integrated with a wireless classroom network. The teacher
can send questions to the student devices, and students then send their
answers back to the teacher for display and grading. The system allows
the teacher to project classroom displays of their screens and student
responses and also enhances student learning through a collaboration
component.
Common, Aligned Assessments
Teachers are trained and required to administer assessments with
students in the block classes at the beginning and end of each unit of
study. Various forms of formative and summative assessments are used to
inform teachers about students' content and procedural knowledge and
the communication used to discuss content and processes within open
response, or problem solving items.
The frequency of assessments allows teachers to meet individual
student needs, and easily identify struggling students. Teachers are
able to restructure lessons and activities prior to a student failing
the course at the end of six-weeks, or waiting for the results of a
district benchmark exam.
Accelerated and Rigorous Curriculum
Research has shown that the curriculum for underachieving math
students often is narrowed to the low-level procedural, with little
attention paid to the more demanding learning tasks involved in deep
conceptual understanding and high-level problem solving. By contrast,
the MathForward model is based on the principle that all students
benefit from a rigorous curriculum: the right way to ensure math
success for all is to build deep understanding and then expertise in
problem solving.
Toward this end, MathForward coaches work with teachers to achieve
appropriate rigor in the curriculum. Special supplemental learning
activities and assessments aligned to state standards target key math
concepts, principles and problem-solving strategies.
High Expectations for All Students
By middle school, many students lack self-confidence in
mathematics. In this program, teachers create safe environments and
encourage student responses. Students are valued for their ability to
solve problems and are given tools to enhance content knowledge,
justification, reasoning and proof. With the frequency of feedback and
support students receive, they gain knowledge and confidence in their
ability to do well in mathematics.
Increased Administrator and Parental Support
Administrator support is critical to success. Administrators
participate in staff development, meet with project staff to discuss
components of the model, and actively support implementation.
Administrators set expectations for teachers and students during the
initial phase of the project and continue to monitor progress
throughout the year. Parental involvement and support of math learning
is also critical to student success.
Results
In the 2005-2006 school year, the RISD pilot project involved 79
students who had failing test scores on the Texas state math test
(TAKS). Most participants were African-American or Hispanic and most
were from economically disadvantaged circumstances. The intervention
resulted in \1/3\ of students passing the test and increasing their
scores by six points or mores versus a comparison group with a pass
rate of 19 percent and decline of one point.
RISD completed the second year of the program in 2007, with four
more junior highs participating in the middle school program and two
9th grade Algebra pilots. The classes included struggling students, as
well as those who were doing well in mathematics, including some Pre-AP
students. 46% of the students who did not pass the state test last year
successfully passed the 2007 TAKS and this represents an improvement
when compared to last year's 33% pass rate, as well as a gain when
compared to the comparison group. In addition, students in the program
who were above the cut score improved their achievement when compared
to the comparison group. 57% of MathForward, students participating in
the 9th grade Algebra pilot who failed the state test in 2006, attained
proficiency in 2007. By contrast, the comparison group had a 34% pass
rate, suggesting that MathForward can be successfully extended from
Pre-Algebra to Algebra.
As I mentioned earlier, in RISD, the program also has proven
effective in closing the achievement gap for African American,
Hispanic, and economically disadvantaged students. Detailed figures are
illustrated below.
TI has rolled out additional sites, including districts in Dallas,
Ohio, and Florida. In Ohio, the 2007 pass rate of students who were not
proficient in 2006 and who were in MathForward was 45%, while the
similar comparison group's 2007 pass rate was 29%. In Florida, the
program resulted in a 50% pass rate versus just under 40% for the
control group. In Dallas, mixed results occurred due to structural
problems with two incomplete implementations that are currently being
reviewed. TI has also launched additional new pilots in Texas,
California, and New York.
In expanding MathForward, TI is focused on scalability to
additional schools, sustainability within the teaching staff,
completeness of how the eight components of the intervention join
synergistically to make a coherent and complete whole, and learning
through continued research. MathForward is a model of how companies and
districts can collaborate to improve student achievement in the
critical pre-algebra and algebra concepts.
Recommended next steps in STEM education
For our nation's continued economic competitiveness, it is critical
that business and government join together to address the challenges
around STEM education. Our country has real national challenges that
will need to be solved through science and engineering such as energy,
medical, security and infrastructure.
In 2005, the Tapping America Potential (TAP) coalition of 16
business organizations led by Business Roundtable, joined together to
advocate for renewed attention to U.S. competitiveness and America's
capacity to innovate. TAP established an overarching goal to double the
number of U.S. science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
graduates with bachelor's degrees by 2015. TAP's recommendations for
achieving that goal included improving STEM education, increased
federal funding for basic research, and reforming U.S. visa policies to
welcome the best and brightest. Among the K-12 STEM education
recommendations were improved teaching capacity and a concentrated
focus on middle school math.
Last week, TAP released an update report entitled Gaining Momentum,
Losing Ground which found that while the issue of U.S. innovation has
received increased attention in Congress and AmericaCOMPETES became
law, generally increased appropriations for basic research and math and
science education have not followed.
TAP supports full funding for several key federal STEM programs,
including: MathNow, Math/Science Partnerships (MSPs) at the Department
of Education and augmenting the MSPs at the National Science
Foundation, AP/IB incentives, Noyce scholarships at NSF to encourage
undergraduate STEM majors to enter teaching, and the NSF's Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Math Talent Expansion Program (STEP). TI
concurs with these recommendations as addressing essential STEM
education needs.
MathNow was authorized in AmericaCOMPETES at $95 million and
requested in FY 2008 at $125 million by the Administration, but
received no funding through appropriations. The AP Incentive Program
was authorized at $74 million in AmericaCOMPETES, requested at $122
million by the Administration in FY 2008, but received only $44 million
in final appropriations. AmericaCOMPETES authorized $896 million for
the NSF's Education and Human Resources Activities (including MSPs,
Noyce, and STEP), but FY2008 appropriations provided $726 million.
The Academic Competitiveness Council Report examining $3.12 billion
in federal STEM programs found that $574 million, or 18.4% of the funds
were directed at K-12 level and only 1% (just over $30 million) were
programs specifically focused on K-12 Math. Additional resources must
be focused on the math literacy required for U.S. workers in today's
global economy.
TI urges Congress to fulfill the promise of America COMPETES by
providing key funding for STEM education, particularly targeted to
algebra and algebra readiness. Algebra is the lynchpin not only for the
STEM fields, but success in entering and completing college and in
preparation for 21st century jobs at all levels.
TI also encourages Congress to reauthorize No Child Left Behind,
while protecting the integrity of the original law--with high
standards, assessments aligned to those standards, greater
accountability and highly qualified teachers as the formula for
continuing to drive improvement.
While sufficient funding of STEM programs is critical, there are
other elements to consider. Programs in the K-12 STEM area should
contribute positively to student achievement and the goals of NCLB. It
is not enough just to stimulate student interest in science without
developing the essential skills, specifically the foundations of
algebra and beyond, needed to enter STEM fields.
In TI's experience, the most effective public/private STEM
education partnerships meet the following criteria:
1. Program supports and/or builds upon state standards in
mathematics and/or science. Efforts that do not support or enhance
state standards can be a distraction to schools trying to comply with
NCLB, particularly in low performing schools.
2. Professional development programs should tie into the NCLB
requirement ensuring that teachers are highly qualified. Study after
study demonstrates that teacher quality is a key determinant of student
success.
3. Program is replicable and identifies the key elements for
successful implementation.
4. Demonstrates some clear result, i.e., increased test scores,
students taking tougher courses, etc. Soft metrics on the number of
``students touched'' or ``teachers given professional development'' are
not sufficient.
By focusing resources on programs that meet these objectives, the
private sector, federal, state and local governments can work together
to ensure that all U.S. students develop the stronger math and science
skills required to succeed in the global economy today and in the
future.
______
Chairman Miller. Thank you very much. And thank you to all
of you for your testimony. You have given us some wonderful
examples of what we would like to achieve on a national level,
and that is to grab these students and engage them for a
lifetime of curiosity about math and science. Whether it leads
to their profession or not is another issue. We would like to
not have it be such a foreign topic and so easily dismissed
when somebody admits, I can't do that or I don't do math. To
change that concept.
This is a question--sort of--for the three of you, Dr.
Chang and to the Mickelsons here. You mentioned, Dr. Chang,
when you went back to your district you realized, one teacher
at a time, one student at a time, this wasn't going to work
this way. I just wondered what the interaction has been between
now you, with 4 years at the academy, and the academy when you
talked about going back and are now working with other teachers
to give them the benefits of those who went to the academy and
developing curriculum and professional development and whether
that is now--because we are always looking for replication and
sort of that tipping point where we can get other people
infected with the excitement and the competency--whether that
has also changed how the academy looks at this, whether or not
your teachers leave there with additional tools to work with
others and their schools.
Whoever wants to answer that, go ahead.
Ms. Chang. Well, the opportunity to go back and to share
something is not something we always get to do. And so when we
go back as a group of 36 now and the previous 3 years of teams
are waiting for us, they know that we are going to be bringing
in some new ideas. What happens each year with the academy is
as we are working on the projects through the year, the
instructors are always refining and bringing in some new
strategies, and we keep building on it.
Our opportunity to be able to dialogue professionally with
one another and share resources and ideas is probably the most
powerful professional opportunity for educators everywhere, and
having support from the Mickelsons, from all of the businesses
that have supported us, to be able to do just that is really
critical because our fundings are rather limited. And so to do
what we need to do and sustain what we want to do with our
children, we need that time together. And our teachers have
taken it on.
There was some reticence to begin, I must admit. But once
they got involved and realized what they were getting from that
experience, it was a much more powerful experience year after
year.
Mr. Mickelson. The selection process made by the district
is geared towards trying to select teachers who are motivated
and want to come back and inspire other teachers. So it is not
just targeted at one teacher. We are hoping that in the
selection process as well that we get the teachers that, again,
are motivated, energetic and excited to come back and not only
educate their kids but also to share these ideas with the
teachers. And that is the way we can have the biggest impact as
opposed to having it be so limited. This is our best way to get
the outreach much more far-reaching.
Chairman Miller. Thank you. Amy?
Mrs. Amy Mickelson. We actually started something just this
year new to kind of try to open it up to the masses and take it
even another step past corporate America. And we have got a
program going called sendmyteacher.com, where basically we are
trying to market this program to have the masses nominate their
teacher to actually be at our academy for next year.
So this has been a great opportunity. We are hoping this
catches momentum so that I think in that, in actual students
nominating teachers or teachers nominating themselves, we are
going to get the cream of the crop, the most motivated
individuals to come and just make their skills--hone their
skills even better.
Chairman Miller. Would you include sendmycongressman.com or
something? We could work on that.
Dr. Ride, I know you have to leave. But Ms. Lovett in her
testimony points out in the program that she is working on in
Dallas, or the TI employees are, that if the young women do
take the AP courses, they are passing AP in mathematics at the
same rate as young men. So it is not a lack of talent here. If
you just wanted to comment. To get them engaged--the Mickelsons
are working with the third, fourth and fifth grade--how do we
keep them engaged so that they will participate in the AP
courses in math and physics and sciences?
Ms. Ride. Absolutely I would be happy to comment on that. I
think that if we lose them in middle school we are not going to
get them back. So it is very critical to apply these programs
in middle school and in high school, and what we see is--and it
is illustrated really well by the TI program and the data that
they have got--that if you encourage these girls--and the TI
program, parts of the program that I am familiar with, they
actually have a program that encourages girls to take AP
physics and pass AP physics--they pass AP physics now in the
numbers that boys do in the places that they have tried it. And
one of the things that they implemented--pardon me for speaking
for your program.
Ms. Lovett. Go ahead.
Mr. Ride. But it is actually something that we use as well
and we feel very strongly about it. One of the things that they
have implemented is actually teacher training to educate the
teachers about the potential that girls have. A lot of the
teachers don't have the background in science and math. But
they also may come with sort of implicit biases that they don't
know they have, that the culture has imposed on them, that
makes them think that it is maybe not as important for girls to
be good in math or that maybe girls naturally aren't as good in
math or that science isn't as important or that they just don't
have quite the same level of expectation for some of the girls
in their class that they do for the boys. And this builds up
over the years. And it is very important to train the teachers
to let them know, number one, that girls should be expected to
do well in math and in physics and in other subjects, and that
there are strategies that you can use in your classroom to help
engage the girls and encourage them and bring out the best
efforts in them.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Ms. Chang, one of the things the Math Panel told us was we
don't do a very good job as a nation--or certainly when we look
at other nations--at presenting this in a coherent fashion in
the early grades in mathematics, that we kind of--it is sort of
slap dash over several grades instead of building a foundation.
I just wondered if the academy, in your work, do you think you
are presenting a more coherent and a comprehensive program in
math to young students?
Ms. Chang. Well, I think the academy provides the teachers
with the pedagogy that is needed to put together a quality
instructional program. So it is critical then to marry the
pedagogy then with the content and bring the program together.
The articulation that the teachers have through the grades,
starting probably at pre-kindergarten all the way through to
high school, would then create that opportunity for a cohesive
program.
So our communication needs to go over several levels,
elementary through middle and high, and continuously
dialoguing. There needs to be an understanding of what is
happening all around you on one side or the other of each grade
level and then we are able to have that continuity.
Chairman Miller. Thank you. My time has expired. I want to
recognize Mr. McKeon. But again we have two witnesses, and I
don't know if you want to ask Tom a question or Ms. Ride. If I
do this to every panel member, you will be here until 6:00
tonight.
You are excused if you want to leave.
Ms. Ride. I will wait. Thank you.
Chairman Miller. We have an ongoing conversation all the
time about this. We have great bipartisan support for the
COMPETES Act. We have got to get both ends of the Avenue
together here. The Congress has voted for this overwhelmingly.
We think it is important to the future of everything that is
being talked about here and finally a recognition at the
national level about the importance of the STEM education. I am
sure Mr. Holt will go on about that.
Mr. McKeon. Thank you, both of you, for coming and
testifying. I know you have a flight problem.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you for having this hearing.
I think this has been extremely interesting. And it is, as the
chairman mentioned, this is a bipartisan issue. This isn't
something that is like most of the issues that come before this
committee. It is something we are all extremely interested in.
A couple of years ago I took a trip to China and some of
our other Members attended that. It was something that business
people have been telling me for years that we had to do. You
have got to go over there and see what is happening. And it was
a great trip. We visited with industry leaders, educational
leaders, visited some of their schools, some of their students.
And there seemed to be a broad consensus with all the people we
talked to over there that their students did better in math and
science and our students do better in social skills and
entrepreneurship. And I told them, they will never be able to
beat us in that because of their one-child system, because most
of those entrepreneurial competitive skills we learn fighting
with our brothers and sisters before we ever get to school.
But one of the things that I really noticed a difference in
is that their universities, almost all of the presidents--I
can't think of an exception--that we met with were engineers.
And if you meet with our university leaders, they are generally
from liberal arts or they are fundraisers or, you know, it is a
totally different system.
And one of our greatest strengths I think is represented
right here, all of you coming from different--similar
backgrounds but different backgrounds but all involved in doing
something to improve our competitiveness. You are doing things
to inspire and teach and motivate our young people into a field
that is very necessary for our country. That is one of our
strengths, is our individualness and ability to do that.
It is also a weakness, when you compare it to a system like
China where one or two people at the top can say this is what
we are going to do and this is how we are going to do it. And
then it is done kind of throughout the country. And we have 50
States. Each State has their own educational system. They set
their own curriculum. And then we at the Federal Government try
to pass legislation that we think will help. But we have come
from the direction of those who need the help the most, the
underprivileged. That has been mostly where the Federal effort
has been directed towards and the funding.
Now we do have a lot of STEM programs. We have a lot of
money that is provided to these programs because we see it as a
national priority. It is a real need. But we don't seem to have
a cohesiveness in the direction that these are running.
When President Kennedy--when the Russians put up Sputnik
and he said, we are going to go to the Moon, you know, a lot of
people said that couldn't happen. And fortunately people did
pull together and accepted that challenge and rose to the
occasion.
What is going to be the challenge that will excite our
young people? I mean, I have some ideas. What ideas do you
have? Something has to strike these young people, catch their
imagination and move them into this area. Right now, you know,
a lot of them I talk to, they want to be professional athletes.
They watch Phil on TV and say, wow. He could tell you how hard
that is. But how are we going to excite the young people? What
do you think will be something that will strike their
imagination, get them to want to go into these programs?
Mr. Luce. Congressman, I think we have approached that
subject in various ways, all of us. And of course part of that
is raising that excitement and curiosity when they are young
enough to grab hold of the dream. Often if we wait too long, it
is just too late. And I would also comment on your previous
comment about the diversification of our country. And it is one
of our strengths.
But notwithstanding that, we had on a voluntary basis, we
had 52 universities apply to replicate one program of another
university. And if I might say so, Mr. Chairman, I never
expected Cal Berkeley to apply to replicate somebody else's
program. But that occurred. And I think it is because there is
rising sentiment. There has been so much attention brought to
the subject by you all that what I fear is that this tide is
building up and if we don't respond soon with some coherent
direction of pointing people to some particular programs, that
we are going to go through another cycle of pilot programs.
And I would just point out that we had 28 States, 52
universities. I mean that is a tremendous start of people
saying, regardless of local standards, regardless of State
differential standards, we all know we have to do this.
Mr. McKeon. I think that is great, 52 out of thousands of
universities. I am talking about, to reach down to the children
themselves, what is going to motivate them to get into these
programs? What you are talking about is good and it will train
teachers, once the kids come. But what will excite the kids?
Ms. Lovett. I would offer that it is great teachers who
translate the needs of our world into exciting challenges for
students, making the world greener, safer, healthier, more fun,
students can definitely get engaged in and oriented around
those topics. And we see technology in the classroom.
Minimizing discipline problems and helping teachers with
classroom management and having students spend more of their
time on math. In fact at one middle school campus in Canton,
Ohio, for the first time ever, math class beat out recess as
the favorite class at the school.
So I have been in many classrooms and seen great teachers
take relevant content of today and help students learn great
math and science from it.
Mrs. Amy Mickelson. I would like to add to that because I
think if we can make science and math like recess and I think
bring science to life and focus more on things like we are
doing at the academy, making science fun, making science not
intimidating and making science like recess, everyone's
favorite topic, instead of worksheets and instead of handbooks.
But I think the problem is that teachers are teaching multiple
subjects and it is hard to find a way to make that happen and
still excite the children.
Mr. Mickelson. I don't think there will ever be a Sputnik
per se. I don't think we will have one instance that is going
to inspire our kids immediately to go into the math and science
fields. I think what will happen is over time we are going to
end up having companies move their headquarters to other
countries so that they can supply these engineering and
mathematics and computing jobs elsewhere because we are not
creating enough students to fulfill those. So the companies are
going to have to move elsewhere. This will create one of those
steps. As people aren't able to find well-paying jobs, as those
jobs are going overseas and they are increasingly for fewer
dollars, that will end up affecting us indirectly over a long
period of time.
And so I don't think there is going to be one instance
like, oh, my goodness, Russia just put up Sputnik, it is
orbiting the Earth. We have got to get on this. Let's go to the
Moon. It won't be like that, and that is why everybody here is
trying to create a game plan and a model that will get us back
on the right track so that over the next 15 years we are on the
right direction and this long-term problem will be averted.
Mr. Wells. As an engineer, there are many things that are
still exciting out there in engineering. Alternate energy,
robotics. I went to a robot competition. The kids were just
wild about it. They are having a great time, highly motivated.
There are many jobs--what we try and do with MathMovesU is try
to bring those jobs to the students. Tell them, look, you could
be doing those if you know your math and science. You could be
designing the next hybrid automobile. You could be creating
windmills or alternate energy. There are tremendous challenges
out there. But I don't think the kids hear about them and they
are not aware of them.
Chairman Miller. Mr. Kildee.
Mr. McKeon. Until you get those great teachers that teach
them and motivate them.
Mr. Wells. Yes.
Mr. Kildee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the Mickelsons and
Dr. Chang and maybe you, Tom, also, the rest of you, why did
the United States start our lack of growth or retrogression in
science and math when, as you mentioned, Singapore and China
began a quantum leap forward? What happened to us? Why did we
start to lag behind those countries?
Dr. Chang or the Mickelsons or Tom.
Mr. Luce. Well, I think as several members of the committee
have discussed, we have had a cultural problem in the past 20
years or so where--I think you referred to it, Mr. Chairman--
seemingly it is okay to say I can't balance my checkbook,
whereas nobody would say I can't read. And so I think part of
it is cultural. But you know the Chinese, to use an example, I
met with the Chinese Minister of Education when he was here and
he very politely said ``oh, we have much to learn from you. You
know, we have to learn creativity from you.'' Then he said,
``and of course we think you need to learn more basics from
us.'' And he said, ``we know what we don't know.'' I think he
was very nicely saying, we don't know what we don't know. And I
think we have lived off of the fruits of the generation of the
defense expenditures, the Sputnik generation, the later
generations. And we have got, I think, as the Exxon-Mobil ads
are doing, we have got to start explaining to kids. One great
opportunity is our kids are great consumers of technology. And
if we never--you know, eventually they are going to have to say
to themselves, we can't just eat the egg sandwich. We have to
learn where the eggs come from. Maybe that is a way to grab
them. If we can talk to them about you have to know math to
make a video game.
So we have to bring in the youngsters and say, you want to
cure cancer, you want to deal with the global climate, you want
to deal with energy security, you want to deal with these
issues, this is the way it is going to happen.
Mr. Kildee. It is not just enough to say it is just
cultural problems. We have to address those then if we are
going to address the problems in science and math.
Mr. Luce. And part of that you think very clearly is we
have to provide more help for our teachers in terms of this
content knowledge, which for so long we have not offered our
teachers. The uniqueness of the You Teach Program is the
pedagogy is actually how do you teach math and science. Two-
thirds of the pedagogy courses are in how do you teach math and
science. And so that is a great step forward. But there is not
going to be a gigantic leap here. So that is why we have to
start taking the scale programs.
Mr. Kildee. Dr. Chang or Mickelsons, do you have anything
to add to that?
Mr. Mickelson. I don't know if anybody can really identify
one single reason as to why there has been this shift in the
decline in math and science, say, in the United States as
opposed to the increase in other countries. I don't know if
there is one specific area. And certainly the culture is part
of it. We won the race. I mean, we won the race to space. And
so there is no longer that sense of urgency that we had with
the Sputnik and with going to the Moon. And so we have tailed
off our interests. And what we are trying to do is reignite
that interest in the math and sciences.
One of the things I think is really cool is what NASA is
doing right now with trying to set up a lunar hub and trying to
get to Mars and terraform Mars. Some of the stuff is very
exciting. The message doesn't get out to kids. It is not talked
about. And so I have to actively search for it to be able to
discuss it with them. And now they are interested in it. Some
of the great things that we are doing as a country that are
exciting stuff technology-wise, looking for innovative new
energy. I know Exxon-Mobil leads the way in trying to find
alternative fuels. What we are doing with our space program is
so exciting. But the word isn't quite getting out. And I think
that having the word out to young kids can kind of reignite
that passion that we, a lot of Americans, had when the Russians
sent up Sputnik.
And so I think that is one of the things that can help
reignite the interest in it. But also what we are trying to do
is give the teachers now the tools to reignite that passion as
well in their students.
So I don't know if there is one direct answer for your
question. But the solution we believe is, again, to get that
passion back.
Mr. Kildee. Anyone else want to comment on that?
Ms. Lovett. Well, I would comment that a major contributor
to the gap that is causing the U.S. to fall behind is that
other growing economies, such as India and China, have put this
at the top of their set of priorities because they see the
connection between growing the innovative talent in their
countries and growing their economies.
So it is not only that the U.S. has fallen behind. It is
also that the world has become more globally competitive, and
these countries have put it at the top of their priority agenda
in order to fuel their growing economies.
Mr. Kildee. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Mr. Kline.
Mr. Kline. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks to the really
distinguished panel. And Mr. Chairman, I know this was a
scheduling difficulty. But what a shame that we had to have a
hearing on a day when so many of our colleagues are trying to
come back. This is an extraordinary, extraordinary panel.
Ms. Sullivan, for some time I have thought that we ought to
look for more ways to get mathematicians who are already
excited, scientists who are already excited and already in the
field to move to teaching. Our approach in this country for a
number of years is to graduate teachers and then hope that we
can find some way to get them excited in math and science. And
so I was really interested in your transition in the teaching
program, the second career.
How many IBMers would you say are doing that?
Ms. Sullivan. We have 100 IBMers who have gone into the
program in the last 2 years, which recognizing it is a small
number next to a shortfall of, I think, 250,000 teachers in
this area, but most of them have gone into the areas of science
and math and technology, coming from the area of their
expertise.
Mr. Kline. And do you know of other companies that are
doing the same thing?
Ms. Sullivan. We are working with other companies to
encourage similar programs. We actually have coannounced a
program, the Encore Program with the State of California to
encourage return to teaching for retirees. And so we are very
much in those conversations with other corporations to
encourage that.
Mr. Kline. Well, I hope that other corporations will join
you and that the various States will make that transition as
easy as possible. I know from my own experience that when you
sort of graduate from one career and think about going into
teaching it is sometimes very difficult to make that step.
There are a lot of licensing requirements and so forth. And I
suppose some of that is probably necessary. But what a shame
that we would keep people who already had successful careers,
already knowledgeable in science and engineering, mathematics,
it would be great for them to come and share not only their
knowledge but their passion for those subjects to our students.
And then, Mr. Mickelson--I am saying Mr. Mickelson. You are
a witness and we, all of us, who have spent our Saturday and
Sunday afternoons are used to you being referred to as Phil.
But because we have spent perhaps too many of our Saturday and
Sunday afternoons watching you instead of exercising ourselves,
we have had a chance to see that video that we saw here. And I,
like I am sure all of my colleagues here and the people sitting
out here, were struck by it. It is a fantastic video. I don't
know whether to call it an ad or not. But it is just striking.
It is very, very well done. And I would hope that that kind of
ad, that there could be more of those. If that doesn't strike
some interest on the part of adults and students, I don't know
what would. But because you have said, and because the video
points out that Exxon-Mobil is an integral part of your
partnership, I wonder if you could just tell us, what is that
partnership? What is Exxon's role in this? How does that work?
Mr. Mickelson. We have used the Exxon-Mobil Foundation,
created a partnership in which both Amy and I and Exxon-Mobil
fund, and created the math and science teachers academy. Their
commitment to education is why this was a good fit. And we,
again, just developed this jointly. Truman Bell is the head of
the foundation. He runs the academy, organizes it. We have used
Weber Shandwick to help organize the details. We have used
National Science Teachers Association and Math Solutions to
help get not only the curriculum but the staff to create the
educating process. And so it has been a combination of a lot of
people, but really the organization came about through the
Exxon-Mobil Foundation.
Mr. Kline. Well, it is terrific. And whether that is an ad
or a promo, I am not sure what that video is, but I think it is
highly effective.
Mr. Mickelson. Thank you.
Mr. Kline. So I thank you and commend you and Exxon-Mobil.
And as we were mentioning before the hearing, just a plug for
the PGA, but the work that the PGA is doing in charitable work
is, again, just astonishing and the amount of money and the
diversity that they have gone to.
So thanks for all of your work, and thanks to all of the
panelists. It really is an extraordinary panel. And thanks
again, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Chairman Miller. Thank you. Just a notice for the members,
the reason this hearing is today is that it is one of Mr.
Mickelson's off days. He doesn't get many days off. But he was
nice enough to make an effort to fly here to be with us today.
So there was no other time available. So we want to thank him
for that.
Mr. Kline. That is reason enough, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Yarmuth. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would also like to
commend all the witnesses and thank you all for being here.
Ms. Lovett, you talked about the importance of technology
in science and math instruction. And I am going to use this to
plug a provision in a bill that I was able to introduce and it
has now passed in the Higher Education Act, if we can get it
passed through in conference.
But it created something called the National Center for
Learning Science and Technology, and the idea is to create sort
of the National Science Foundation for learning sciences so
that we can have an entity that assembles all the best
information and does research about the best technologies,
using the best technologies to educate people.
So my question related to that is, we talk about the
pedagogy that has already been developed. I would assume that
this is a continuously evolving process, as they find new
techniques and new strategies occur. How much do you think
technology is going to play a role in the evolving pedagogy for
teaching science and math?
Ms. Lovett. I believe technology can be a very key enabler
of getting that student engagement and of giving teachers a
broad range of tools to use in the classroom. Boys learn
differently than girls. Different students are at different
places in their learning. And I think technology can play a
very key role in giving teachers information about where their
students are in their learning, giving feedback to teachers so
that they can make their decisions based on where each student
is in their learning.
You make reference to a number of organizations and
universities that have a wealth of information about best
practices in math, science and technology education. And those
research bases are evolving. However, I will say that there is
still far too little true effectiveness research about what
really works, and we are continuing to do our part to do
effectiveness research and learn more what we can do to our own
products to make them more effective in the classroom. But we
certainly support the nonprofit and the universities joining us
in that endeavor as well.
Mr. Yarmuth. And anybody can take a shot at this. But I
think Mr. Luce has been talking about it to a certain extent.
The whole idea that in some other countries there is a vast
difference in terms of the emphasis on science and math and the
proficiency of apparently the instruction. How much of this do
you think deals with expectations of students and the idea in
some cultures that it is much more of a managed society, that
you are basically told you don't have an option of whether to
learn math or science, you have to learn math or science. In
China you have to take 6 years of English. And we don't have
that same type of compulsory emphasis. Is that a factor, do you
think?
Mr. Luce. I doubt we would move to compulsory courses any
time soon. But I think one interesting thing of the power of
the advanced placement incentive programs in high school is
that what the data is showing in all these schools we are in is
that oftentimes our expectations of students are very low and
we don't give them the opportunity to achieve. So what you saw
on those numbers was, despite all of the problems in elementary
school, all the problems in middle school, we still can
quadruple the number of students taking and passing AP math and
science courses. Only by starting a program in high school--
would I like to drive it down to 3-year-olds? Absolutely. But
it is not fair to say we are going to write off another
generation. And these programs are increasing enrollment 600
percent simply because we are giving the schools the incentives
to offer those courses where they are not today being offered.
And that is a matter of equity as well as excellence.
Mr. Yarmuth. I have to use this opportunity to plug my
hometown, the fact that we have the Ryder Cup coming to
Louisville next month. And Phil, we are looking forward to
having you there and Amy as well.
Mrs. Amy Mickelson. Thank you.
Mr. Yarmuth. You talked in your testimony about--it was in
your written statement about how you use science and math every
day in your golf game. Could you elaborate on that a little
bit?
Mr. Mickelson. I can tell that you are looking for a few
pointers.
Mr. Yarmuth. Always.
Chairman Miller. He agreed to testify, not run a clinic.
Mrs. Amy Mickelson. Did you bring your putter?
Mr. Yarmuth. I want the flop shot.
Mr. Mickelson. There is two big ways. One is the
technology, the equipment itself, whether it is moment of
inertia, head weight, center of gravity, launch conditions,
spin rate. We use a lot of that technology at the test center
where I practice. That is one way we are getting the clubs
refined to maximize performance.
But the other way that I use statistics and math is to help
me identify where to practice and how to maximize my practice.
And the best example I can give is, as we use--I use a 3-foot
drill where I hit 3-foot putts. And I can make 100 percent,
let's say, of 3-foot putts. But my percentage of misses is not
linear, meaning if I go to 4 feet it doesn't fall off linearly.
It falls off exponentially.
So what this tells me is if I move from 3 feet to 4 feet,
that one foot, I drop from 100 percent to 88 percent; if I go
from 4 to 5 feet, I go from 88 percent to 78 percent; and if I
go from 5 to 6, it goes down to 65 percent.
Now what this, again, tells me is, when I am hitting a 200-
yard shot and the best player on tour hits a 5-iron from 200
yards to 35 feet, and the worst is 50 feet, the difference in
that 15 feet of putts made is 1 percent. So it is a waste of
time. I am not maximizing my time if I am hitting 200-yard
shots. But if I can hit chip shots and get inside that 3-foot
circle, I can maximize my scores, lower my scores. And so I
maximize my practice by using these statistics to identify
where to spend most of my time.
Mr. Yarmuth. That is very helpful, isn't it, Mr. Miller?
Chairman Miller. Well, we will have recess for 20 minutes
here. All the boys will go out and see what they can do with
this.
Mrs. Biggert, bring us back here.
Mrs. Biggert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will try.
You know, we are involved in reauthorizing No Child Left
Behind. And one of the things that I do, and we all have the--
the fun thing is going back to our district and going to
businesses, like I will go to one that is planning on working
with NASA to put a station on the Moon and then send back
something like a microwave to use as electricity.
So these are all minds that are working on all the problems
that we have. And I think that is why we need to have so many
of our young people getting involved. And I have gone into the
classes from kindergarten through college. But the fun time is
to go from like fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. And I have to
agree with you that talking to fifth graders who are engaged in
all kinds of activities, they get to seventh and eighth grade--
particularly the young women are saying I can't do math. They
had that mindset. But I think it is changing. And I think they
are seeing a lot of role models of women who are astronauts and
whoever are doing things that really involve the engineering
and involve the math skills. But it still worries me. And I
know there has been some studies that women learn differently
than men. And there has been some things--like I think AAUW did
a study on whether they should segregate their classrooms. But
I think everybody learns differently, so you have to have a
teacher who has the ability to work with all the students.
But getting back to the No Child Left Behind. And some of
the things that we have discovered in talking to teachers, and
it troubles me, is that they are teaching to the test. And they
said it has taken away so much creativity in the time that they
have I think really to create the excitement. And they are
bothered--they are frustrated with that. And now we are going
to be testing the science as well, is supposed to be coming up
this year. And I worry about that. And I see the excitement
when you have celebrities that are touting the math and the
science and when you have the teachers that are excited about
it. But I wondered if any of you have any ideas in how we can
overcome that teaching to the test so that it is not--they are
so upset about it that they focus in on that instead of the
level of really learning that the kids have.
Ms. Lovett.
Ms. Lovett. It certainly is a worry. In the reauthorization
of No Child Left Behind we support keeping the accountability
there and keeping the rigor there. We also would like to see
more college and workplace readiness and more STEM emphasis in
the reauthorization. And the concern about teaching to the
test, you know, I have seen wonderful examples where principals
of the school and local leadership in education really lead the
way in implementing No Child Left Behind in a way that
accomplishes its missions without the negatives. And so I think
educational leadership is really important. And looking at that
educational system as a system, that there is not just one
component that needs to be impacted in order to change student
achievement. But teachers need to maybe spend more time with
the kids in math and science, maybe they need more professional
development, perhaps they need better content knowledge around
their content or better training in how to make data-driven
decisions.
So those are some of the things that we have seen make a
difference.
Mrs. Biggert. Anyone else?
Mrs. Amy Mickelson. We have 93 percent of teachers grades
five through nine are not credentialed in the area of science.
And I know as a teacher that would obviously be very
intimidating to teach that subject without a credential. So
maybe reexamining having some incentives for teachers to get
their teaching degrees in the STEM programs because I think if
they are credentialed and have those degrees, their passion
will come through to the students instead of them teaching
multiple subjects and, like she said, having to go teaching to
the test because that is what their handbook offers them.
Mrs. Biggert. Doctor?
Mr. Parravano. I think teaching to the test is not a bad
thing if the test really measures what we value in education.
And unfortunately I don't think that most tests do right now.
One of the things that we have been talking about for the last
few minutes has to do with student motivation. And I think one
of the dangers with a test that we currently have is that they
really emphasize rote learning. They do not emphasize the kind
of enthusiasm that we have talked about when we see our
students really excited about science.
So at its very heart it is very difficult, and it is very
expensive to test for some of these qualities that we think are
so important in the practice of science. So it is difficult to
test for whether students do inquiry well, whether they can
actually apply their knowledge.
A while ago I asked a well-known scientist how he would
measure success for our program. And I thought that he was
going to say, well, we would like to see students increase
their scores on the State test by a certain number of points.
He didn't. He said, Carlo, I would like to see them ask better
questions.
That is a very difficult thing to test for, but I think
this is one of the areas that Congress could play a leadership
role, perhaps as part of NCLB, is to really invest so that we
have perhaps a pool of very, very good high, quality assessment
items that we can all use, that we can all share that really
drive teaching, that support teaching science in a way that we
think is really very critical and is very important and very
effective.
Mrs. Biggert. Thank you. Thank you for all your insights. I
yield back.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Mr. Holt.
Mr. Holt. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And thank you, Dr.
Parravano, for that last point. I would like to pursue that. It
is often overlooked and the most important point made yet
today, I think.
I am a product of the Sputnik generation, a scientist by
training. And at that time, now nearly 50 years ago, we said we
would produce the--it is 50 years ago, sorry--that we would
produce a generation of scientists and engineers like the world
had never seen, and we did. And we left behind about 80 percent
of the population. We established and reinforced the idea that
science is for scientists. And today even, part of the
discussion is, well, how we are going to generate a pool of the
next scientists and mathematicians and how many of the students
of your programs are going to major in science?
Yes, that is important. But I am much more concerned about
the other 80 or 90 percent of the population being able to
think critically so that they can ask questions so that those
questions can be answered empirically and verifiably.
Here in this committee we often judge the success of the
science education programs by, well, what does it do for
science majors or producing scientists in the profession,
rather than asking whether consumers are able to determine
whether new and improved products really are, or whether
homeowners have an idea that it is--no, it is not a good idea
to mix bleach and ammonia to clean their kitchen. Or
intelligence photo analysts who don't imagine that there are
weapons of mass destruction when there isn't evidence for
weapons of mass destruction. Or confuse aerial photos of dust
suppression water trucks for chemical weapons plants. Or
Members of Congress, you know, who can figure or maybe can't
figure whether issuing new oil leases will bring down prices at
the gasoline pump any time soon.
And so this gets at this question of assessment of how we
know whether we are developing critical thinking. And one of
the questions I would ask for, I guess all of these corporate-
sponsored programs is, do the corporate sponsors understand
this? Or are they just looking for their next generation of
scientists and engineers? And do they ask you to develop
metrics to measure that?
Let me start with Dr. Parravano since you raised the point,
and then I would like to turn to Mr. Luce and the others.
Mr. Parravano. Sure. I think one of the first points that I
would like to make is that along with establishing the
institute in 1993, Merck made a very large shift in its focus
and its education efforts. Where previously education efforts
were really focused on graduate and postdoctoral studies, there
was a realization, as has been mentioned by other panel
members, that if we are really concerned about our next
generation of scientists, we really do have to start to be far
more concerned about the quality of education at the high
school and at the elementary level. So we decided to focus our
resources on the elementary level. But in addition to that, we
also moved away from focusing on that 5 or 10 percent of
students who are going to go on and work at a science-rich
organization like Merck. We really felt that a strong science
education was something that could benefit every citizen.
And Congressman, you referred to critical thinking skills.
Well, I think science is uniquely positioned to develop habits
of mind, is sometimes what we refer to those as. And these
habits of mind, among them are looking at evidence, critically
thinking about evidence, looking at data with a certain amount
of skepticism, asking good questions. These are all things that
we believe a good strong science education can instill in an
individual.
Mr. Holt. Let me interrupt in just the remaining few
questions to ask Mr. Luce to comment on that point. Thank you.
Mr. Luce. Well, I certainly agree that we need a nexus on
critical thinking. I do think you have to learn some basics as
the basis upon which to build critical thinking. But second of
all, I feel very strongly, as does our donors, that the new
literacy in the 21st century is math and science. And it is not
just for engineers and scientists. It is to build a society
that can deal with the technology age in which we live.
So I think this is an issue that cuts across all
occupations, all citizens of our democracy. Robert Moses, a
prominent civil rights leader, says algebra is the new civil
right of the African American community in the 21st century. So
this is about Nobel Prize winners, but it is also about
citizens in a democracy and in the Information Age.
Mr. Mickelson. Do you mind if I say something real quick on
that, too? First of all, it is important that we have a way
to--well, it is important that these jobs that are coming open
through corporate America get filled. And I would prefer them
get filled by us, even if that is a small percentage. But you
are missing the point that in everyday jobs, such as a
mechanic, has evolved and changed from 10 or 15 years ago. It
is no longer about the carburetor and the transmission. He now
has to be a computer expert to deal with today's automobiles.
And so the everyday job has changed the education, and science
and math is evolving and changing and increasing for these
regular jobs that--you know again, as our technology has moved
on.
And I also want to say that I understand there is a need,
especially for Congress, let's say, or for somebody to have
some type of metric system to quantify the value of what these
decisions are affecting and who it is affecting and how much,
how effective is it. But the fact is, is that it is going to be
very difficult to come up with something quantitative here. It
is going to be more of a long-term decision-making process. It
is not going to be something that we are going to decide today,
see the results tomorrow and be able to share with everybody.
It is going to be something you have to believe deep in your
heart that 15, 30 years from now to keep us as a global leader
and a powerhouse that we have to trust our instincts that this
is where we need to go.
Mr. Holt. Thank you.
Chairman Miller. Thank you.
Mr. Hinojosa.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Again I commend you
for bringing such good panelists, as you have brought last week
and again this week. I found each and every one of your
presentations wonderful. I think that they are exciting,
enlightening. And certainly I want to work with each one of you
starting from California to Texas to New Jersey and to
Massachusetts because all of you seem to really get it, that
there is a lot of potential and that we just have not found a
way to get the Federal Government to raise the investment in
these programs that y'all have told us about.
I am going to try to ask three questions quickly and so I
ask for short answers because I want to give each--at least
three of you--that opportunity. My first question is to Melendy
Lovett, Texas Instruments. You are one of our great sponsors
and companies that believe in the HESTEC model, Hispanic
Engineering, Science, & Technology, and you recruit great
engineers and other scientists down from the University of
Texas in Edinburg. HESTEC brings STEM opportunities right into
the heart of our community. And last year on the sixth
anniversary we had 80,000 people who came onto the campus from
Monday through Saturday, many parents, students, high school,
middle school and college students. And it was amazing because
Nancy Pelosi was one of the keynote speakers, and there were
thousands of people there, especially for that presentation.
Since HESTEC began, the university has seen a surge in its
engineering enrollment, going from less than 700 students in
2001 to nearly 1,000 students in 2007. Please tell us how can
we help communities that have had little access to scientists
and engineers build excitement about opportunities in the STEM
field?
Ms. Lovett. So Mr. Hinojosa, TI is proud to be one of the
original sponsors of the HESTEC program, and we would hold it
up as a model for what other communities can put together in
terms of bringing business, government and education leaders
together to really get the message out about the importance of
STEM and to get the community, the parents and the children,
excited about STEM opportunities.
Mr. Hinojosa. Don't you think that when we brought--well,
every year we brought the NASA astronauts, we brought robots,
we brought lots of new things that get the students really
excited and that gives us great participation?
Tom Luce, you also are one of the great sponsors of HESTEC
and you have been the sponsor for Wednesday's Program, of
Latina Mothers and Daughters Day. Tell us a little bit about
how you help prepare those teachers to deliver that content to
learners with diverse needs, particularly English language
learners who often do not get access to rigorous content in
math and science, how to get mothers to see that their
daughters have an opportunity to get into the STEM fields?
Mr. Luce. Congressman, I think it purely starts from
recognition unless we deal with the gender issues and racial
and ethnic issues, which we have discussed here today in terms
of the equity issues, unless we learn to speak to those, we
cannot achieve the goals that we are all after, which is math
and science literacy for everyone in the 21st century.
So I think we are very focused on improving math and
science education for the Latino community because simply the
numbers will not work. You take the State of Texas, the Dallas
Independent School District today, and the third grade is 80
percent Latino. So we have to improve the performance of our
Latino students and all our students in math and science
education.
Mr. Hinojosa. Don't you think it is exciting that we have
gone from the first year with only about 20 percent girls
participating in HESTEC to more than 60 percent now excited
about STEM fields and coming to see what the opportunities are.
Third one is to Dr. Carlo Parravano. I thought that your
presentation was also excellent. And how do you address the
science laboratory issue in the schools you work with,
especially at the secondary school level? And I ask you that
question because I work to include the partnerships for access
to laboratory science program in the America COMPETES Act. And
it passed and it is authorized. Now we need to get it funded.
But tell us about that.
Mr. Parravano. Well, I first want to applaud you for your
efforts in that act. I think that the unfortunate thing is that
all too often high school science courses are not taught with a
strong laboratory component. And I think as a result of that,
students really miss out on a very, very important part of the
education system. And so I think what we have tried to do is to
really work at the State--with the State legislature to try to
encourage them to include appropriations so that high school
laboratories can be brought up to date. Because in many, many
of our high schools the equipment is in woeful condition, if
there is any there. I think the laboratory experience has been
left behind for far too many years. So we are also trying to
have high schools share resources. We are also trying to use
technology where appropriate so that students can get at least
some semblance of a laboratory experience. But I think to push
really, really hard on that laboratory act would be very, very
important for Congress to do.
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman Miller. Mr. Sarbanes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a terrific
panel. Thank you all for being here. I am actually going to
spend most of my time now asking Ms. Sullivan questions because
I am so fascinated by this transition program that you
developed. And I worked for about 8 years in public education
and spent a lot of time actually on trying to build this bridge
in Maryland, and continue to be very interested in the subject.
I was curious, how many--what are the numbers of people
that have made the transition since you put the program
formally in place?
Ms. Sullivan. In the last just under 2 years there has been
a hundred that have gone through the program.
Mr. Sarbanes. Okay. And did you do a survey internally of
the workforce to get a sense of how deep the interest might be
in this kind of transition or do people just sort of come at
you?
Ms. Sullivan. There is quite a bit of promotion within IBM
as part of our HR education and outreach program from our
corporate community relations. So there is education at every
level to employees of the program, what is available. It is
promoted through our internal sites, internal Web site as well
as there is education days that are provided where graduates of
the programs can come in and speak about it, site activities
that provide that kind of outreach in education to potential
retirees, and individuals exiting the workforce from IBM.
Mr. Sarbanes. Does the program begin for people before they
retire?
Ms. Sullivan. Yes.
Mr. Sarbanes. Is there like a run-up to it?
Ms. Sullivan. Exactly.
Mr. Sarbanes. How does that work?
Ms. Sullivan. So we provide a number of different
activities prior to exiting the workforce at IBM, up to a year
of a sabbatical to follow a course of education, a leave of
absence. There are online mentoring programs and physical
mentoring programs provided to individuals to help coach them
through the process. We work with colleges of education to
encourage them to have flexible programs for individuals.
Mr. Sarbanes. How is that going?
Ms. Sullivan. Fairly well. It is definitely, depending upon
the locality, it is working better than in other areas. Where
we have a strong presence and a high number of employees we
have a stronger leverage with the colleges of education, and to
encourage them to provide these kind of programs.
Mr. Sarbanes. Are there other roles that the retirees are
going to fill other than classroom teacher that they are
finding their way to?
Ms. Sullivan. We actually have just announced two other
programs, a Transition to Public Service and Transition to
Nonprofit. And so we have similar programs in place for those
as well. Those have just recently been announced. Those are
follow-on activities as part of the Transition to Teaching
program that we see as very much successful, and expect further
success from it.
Mr. Sarbanes. Is there sort of early in the process, is
there like a counseling opportunity for those who think they
want to go in but maybe they haven't really thought it through?
I mean are there stages that people go through and then maybe
like an immersion?
Ms. Sullivan. Absolutely. Initially it is online resources,
electronic resources where people can research and look at
interests. And then there are again, as I mentioned, the
mentors and the connection points to individuals in those
fields. And there are opportunities for apprenticeships and
internships in those areas so they get a taste of what real
life is there.
Mr. Sarbanes. Have you had any colleges or universities
actually create like satellite locations on IBM premises or is
it all like online in terms of the run-up?
Ms. Sullivan. Not to my knowledge as far as IBM locations.
Mr. Sarbanes. Okay.
Ms. Sullivan. But it definitely is online courses as well
as on the physical campus.
Mr. Sarbanes. And how many other businesses of the size and
breadth of an IBM are you aware of that are doing similar
things like this?
Ms. Sullivan. We are encouraging many, but I am not aware
of any that have formally adopted the program.
Mr. Sarbanes. Do you see a value in creating like a
consortium of businesses, particularly who have employees that
fit the disciplines and the expertise that we are looking for
in the STEM area, coming together and creating a kind of a
clearinghouse opportunity to transition more people over?
Ms. Sullivan. Absolutely. We would strongly encourage that
dialogue between other corporations. And we have had some of
them, but also nonprofits and the government to work together
for more programs of this type.
Mr. Sarbanes. Great. Thank you.
Ms. Sullivan. Thank you.
Chairman Miller. Mr. Ehlers.
Mr. Ehlers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I apologize for
being late. This is a fly-in day, and we don't always have
control of our schedules that well. But I am just delighted to
see this hearing take place, and I commend the chairman and
ranking member for organizing it.
I have been interested in STEM issues for years, some of
you know that, starting in 1967, when I tried to develop new
courses to teach future elementary school teachers how to teach
science, and also to learn science. It is still a major
problem. We have made some progress, but we have a lot to do
yet.
I have two questions I would like pose, and we will just go
down the line. Your answers don't have to be lengthy, but just
give me some indication of what you think. First of all, I am
interested in young children. We have got an amendment on the--
oh, come on. Pardon? No, it wasn't No Child Left Behind.
Anyway, we had a bill here this year, and it is just slipping
my mind right now, but we got added on to that, this is for
young children--Early Start, thank you again. Head Start. And
that got me interested in what can we do with children at an
early age to get them interested so they are prepped for this
when they get to school? So I am interested in your idea on
that. And secondly, if you were entitled to make one change to
No Child Left Behind which would help STEM education, what
would that change be? So you probably have been going left to
right all day. Why don't we go right to left to give you a
chance to start. Ms. Lovett?
Ms. Lovett. So Congressman Ehlers, thank you very much for
your leadership and for your support for STEM issues over the
years. To your question about Head Start and early childhood
education, to me the curriculum is key. And Texas Instruments
has worked with SMU and with other partners in developing
curriculum around reading. Another example, not in early
childhood but in engineering, TI worked with SMU there in
Dallas to develop Project Infinity, which is an engineering
curriculum that is now in over 35 States and over 300 schools
to take engineering education to the high school level. So I
think curriculum--the Project Infinity curriculum starts with a
cell phone or a music player and explains the engineering of
those electronic devices in ways that kids can understand. The
one change to NCLB would be to emphasize college and workplace
readiness more in the reauthorization.
Mr. Ehlers. Thank you. Mr. Wells?
Mr. Wells. So as an engineer I am no expert in education,
but what we have found as we have studied it is that more
knowledge of elementary school teachers in math and science
would definitely have a positive effect, and that anything we
could do to improve their knowledge and expertise would be a
good thing to include.
Ms. Sullivan. At IBM we are very focused on the pre-K and
early childhood education as it pertains to STEM education. We
have initiated a program called Kid Smart that puts into
preschools and many of the Head Start program locations
technology that is accessible to pre-K age students that gives
them an introduction and really helps to harness that natural
curiosity. So I would encourage more of that, providing
accessible technology at the early childhood level. And as far
as No Child Left Behind, my recommendation would be to continue
to focus on teacher professional development, teacher
education, and providing them with the resources that they need
to also be inspired and provide that inspiration to their
students.
Mr. Ehlers. Thank you.
Mr. Parravano. In terms of early childhood, what I would
think is that we consider the family as an important unit at
that point in that child's life. And so that we really try to
encourage parents to visit with their children science museums,
nature parks, and so on. And we also provide tools for parents
so that they can really maximize the use of these facilities.
In terms of No Child Left Behind, if I could have maybe one
and a half rather than just one change. The one change is to
include science as part of the AYP. And the half would be to
also encourage the States to use assessments that much better
reflect what we think is very important for science education.
Mr. Ehlers. Thank you. On the AYP, I already have a bill in
to do that, and I hope I can get an amendment on NCLB, whenever
we do it, to in fact do that.
Yes, next.
Ms. Chang. As an educator, I think our best opportunity is
to harness the energy and the natural curiosity of our
children. And so having those opportunities and providing our
teachers with that knowledge and skills, such as the work I
have been able to participate in in the academy, is the most
critical part. Continuing to take a look at professional
learning, being able to have more opportunities like the
academy throughout our entire career as an educator is probably
the most critical role that I see for our children and the
children of our future.
Mr. Ehlers. Okay. Thank you.
Mrs. Amy Michelson. Possibly seeing incentives, more
scholarships for people in universities to go into STEM
programs, having all universities step up in that area. Because
it might--one idea might be to have specialists at an
elementary level. So maybe your STEM teachers specialize in
just that field. And I think that is the key, is getting the
teachers with the knowledge and the passion. And I think that
will cross over with the students.
Mr. Mickelson. And for the No Child Left Behind, the one
thing I have noticed is that the teacher has to spend so much
time getting the kids that are not competent in those areas,
get them up to speed, that they are not able to spend time with
the students that are competent. I would like to see maybe an
intern or a sub teacher's assistant to be able to help with the
children who are competent in those areas to advance and pique
their curiosity even more, so that they strive to achieve
excellence.
Mr. Ehlers. Well, excellent ideas. I really appreciate
that. Some of them I had not heard of before or thought about.
Just one?
Chairman Miller. No, no, no, Mr. Scott has been waiting all
afternoon here.
Mr. Ehlers. Pardon?
Chairman Miller. No, no. Mr. Scott.
Mr. Scott. Mr. Chairman, I yield a minute to the gentleman.
Chairman Miller. You want to yield, that is fine.
Mr. Ehlers. Thank you, Mr. Scott. You have always been a
wonderful gentleman.
Chairman Miller. As opposed to the chairman.
Mr. Ehlers. No, the Chair is a super gentleman. Got to get
these rankings right.
I just really appreciate the responses you gave. And I will
be in touch with you to ask you to expand on those in writing
with a little note to me. The one thing that I think is really
important that has been mentioned a couple times, and that is I
believe we should spend a fair amount of the Federal money on
teacher training, teacher preparation through the math-science
programs. Professional development is the name of the game if
you are really going to get to the kids and have things taught
properly.
With that, I will yield back to Mr. Scott and thank you for
the time.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. It is a little intimidating when a
Ph.D. in science is talking about STEM. I didn't want to cut
him off. Thank you. And what the gentleman from Michigan has
done is trying to focus on what we can do with challenges to
translate all the testimony into actual legislation to see what
we could realize.
Ms. Lovett mentioned a successful program that
significantly reduced the achievement gap with minorities. Ms.
Lovett, could you tell us how much that program costs?
Ms. Lovett. The cost is roughly 30 to $50 per student per
year. Is that about right? 30 to $50 per student per year. That
is the initial investment. Those costs would be lower than that
in future years. The initial investment is predominantly in
teacher professional development, and that teacher professional
development is about 14 days in the initial year. And then
there is some additional curriculum training, as well as some
technology purchase that is involved in that money. That
professional development investment, we have seen it actually
increase not only the capacity of the individual teachers, but
the capacity of the whole district. And by increasing capacity,
I mean it becomes sustainable. Because as some of the other
panel members have mentioned, this intensive professional
development that the teachers all share with local leadership
creates a professional learning community where the teachers
are learning from each other, and they learn to build on that
and to sustain that over time.
Mr. Scott. Now, how confident would we be if we spent this
kind of money and went through that process that we would get
the same results?
Ms. Lovett. We are building on our research base each and
every year as we speak, and we are refining our implementation
based on what we learn from that. And we have had one
implementation that has not succeeded, because it was not
implemented well. So what we have learned is that if the
implementation is true to the research base that supports it,
we can guarantee improved results.
Mr. Scott. Thank you. A lot of the witnesses have talked
about enthusiasm. There are after-school interest groups that
we have in my end of Virginia, we call it CHROME, Cooperating
Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering. Are
these interest groups, do they work in getting young people
interested in the STEM subjects? Anybody know?
Let me ask another question. We have heard pedagogy
mentioned a couple times, and also the difference between girls
and boys in learning. Are there different methodologies that
should be used generally? I mean some better than others, some
better for girls, some better for boys, some better for
different ethnic groups that we need to consider?
Ms. Lovett. From the work that I have done with the Women
of TI Fund, and from research that was actually done by the
National Science Foundation, what we found is that there are
unintended biases that teachers use. An example is in science
labs, specifically in physics, when there is a mixed gender
classroom the boys are more likely to go for the equipment and
the girls are more likely to volunteer to take notes. And so
what we have done with the gender neutral teacher training is
we brought in an expert, Jo Sanders from the University of
Washington, and she actually videoed teachers in progress in
their classroom and taught them how to be more neutral and more
inclusive in their teaching styles. We don't have evidence to
prove that this greater inclusiveness would also apply to other
ethnic groups. But intuitively what it is, is a more inclusive
pedagogical style.
Mr. Scott. Could you have the same process for all classes
or would different methods work for different children?
Ms. Lovett. Well, it is the same process for--all of the
advanced placement math and science teachers went through this,
went through this training, this gender neutral teacher
training. And what we found is that the performance of the
students in math and science improved, boys and girls in math
and science.
Sally Ride, Dr. Sally Ride mentioned that TI is also doing
some summer camps in physics for girls, and what we found is
the combination of the teacher training with the summer camps
yielded the absolute best results. So the teacher training
translates into touching all of the students that that teacher
is teaching, regardless of the subject.
Chairman Miller. Thank you. Thank you all very much. You
have been very, very generous with your time, but I am going to
keep you 1 minute longer here.
When you spend time with kids, we have spent time with our
own kids and our grandchildren, and certainly in this committee
we spend a lot of time observing children in different
settings, and I think with the advent of technology you see it,
children impart a huge amount of information to one another.
You watch children as they master a game, an electronic game or
checkers, you know, however they want to do it, electronic
checkers. They immediately are able to talk to their peers,
their sisters, their brothers, their friends, and tell them
what the rules are here. This is what you get to do. And if you
look as they become, you know, more involved in a case of
electronic games, they are making, you know, massive multiple
computations in very rapid order here about risk and reward,
about competency, about the odds, they are doing all these
calculations. You now see people playing Wii, they are playing
golf with Wii, they are immediately making adjustments and
deciding what is affecting this, what are the parameters of
this game? And I just wonder as we look at this, and I am
thinking more of third and fourth and fifth graders, what do we
know about and what has been done to have students as teachers
and imparting this information? You know, we see collaborative
learning arrangements in many, many classrooms. We see students
working on the Internet across countries and across the
continent assembling answers to problems in their class. There
may be a school in Hawaii that is reclaiming wetlands. A school
in California may be studying wildlife at Pajaro Dunes,
whatever it is, and they are imparting all of this information.
I just went through a project with kids in civil rights
where they had to assemble a presentation to an ad firm to get
the contract to publicize, and then later to an architectural
firm to build a monument to the Black Panthers, to the women's
movement, to Martin Luther King, to John Kennedy. And they had
to do it all. And they were all teaching one another how to do
this.
Does this work in math and science? I mean it would seem to
me--one of the things that really intrigued me about this ad,
as I was laying on the couch watching it--I wasn't, I was
sitting up actually--was that it said to a young person if they
really watched it, or to anybody, to me, that this is the world
around you. The swing in the club with the formulas, the ball
the texture, the greens. And this is the world that is there.
And as children start to understand this they have this
ability. I don't mean they should be the teachers of
mathematics. But it seems to me that sometimes we go over the
top of them very often when they in fact have the ability. You
watch children teach one another how to use a computer in a
school and they rapidly spread it. They become viral in their
ability to spread that information. And I just--it is kind of
off the wall, but I just wondered if you looked at this
question of how we use that cooperative and collaborative
skills that children have, and how we might use that in this
effort.
Anybody? Anybody? Ferris Bueller. Anybody? Showing my age
again.
Ms. Sullivan. In particular at IBM, we are using gaming
technology with middle school children and high school children
to look at this game called Power Up, which looks at energy and
the environment. And the wonderful thing about the environment
right now is it really is an agenda item that is on everyone's
mind, including children, because they are understanding that
they can't get new tennis shoes because their parents are
paying for gas. So every citizen in the U.S. understands that
there is an energy issue and an environment issue at this
point. So the game that we have developed that we provide to
these students is a collaborative tool that allows them to look
at, through a game, how do they better manage power? How do
they better manage the environment? And we have found that it
absolutely sparks that interest in children and helps to
provide that type of collaborative learning that is very
essential in learning that skill for when they enter the
workforce.
Ms. Lovett. So student-centered learning is a key aspect of
the MathForward program that I talked with you about. And a
couple of examples of that, at the Richardson School, like
Highlands Junior High, where we implemented the program, one of
the students was on the track team. And he took all of the
statistics with regard to the track team's performance and put
that into a project where he explained mean, median, and mode
to his entire classroom. Another example, I was in a classroom
where the teacher--a crime had been committed, and there was
certain information about the size of the criminal's footprint
that was left. And they were using that information against
statistics of the human body in order to determine the height
of the criminal. And it is these kinds of student-centered
learning, real world learning, discovery and exploration-type
learning that keep the kids engaged.
Mr. Wells. So we believe that if you get kids excited about
science and math that they will infect other kids, if you can
use that term. And that there has been research that shows that
the peer pressure can actually have a very positive effect. If
you get a lot of kids interested in math and science, they can
actually encourage others to be interested and actually create
a very positive upward trend. So with MathMovesU, that is what
we are trying to do is get them interested, get them excited,
and have them go get others interested and excited.
Chairman Miller. We were in New York a couple months ago,
and we were looking at presentations of technology in schools
at the Joan Cooney Center. The founders of Sesame Street put
together a foundation, and were doing some interesting things.
But a person was there from Electronic Arts, I think one of the
creative people from Electronic Arts, and was running through
John Madden Football. And he was explaining, having John Madden
teach mathematics, all of the computations that have to go into
making that video with respect to that runner and that tackler,
because it has to be accurate. So that tackler can succeed
coming in at the side on this runner 12 percent of the time,
head on can succeed 72 percent of the time, from the right 19
percent of the time. And it goes on and on, so that they can
properly depict the game that the kids expect when they are on
that one.
So I ran into John Madden the other night, and I was
explaining how this fellow was having him teach mathematics to
this audience in New York. And he was kind of taken aback a
little bit. And then I explained what he was showing the
audience. And then of course he got very--you know, knocking
things over and spilling things and going on and on about it.
But he says we have a whole group of kids down at the studio
doing that right now. He says we brought kids in from all over
the area, and they are going through the mathematics of
developing this film so that they can think about film making
and all of the rest of it. I mean those tools are out there to
engage them. And I just somehow, how we are able to keep that
over a 12 or 14 or 16-year period is I guess is sort of the
challenge. And it is not that it is all fun and games, but it
can be fun and games. And what excites, you were talking about
showing the teachers and others the basics and the excitement
of the physics and the math. There it is. It is laid out that
way. And I am just trying to figure out how to keep that
enthusiasm.
All right.
Mr. Hinojosa. Mr. Chairman?
Chairman Miller. Yes.
Mr. Hinojosa. Before you end the hearing, may I ask one
question?
Chairman Miller. Yeah. But we are out of here in about 3
seconds.
Mr. Hinojosa. There is great discussion here and dialogue
on the excitement to get children into math and science, and so
forth. But I wanted this opportunity to ask Dr. Chang about
something that you said in your presentation on our teacher
preparation. And you talked about having started in the early
years, the third, fourth, fifth grade, and then you said since
we already represented several grade levels, we felt the next
step was to develop vertical grade level articulation. And you
went on to explain that. What has been the difficulty to get
other school districts to accept that type of planning that you
spoke of?
Ms. Chang. Well, I am not certain if I can speak for other
school districts. I can just say that I am fortunate that I am
in a district that has allowed me to stretch an idea and go
with it. You know, it is a unique situation to actually put
teachers that teach at the elementary level together with
middle school and high school teachers to talk about math or
science, and to share ideas and resources. And so I am hoping
maybe there is an opportunity then to spread the word to other
places and create more communities of educators having these
kinds of conversations, where we could see this happening
nationwide.
Mr. Hinojosa. So what I understand is that the teachers
that are working in like K through the third grade know that
they have to put the building blocks so that then the fourth
through the sixth grade will have their part and it falls in
place. And then that really gets them ready for algebra either
in the seventh or eighth grade. And so before we know it, the
whole ladder has been built, but it makes sense. I think that
that is lacking in many of our school districts, that type of
articulation. And where the communication, you said that you
brought them all together, representing the different classroom
grades, so that if we don't have that then a teacher just
selects whatever she likes or he likes, and it may not fit into
that articulation.
Chairman Miller. This discussion is going to continue
later. I promised this panel we would have them out of here at
4:30. And that is one of the issues that was raised by the Math
Panel, our failure to have that kind of articulation across the
subject matter.
Thank you very much----
Mr. Hinojosa. Thank you.
Chairman Miller [continuing]. For your testimony, your
expertise, and your time. Phil, I know you flew a great
distance to be here with us and you are a busy man. Thank you
so much. And to all the rest of you, thank you so much. We
would like to continue to use you as a resource. As you know, a
number of people talked about the future of No Child Left
Behind. So we would like to make sure that we could use you as
a resource as we get onto that. Thank you.
Without objection, members will have 14 days to submit
extraneous material or questions for the hearing record. And I
ask unanimous consent for two pieces of written testimony for
the hearing record from ACT and from Exxon Corporation. Without
objection, so ordered.
[The prepared statement of American College Testing Program
(ACT) follows:]
------
[The ``EPAS\TM\ State of the Nation Report 2007:
Mathematics,'' may be accessed at the following Internet
address:]
http://www.act.org/research/policymakers/pdf/math--report.pdf
______
[The statement of ExxonMobil follows:]
Statement of Exxon Mobil Corp.
ExxonMobil utilizes technology and innovation in every element of
its business and recognizes the essential roles that math and science
play in the energy business and the nation as a whole. As a technology
company, we are a leader in the national effort to improve math and
science education.
ExxonMobil is committed to advancing U.S. math and science
education and does so by supporting a variety of education initiatives
targeting students and teachers. Much of our outreach focuses on
recommendations outlined in the landmark report by the National
Academies, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, which was released in
2005. The report stated that ``the scientific and technical building
blocks of America's economic leadership are eroding.'' According to the
report, improving American students' performance in math and science
coursework is the most effective way to increase the United States
global competitiveness. We agree.
Over the past 30 years we have contributed approximately $1 billion
to a variety of programs designed to help improve math and science
education. In large part, the education programs that we support are
designed to motivate and inspire young people to pursue careers in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) and to increase
opportunities for women and members of minority groups.
STEM subjects allow students to be better prepared for careers in a
number of fields that are increasingly important in today's highly
competitive, technology-driven world. Maintaining a full pipeline of
talent in these fields is important to the nation's future
competitiveness and our country's continued progress in fields ranging
from energy and communications to medicine and environmental care.
As mentioned, our outreach focuses on the recommendations outlined
in the National Academies report:
Motivating students to learn and perform well in math and
science courses;
Providing math and science teachers with professional
development opportunities; and
Supporting the development of highly qualified math and
science teachers.
In 2007, we helped launch the National Math and Science Initiative
(NMSI) with a $125 million grant, an amount we believe is the single
largest corporate grant ever devoted to math and science education.
NMSI is an independent, non-profit entity overseen by a board of
prominent educators, scientists, and business leaders. The primary
mission is to identify the most successful programs, and help bring
them to national scale. NMSI's work is already underway, through two
proven programs--both referenced in the National Academies' report
Rising Above the Gathering Storm.
The first, Advanced Placement Training and Incentives, is a
remarkably successful public school initiative that focuses on
increasing the numbers of trained Advanced Placement (AP) teachers and
classes, and attracting more young people to take these rigorous
courses. Results of the program's success are impressive. In the last
ten years, the number of students passing Advanced Placement math,
science and English exams has increased five-fold, due in large part to
this program.
The Advanced Placement initiative is also significant because
students passing exams in these disciplines are more likely to pursue
them in college. In addition, students passing AP exams are three times
more likely (four times in the case of African-American and Hispanic
students) to earn a college degree within six years of completing high
school than students who do not.
In its first year, NMSI awarded $80 million to six non-profits in
six states to expand AP programs. However, we know there is unmet
demand for this program as proposals were received from no less than 28
states. NMSI is ready to make a second round of grants, but additional
funding is needed.
The second program, UTeach, was developed at the University of
Texas and encourages math and science majors to enter the teaching
profession by offering compact degree plans, substantial early teaching
experiences, and financial assistance for undergraduates. The program
at the University of Texas now has more than 500 students enrolled and
has achieved a graduation rate three times higher before the program
began.
In its first year, NMSI awarded more than $30 million to 13
universities across the country to launch UTeach-type programs. Fifty-
three universities submitted proposals and more awards can be made when
additional funding is available.
NMSI's goals for each of these programs is that within five years,
there will be an AP program in 150 school districts in 20 states, and
UTeach-type programs underway on more than 50 college and university
campuses nationwide. By 2020, more than 10,000 graduates of these
programs will have impacted more than 3 million students.
While NMSI is our largest contribution to date, ExxonMobil has a
long history of supporting programs that help improve access to STEM
education for minorities and women. Working with organizations
including the Society of Women Engineers and the National Action
Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), ExxonMobil has
continually strived to increase opportunities for women and minorities
in STEM-related careers.
For example, two years ago we partnered with former astronaut Dr.
Bernard Harris to provide two, two-week long, residential summer
science camps designed help disadvantaged students enhance their
knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM),
encourage them to stay in school and help foster their leadership and
citizenship skills. The program became so popular that this year we
quickly expanded the program to 25 camps at universities across the
country, reaching more than 1,200 young people.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, ExxonMobil committed $10
million to help Greater New Orleans schools restore and enhance their
math and science education programs, and in a relatively short amount
of time, we are already seeing encouraging signs of progress.
We are also longtime supporters of the Hispanic community through
grants and awards that encourage Hispanic youth who excel in the math
and science fields. In fact, Congressman Hinojosa and our Chairman Rex
Tillerson were recently recognized by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation
for their roles in creating opportunities for Hispanic youth.
Finally, of course, we are closely involved with Phil and Amy
Mickelson and the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy. Established in
2005, the Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy began as an annual,
one-week intensive professional development programs for approximately
200 third- through fifth-grade teachers to enable them to discover
innovative ways to teach science and math and to inspire their
students. Since then, the Academy expanded to three, week-long
Academies and has helped hone the teaching skills of more than 1,200
teachers, impacting more than 30,000 students nationwide.
More details on these and other programs are provided in the
attached summary.
A copy of our 2007 Corporate Citizenship Report will be made
available to Members of the Committee and can be accessed at the
following link:
www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/community--ccr.aspx
We thank the Committee for the opportunity to provide this
information for the record.
ExxonMobil Summary of STEM Educational Initiatives
ExxonMobil is committed to supporting programs and organizations
that focus on the improvement of education from pre-school through
higher educational levels.
Much of our outreach focuses on:
Motivating students to learn and perform well in math and
science courses;
Providing math and science teachers with professional
development opportunities; and
Supporting the development of highly qualified math and
science teachers.
Our programs include:
National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI)
ExxonMobil helped launch NMSI in 2007 with the single largest
corporate grant devoted to math and science education. NMSI is an
independent, non-profit entity overseen by a board of prominent
educators, scientists, and business leaders, and staffed by well-
experienced managers who have made impressive contributions to public
education in the U.S.
Other supporters of NMSI include the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, IBM and Perot Systems.
NMSI's primary mission is to identify the most successful programs,
then help bring them to national scale by raising private
contributions, establishing or aligning with capable state
organizations and universities, and effectively managing program
implementation while ensuring that funds are utilized efficiently with
appropriate accountability and measurement of results.
Primary goals of NMSI include:
Develop a new generation of highly qualified math and
science teachers by replicating the successful UTeach program across
the U.S. UTeach attracts math and science majors to teaching by
offering an integrated degree plan, early teaching experiences and
financial assistance for undergraduates.
Elevate student achievement by expanding AP(r) and pre-
AP(r) courses, including extensive training of teachers, identifying
and developing of lead teachers' and financial incentives based on
academic results.
New Orleans Education Initiative
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we committed $10 million to
help schools in Greater New Orleans to restore and enhance their math
and science education programs. As you know, New Orleans is essentially
rebuilding its entire system of public education. We see encouraging
signs of progress, and have started our initiative there by working
with Xavier University to develop a state of the art Math and Science
Teacher Training Institute to serve the teachers of Greater New
Orleans. This Institute has been endorsed by the leadership of the
Recovery School District, Orleans Parish, the Charter School Community,
and several parishes around New Orleans. We also funded a grant to
begin the process of preparing New Orleans students for Advanced
Placement programs.
Reasoning Mind
Reasoning Mind is another program that excites us due to its
potential to significantly increase math proficiency among
disadvantaged students and help elementary grade teachers who may not
have a strong academic background in math. RM is an innovative, web-
based 4th, 5th and 6th grade math education program that uses
artificial intelligence, interactive graphics and a world class
curriculum to actively engage middle school students in math.
It includes an automated tutor, individual pacing, facilities for
online tutoring, an on line textbooks and a glossary of mathematics
terms. Also, it includes a point scoring system to allow students to be
rewarded for work done correctly and to help teachers assign grades and
accurately assess progress.
Of great interest to us is consistent survey data that shows the
great majority of students who have used the system enjoy learning math
with Reasoning.
ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camps
ExxonMobil partners with the foundation established by former
astronaut Dr. Bernard Harris to offer twenty five week summer camps at
universities across the country. The camps enhance middle school
students' knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM), encourage youth to stay in school and foster leadership and
citizenship. This summer, we have expanded this program to 25 camps at
universities across the country and will reach more than 1,200 young
people, there remains significant unmet demand.
National Science Teachers Association (NSTA)
Through the Building a Presence (BAP) for Science program,
ExxonMobil funds professional development and networking for K-12
science teachers. NSTA has trained key leaders in 25 states and more
than 40,000 points-of-contact are currently active in schools across
the U.S. In 2008, ExxonMobil awarded a $2 million grant to support
NSTA's new Education Learning Center, which will deliver professional
development to teachers online.
SECME, Inc.
Formerly the Southeastern Consortium for Minorities in Engineering,
SECME is a strategic alliance that partners schools, universities,
industry and government to renew and strengthen the professional
capacity of K-12 educators; motivate and mentor students; and, empower
parents and communities to prepare minority youth for careers in the
math, science, engineering and technology fields.
ExxonMobil's support of SECME directly aids several initiatives
including: Summer Institute for Teachers, K-12 in-service professional
development, national and state program development and ExxonMobil
SECME Scholars.
Project NExT
Project NExT, an acronym for ``New Experiences in Teaching'', helps
prepare new Ph.D. mathematicians for the challenges of undergraduate
teaching. Administered by the Mathematical Association of America, the
program gives new teachers access to seasoned professionals and helps
acquaint them with an array of teaching strategies.
Houston ISD Middle School Specialist Program
Based on the successful math specialist program for K-5, The
Houston A+ Challenge (education nonprofit) will develop and implement a
math specialist program for middle schools in Houston ISD. Model will
be developed which will allow the program to be expanded to additional
districts.
National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering
(NACME)
Founded more than 30 years ago, and supported by corporations,
NACME has the goal of leading the effort to increase the representation
of minority men and women in engineering and related careers. Block
grants for scholarships are awarded to universities that have a track
record and a focus to increase the number of minority engineering
graduates. In 2007, ExxonMobil awarded a $1 million grant to NACME to
help establish engineering academies in existing high schools across
the nation.
Educational Matching Gift Program
The U.S. Educational Matching Gift Program encourages and assists
ExxonMobil employees and retirees in their personal giving to higher
education by providing a $3-for-$1 matching program. In 2006, we
granted more than $21.3 million in matching funds to more than 900
colleges and universities, the United Negro College Fund, the Hispanic
Scholarship Fund, and the American Indian College Fund.
Introduce a Girl to Engineering
Through interactive demonstrations, in school presentations and
company site visits, ExxonMobil employees actively participate in the
annual event to engage, excite and encourage middle school girls to
consider educational opportunities and careers within the science,
technology, and engineering disciplines.
Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Program at Spelman
College
The ExxonMobil Scholars program was established as part of the WISE
program at Spelman College. This signature student development effort
has successfully facilitated the recruitment, retention and graduation
of African American females pursuing baccalaureate degrees in
chemistry, physics, mathematics, or computer science as part of their
enrollment in the college's dual degree program in engineering.
Transition to Teaching Program
An innovative new program called Transition to Teaching will be
launched later this year. The program will provide financial assistance
and other support to eligible ExxonMobil employees who want to move
into teaching as a second career. The program will offer customized
certification programs, including both traditional and online courses,
so that people with bachelor's degrees or credentials in math, science
and related fields can get the education courses they need easily and
at no cost.
Diversity STEM Programs
ExxonMobil has a long history of supporting programs that seek to
improve education and career opportunities for minorities and women,
particularly within the STEM fields. Programs and partners include:
Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards
National Society of Black Engineers
American Indian College Fund
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers
______
Chairman Miller. And with that, the committee will stand
adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:32 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]