Excellence and Equity
Page 4 of 5
2. On placing mathematics and science at the center of education innovation, improvement, and accountability
With excellent, equitable mathematics and science at the center, schooling itself would look and feel different for nearly all American students. What is too often missing today for students at all levels is a focus on acquiring the reasoning and procedural skills of mathematicians and scientists, as well as a clear understanding of math and science as distinct types of human endeavor. Learning math and science from textbooks is not enough: students must also learn by struggling with real-world problems, theorizing possible answers, and testing solutions. Of central importance, the Commission is calling for a dramatic redefinition of science instruction, away from the current system in which students are generally being told about science and asked to remember facts, to one where students, beginning in the very early grades, learn how to think scientifically and become proficient in science—including acquiring its crucial problem-solving and inquiry skills.
Placing mathematics and science more squarely at the center of learning has the potential to transform schooling from the elementary grades through university. Schools and universities would feature an enhanced curriculum and instruction with active learning at its core, a more vital learning culture and leadership, new partnerships and resources, and higher expectations and pathways for students. A coordinated national effort would encourage wider adoption of successful practices, inspire new initiatives, and provide a framework for measuring their impact. It would also let us improve upon existing methods for replicating successful designs and practices to reach more states, districts, schools, educators, and students more rapidly.
Practically, a coordinated effort is challenging to carry off in an educational system as decentralized as ours. Yet several factors today are working in our favor—most notably, the keen interest of the federal Department of Education in linking education to national economic recovery and recent work by governors and state departments of education to strengthen the nation’s education infrastructure by creating systems of academically rigorous common standards and assessments across many or all states.
The nation’s schools are also benefiting from fresh influences that bode well for innovation and coordinated improvement. Over the past decade, education entrepreneurs have altered the marketplace for teacher recruitment, data management, professional development, and other services, changing the way many school districts do business and advancing the notion that old ways of carrying out core operations are not good enough. A resurgence in interest in teaching among young adults and career changers has brought an infusion of new talent, including new teachers with strong educational and career-related background in science, math, and technology, into our schools. Meanwhile, a wave of innovation has taken hold among leading museums and other “science-rich” and cultural institutions, some of which are actively redefining themselves as full partners in the education enterprise23. Public–private partnerships involving businesses and professional organizations have grown up around the country to improve science and math education and workforce development.
Education entrepreneurs have altered the marketplace for teacher recruitment, data management, professional development, and other services, changing the way many school districts do business.
For a glimpse of what excellent, equitable mathematics and science education might look like in a transformed American educational system, the Commission sought out initiatives that exemplify the principles of excellence and equity and that are already using math and science to accelerate school improvement. We found evidence of several potentially powerful emerging practices:
- Designing for equity—using math, science, and technology to motivate student engagement. Math-and-science-themed schools have often been highly selective, but a new generation of schools with STEM themes are accepting students regardless of past academic achievement and preparing them for the challenges of the 21st century workplace. New Tech High School, in Napa, California, and the network of schools based on the New Tech model are examples24.
- Infusing math and science across the curriculum to deepen student learning. Cultivating science skills within literacy development can be a powerful way to build reading students’ skills and learn science content at the same time. Programs that are pioneering this approach include the Seeds of Science/Roots of Reading program at the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Maryland’s Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction25.
- Expanding the repertoire of classroom strategies with hands-on math and science activities. Duke University’s Engineering K-PhD Program, led by engineer and Commission member Gary Ybarra, strengthens math and science learning in school and after-school programs through an engineering curriculum that emphasizes real-world problem-solving. Students work on projects involving energy sources, architecture, biotechnology, digital imaging, transportation, wireless communication, and other topics26.
- Increasing the rigor of youth development and out-of-school time programs with math and science learning. Youth Exploring Science (YES) program at St. Louis Science Center serves 250 teens each year, recruited through more than 20 community organizations, and engages them in inquiry-based learning in science, mathematics, and technology using a youth development approach27. Kinetic City, one of many out-of-school-time resources developed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), is an after-school “club” program developed with an interactive online component. Kinetic City has been shown not only to build students’ science knowledge but to increase their ability to comprehend and write about complex text28.
- Realizing the potential of cyberlearning through integrated math and science instructional programs. Innovative programs developed by Agile Mind29, Teachscape30, and Wireless Generation31 provide online teaching, assessment, and professional learning tools and have advanced thinking in the field about how face-to-face and online learning work most effectively together. These interactive programs are also finding new ways to draw on teachers’ classroom experiences to refine curricular material and pedagogical approaches.
- Building community assets into schools through intensive partnerships with math and science institutions. “Science-rich” institutions like the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), led by Commission member Ellen Futter, San Francisco’s Exploratorium,32and the Museum of Science in Boston are leaders in a growing universe of museums that are developing new curricula and professional learning resources. Programs like these are giving hundreds of thousands of students and teachers access to museum collections and staff expertise—along with powerful insights into what people find most fascinating about science.
American Museum of Natural History
2009
Prepared for the Carnegie-IAS Commission on Mathematics and Science Education.
This paper describes the proceedings and outcomes of two meetings convened by the American Museum of Natural History in association with the Carnegie-IAS Commission: a “national summit on science education,” held in 2008, and a follow-up meeting of Carnegie-IAS commissioners and leading museum directors and scientists, held in 2009. The paper examines the role that science cultural institutions can play in K-12 science learning. In addition to outlining the high-priority science education needs of school districts, the paper explores the role of museums in successful partnerships and describes promising models, barriers to partnerships, and design components such as standards and relevant accountability measures.
Read the paper
Agile Mind
Agile Mind provides innovative, Internet-based instructional tools to improve instruction in mathematics and science, motivate students, and increase the productivity and accountability of educators, schools, and districts. Affiliated with the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin (directed by Commission member Uri Treisman), Agile Mind draws on the Dana Center’s extensive research on student learning, especially in high-performing, high-poverty schools and districts.
Agile Mind employs a combination of “high-tech” and “high-touch” strategies. In addition to Internet-delivered services, the company provides in-person seminars, mentoring, support services, and other material and tools designed to increase educators’ productivity and raise student performance.
thinkfive.com/index_flash.html
Teachscape
Teachscape, founded in 1999, is known for its innovative use of multimedia resources—especially classroom videos of highly effective teachers—to enrich professional learning for teachers and school leaders. The company provides integrated programs of professional learning designed to increase teacher skill and at the same time build the capacity of principals and other school leaders to support instructional improvement. Teachscape uses four general approaches used when working with schools.
- Programs of study, or intensive packages of services provided over the course of a year and focused on a single content area.
- Institutes, or three-day professional learning opportunities on specific topics, supported by semester-long access to online resources, which are designed to build common vocabulary and understanding of research-based instructional practice.
- Classroom walkthroughs, an approach to collecting classroom observation data designed to enrich the work of professional learning communities.
- Online resources licensing, for districts that have strong professional learning capacities and wish to license Teachscape’s online resources to support their work.
teachscape.com
Wireless Generation
Wireless Generation partners with researchers, institutions, and experts in educational assessments to create technological solutions and services to preK-12 teachers and school systems. The company invented mCLASS® software, which enables teachers to use handheld devices to perform formative assessments in the elementary grades—saving teachers’ time and producing results immediately. Its Burst™:Reading K-3 reading program uses technology to analyze assessment data and produce sequences of lessons for each student, helping teachers to match instruction to varied learning needs.
The company, cofounded and directed by Commission member Larry Berger, also provides consulting, design, and development services to states and districts. A partner to thousands of school systems, Wireless Generation is widely regarded as a leader in showing how technology can be used creatively to manage student data and address the challenges of education and school reform.
www.wgen.net
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