Section 1: Excellence and Equity: Mobilizing for Math and Science Learning

What would it take to change education to meet the future needs of the American people? Just as our nation once transformed its school system to enable the shift from an agricultural to an industrial economy, we must reinvent our educational system again today, this time for a rapidly changing and increasingly technological global economy³. Math and science learning belong at the center of that transformation.

Mathematics and science are essential components of a liberal education, the backbone of logic and analytic thinking from early childhood through the most advanced levels of learning across the academic disciplines. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics enable us to understand the natural world, the built environment, systems of society, and the interactions among them that will determine the future of our nation and planet. Like literacy, math and science embody habits of mind and methods for discerning meaning that enable students to learn deeply and critically in all areas. Just as adults need math and science to understand the world and function within it, students need math and science to understand and master subjects such as history, geography, music, and art.

The Commission is not arguing that math and science are more important than other branches of learning: rather, we believe that mathematics and science education as currently provided to most American students falls far short of meeting their future needs or the needs of society. Further, we contend that mathematics and science—and science in particular—have received too little attention in recent rounds of school reform. Mathematics educator and Commission member Uri Treisman has recommended that schools “inject mathematics throughout the curriculum by ending its unnatural suppression from other subjects⁴.” The Commission endorses this view and believes that the same counsel should be applied to science. We believe that the goal of improving math and science could sound a call for change that would reverberate throughout our schools and increase student learning in all areas. And we believe that bringing national resources, solutions, and policies to bear toward enabling all American students to be “STEM-capable” would help schools and districts to take up the challenge.

Good schools enable students to cultivate math and science skills from the earliest grades, supporting their learning as they master not just content but ways of knowing that are applicable in many areas of learning and life. Summarizing the goals of science learning in kindergarten through grade 8 in its seminal 2007 report Taking Science to School, for example, the National Research Council described four crucial capacities that all students should develop: knowing, using, and interpreting scientific explanations of the natural world; generating and evaluating scientific evidence and explanations; understanding the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and participating productively in scientific practices and discourse⁵. Adding It Up, the National Research Council’s influential 2001 study of K-8 mathematics education, emphasized similarly foundational capacities: conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition⁶. These are core capacities that, if developed systematically from kindergarten through university for every student, would reduce the educational deficits that limit our nation’s human capacity, producing what a recent report by McKinsey and Company termed “the economic equivalent of a permanent national recession.”⁷

Math and science embody habits of mind and methods for discerning meaning that enable students to learn deeply and critically in all areas.

For today’s students, math and science also open the door to understanding new technologies—a realm of interest that is crucial to our collective economic future but whose value has yet to be fully tapped by our educational system. Outside the classroom, evidence abounds that new media are powerful vehicles for motivating young people, capturing their imaginations, and inspiring them to strive for mastery⁸ In its 2008 report Fostering Learning in a Networked World, the National Science Foundation Task Force on Cyberlearning acknowledges that educational technology has not yet had the profound impact on American schools that has long been anticipated, but the Task Force also argues that “cyberlearning has reached a turning point where learning payoffs can be accelerated.”⁹. If so, the potential for offering students new and motivating avenues to build science, math, engineering, and technology knowledge is great.

The Commission urges schools to put greater emphasis on mathematics and science and to seek every opportunity to infuse other curricular areas with math and science content and methods. But schools alone cannot create a “science-and-math-rich” environment for young people. As a society, we must expand the walls of the traditional schoolhouse to encompass a much wider environment and set of resources. Math and science learning offer powerful points of intersection between schools and institutions such as museums, universities, research laboratories, businesses, and trade and professional associations. Organizations dedicated to science, engineering, and technology in particular are assets to the educational enterprise. Through programs like the National Science Foundation’s Math and Science Partnership Network, they have become increasingly important partners to school systems, working closely with teachers and school system leaders to advance research and provide students with experiences that deepen their knowledge and enliven their understanding of the world¹⁰. National policies and resources could do more to promote partnerships that would bring new resources and momentum to transform mathematics and science learning for all students.

Math and science are calibrators for the depth, rigor, and relevance to students’ interests and passions that our educational system must deliver far more reliably. When students succeed in math and science, they are by definition showing strong literacy skills in academic vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency, along with decision making and problem solving. Achievement in mathematics and science is therefore an indicator of effectiveness at every level: classroom, school, school system, college or university, state, and even larger components such as the nation’s capacity to improve schools, educate teachers, ensure social mobility, and promote productivity. Raising the bar on math and science will set the bar high for every aspect of the education enterprise and every contributor to students’ learning.

Objectives

• Mobilize the nation for excellence and equity in mathematics and science education

• Place mathematics and science at the center of education innovation, improvement, and accountability

Discussion

Many Americans—business leaders and government officials, and also educators, parents, and even students—acknowledge the need for radical change in the way mathematics and science are taught and learned in most U.S. schools and colleges. Some calls for change have been motivated by a desire to restore American preeminence in technological innovation. The nation must act quickly, the argument goes, to increase the number of high-level U.S. science, math, and engineering graduates or forever be left behind¹¹.

The Commission shares that concern and recognizes that the United States will always need top graduates in those fields, yet we are also persuaded by arguments that the new global economy demands higher levels of skill held by many more people. Nearly every worker will need to be STEM-capable, or knowledgeable about science and math, even beyond the professions that require specialized science, technology, engineering, or mathematics training; more jobs at more levels in fields such as health, law, business, and education will require science- and math-related skills; and the level of skill and knowledge demanded will be higher.

This reality presents an unprecedented challenge to our current educational system, and also an opportunity: What if we were to use the objective “excellent math and science education for all” as a lever for widespread school reform at the scale that is needed? Could a national mobilization for math and science bring unity of purpose to school improvement and drive the system to generate new designs and methods?

1. On mobilizing for equity and excellence in mathematics and science education

The Commission believes that the United States must use its resources wisely to ensure that all young Americans, including but not limited to those who aspire to high-level math and science degrees and careers, are well prepared by our schools and colleges to participate and thrive in a global economy, and that science and math skills are essential to that preparation. Further, we have confidence that American students and families agree with that assessment and would welcome efforts to improve—in quality and relevance, not just in courses required—the science and math education received by all American students.

Colleges and universities must provide richer math and science learning to all and open wider avenues for students of all backgrounds to pursue advanced degrees.

As Commission member and Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian has noted, “the value of an education lies in its task to enhance men’s and women’s powers of rational analysis, intellectual precision and independent judgment, and in particular to encourage a mental adaptability, a characteristic which men and women sorely need, especially now, in an era of rapid change¹².” The emerging global marketplace is making those characteristics even more important, as shifts in the labor market indicate clearly. In 2007, for example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that 54.7 million American jobs would open during the decade from 2004 to 2014, of which well over half (29.4 million) will require a college degree¹³. Moreover, the only job categories for which both demand and wages are continuing to grow are “non-routine analytic” positions, requiring good judgment, an ability to solve problems, and strong communications, information management, and synthesizing skills¹⁴.

Skills related to collaboration and systems integration are also growing in importance as the United States seeks to redefine its role as an incubator for innovation. As Hal Salzman, a labor analyst at the Urban Institute, explained to the Commission, economic productivity and growth depend on strong skills at many levels of the labor force. “Although innovating a better computer network server is important,” he noted, “it is the legions of network administrators and technicians that affect how much of the potential productivity gains are realized from the technology¹⁵.” Salzman believes that the United States should aim to be a “strong node” in a collaboration-oriented global marketplace and that “the United States is currently the best positioned country… to do this because of its history of openness, diversity, and free flow of knowledge, and home to companies that are now the leading navigators in the new global systems.”

A common thread across these data is the increasingly determinative importance of educational attainment generally, and higher education specifically, to economic opportunity and national innovation. Labor economist Stephen Machin has observed that “the demand for education is still outstripping supply despite the rapid expansion of skill-biased technological change and globalization. So, the penalty for not having a good education level is rising¹⁶.” By 2004, wage declines among high school graduates with no postsecondary education placed this group for the first time below the middle 50 percent of family incomes in the United States, or below the middle class¹⁷.

The United States no longer leads the world in preparing young people through the attainment of college degrees. In 1995, the U.S. ranked second internationally in the percentage of college graduates in the population; by 2006, its relative position had declined¹⁸.The absolute percentage of college educated within the U.S. population remained steady at approximately 34 percent, while the share in countries including New Zealand, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Japan increased. Globally, China and India remain far below the United States in percentage of college-educated adults, yet their absolute numbers are growing rapidly because of their large youth populations.

Paul E. Lingenfelter, president of State Higher Education Executive Officers, has argued that for the United States to be “second to none in degree attainment by 2025 requires 16 million more [bachelor’s] degrees¹⁹.”Lingenfelter observes that the United States will get to that objective only by achieving “equal college participation and success rates at every level of socio-economic status and academic ability” and increasing “educational expectations and attainment for average ability students.” The shifting demographics and economic realities of the nation mean that we must better educate a more diverse range of students than ever before.

The Commission shares President Obama’s conviction that “every American will need to get more than a high school diploma,” for their own futures and the future of the country, and echoes his call for “every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training [at] a community college or a four-year school, vocational training or an apprenticeship²⁰.”To build the skills and knowledge required by the 21st century global labor market, our educational system must produce many more students who are “college-ready” and well prepared to succeed in undergraduate education. Then, because of the importance of math and science to students’ futures as workers and citizens, colleges and universities must provide richer math and science learning to all and open wider avenues for students of all backgrounds with the interest and aptitude to pursue advanced degrees. In short, it is imperative that we raise educational attainment at both the bottom and the top, and close the gaps in opportunity that too often divide American students along lines of race, ethnicity, and socio-economic background.

In contemplating the implications of these trends and indicators for our country, the Commission takes encouragement from students’ own views on math and science, as well as those of their parents. In fall 2008, the Commission undertook a sizeable national survey to explore attitudes toward math and science among the two crucial constituencies: adolescents in grades 8–10 and their parents. Digging deeper, the study team conducted in-depth focus groups with 8th and 10th graders and their parents in two urban areas. In both the survey and focus groups, the researchers made special efforts to understand the views of African-American and Latino students and parents²¹.

Although the samples are too small to produce definitive national findings, the outcomes are intriguing, in part because they run counter to some conventional assumptions about how young people think about learning and achievement in mathematics and science. Overall, the results give strong reason to expect that students and parents will be receptive to calls for higher levels of math and science learning and to realistic proposals to improve math and science education for all students.

Substantial shares of both students and parents said that they understand the importance of math and science and see the need for stronger, more relevant math and science education. Overall, young people and their parents may be ahead of public perceptions in their openness to math and science learning and to improving the nation’s educational performance in those areas. The study uncovered findings in several key areas:

• High perceived importance of math and science. Students and parents recognize the importance of math for their futures. Majorities of students believe that algebra (69 percent) and geometry (59 percent) will be important for their careers—and parents agree. Many students identified “data analysis” as an important skill for their futures—second only to English. Majorities also believe that science classes are at least somewhat important: 62 percent for biology, 59 percent for chemistry, and 59 percent for physics. These findings hold with slight variation across racial and ethnic groups.

Young people and their parents may be ahead of public perceptions in their openness to math and science learning and to improving the nation’s educational performance in those areas.

• Limited understanding of the connection between advanced courses and careers. When students discussed their career ambitions, many did not connect their aspirations with required high school math and science coursework, suggesting a need to help students see the relevance of upper-level math and science coursework in secondary school and beyond.

• Strong influence of teachers on student attitudes. Students who rate their teachers highly are more likely to see math and science in their futures. Students and parents gave high marks to teachers who use engaging instructional practices: for example, in science, holding labs more than once a week and having students report findings to the class; in math, promoting multiple approaches to problem solving and helping students apply lessons to the real world.

• Positive student views of math and science achievers. Students do not, in general, hold negative stereotypes of peers who are good at math or science. They are much more likely to associate positive descriptors than negative ones to successful math and science students. For example, 42 percent said a successful math student is “hardworking,” and 32 percent said “smart.” Just 12 percent associate the word “nerdy” with a good science student.

• Clear recognition that math and science can be learned by all—although one in four hold doubts. Most parents and students understand that math and science skills can be learned and developed, and that doing well is not simply a matter of innate ability. Among students, 70 percent said that math ability is something people can learn and develop, versus 25 percent who said math ability is primarily innate²².

In short, young people and their parents recognize the importance of mathematics and science and see the value of high-quality instruction. A national mobilization for mathematics and science learning would make the need for change plain to all Americans and bring resources and commitment to the effort.

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.

• Supporting college success and advanced study by underrepresented minority students. The Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland Baltimore County offers special supports to incoming students, mainly African-American, who aspire to careers in science and engineering. Students start with a summer program prior to freshman year featuring intensive credit-bearing courses in calculus and African-American studies and a range of noncredit courses. The program continues through graduation and includes academic advising and support in preparing graduate and professional school applications³³.

• Emphasizing the need for rigorous, relevant postsecondary learning as a basis for careers and civic life. Princeton University recently redesigned introductory engineering courses to teach engineering as a liberal art to students preparing for careers in medicine, law, public policy, and visual arts. The revamped curriculum stresses design and analytic methods.

A national mobilization would strengthen schools’ ability to tap valuable resources and strategies, increase demand for further innovation, and allow the best approaches to be combined.

• Coordinating resources from other sectors to raise math and science outcomes. To increase the number of STEM students in higher education, especially those from minority and low-income backgrounds, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is coordinating a “progressive dialogue” with leaders across New York State from business, government, education, and other sectors and developing a plan to coordinate their resources³⁴.

A national mobilization would strengthen schools’ ability to tap valuable resources and strategies, increase demand for further innovation, and allow the best approaches to be combined more strategically and implemented in more places.* Examples of successful and promising programs are collected on the Commission’s Web site at www.OpportunityEquation.org.

Excellent, equitable math and science education is a powerful, timely, and unifying goal, one toward which many individuals and institutions could contribute and where the potential payoffs are immense. Success would mean genuinely improved outcomes for a rising generation of American students and radically different elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education.

Recommended actions

The Commission recommends actions in two areas to build broad public understanding and commitment toward excellence and equity in math and science learning:

1. Mobilize the nation to improve math and science education for all students

By the federal government, states, school districts, and national and local education reform organizations

• Mount campaigns that generate public awareness of math and science as central to the revitalization of the American economy and social mobility for young Americans

• Increase public understanding that math and science are connected to a wide range of careers in many fields—virtually any secure and rewarding job in any sector of the economy

• Build understanding and will among policymakers and education, business, and civic leaders to close the gap between current education achievement and the future knowledge and skill needs of students

By colleges and universities

• Raise awareness and build support in colleges and universities for stronger and more coherent math and science preparation for all students

• Increase partnerships between higher education and K-12 systems to increase the number of students entering two- and four-year colleges well-prepared and able to take up mathematics and science learning

2. Place mathematics and science at the center of school improvement and accountability efforts

By the federal government, states, school districts, and national and local education reform organizations

• Make improvement in math and science outcomes, especially by historically underperforming groups, a benchmark in designing and evaluating school improvement efforts at all grade levels for all students

• Incorporate math and science learning as part of the expected learning outcomes of initiatives in other areas, including literacy, social studies, art, and service learning

By businesses, nonprofit organizations, unions, philanthropy, and other partners

• Advocate for and support smart investments in K-16 mathematics and science achievement for a vital state, city, or regional economy

• Map assets in science and math, including science and technology-based industry, medical and health research and practice centers, and museums, and communicate how these can be leveraged for increasing math and science achievement

• Increase the science and math content in out-of-school time programming through project-based, real-world activities

• Incentivize the development of state, regional, and local science, math, engineering, and technology initiatives