Experts call for new emphasis on science, math education in Texas

Experts call for new emphasis on science, math education in Texas

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News Staff

A conference of educators, scientists and policymakers at Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy last week issued a call for a new emphasis on teaching science and math in Texas schools.

Speakers at the Oct. 13 event cited statistics that underscore Texas’ lagging position in the teaching of math and science and proposed a variety of solutions aimed at improvement.

The conference was aimed at addressing issues raised by a 2005 report by the National Academies, ”Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” which described how improving science and technology research would help the U.S. sustain its economic viability as industries become more global. One major component of the report focused on the diminishing quality of kindergarten-through-grade 12 science and math education.

The conference was co-sponsored by Rice University’s Baker Institute and The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST), an organization of Texas scientists, doctors, and engineers who have been elected to the National Academies.

A preconference dinner opened with remarks by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

”We need to start encouraging and providing incentives to our young people to get interested in math and science, and at an earlier age,” said Hutchison. “I firmly believe that the state, local and federal governments, working with the private sector and the universities, must address this challenge with the same kind of urgency that we gave to the space race a half-century ago.”

Leon Lederman, 1998 Nobel Prize winner in physics, gave the dinner’s keynote speech, “Science Education: The Evolution of a Huge Responsibility.” He told the audience it often takes a crisis to get people involved, and cited the creation of NASA in response to the national crisis sparked by Sputnik’s launch as an example of effective government action.

“Texas, we have a problem!” said William R. Brinkley, one of the conference organizers and senior vice president for graduate sciences and dean of the graduate school of biomedical sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. “Like the entire United States of America, we no longer appear to be leading the world in science and technology. The quality of K-12 science and math education has diminished — and the task of this forum is to identify the problems, assess Texas’ strengths and weaknesses in K-12 science and math education.”

Darvin Winnick, chairman of the National Assessment Governing Board, pointed out that Texas fourth-graders rated 25th in the nation but fell to 37th place by the eighth grade — indicating that things are getting worse as kids progress. He called for outside intervention, because “it is too hard for educators to reform themselves.”

Increased funding was one obvious proposal to address Texas’ shortcomings. One speaker, Timothy Scott, director of math and science education and associate dean of undergraduate programs at Texas A&M University, put the price tag for raising teachers’ salaries at more than $9 billion. Such funding would bolster teacher recruitment, preparation and retention.

But, any major overhaul of Texas education policy requires massive public support, said Alan Friedman, a consultant with Museum Development and Science Communication and former     director and CEO of the New York Hall     of Science. He added that everyone in the U.S. must buy into a plan for educational reform, including the media.

Several speakers recommended a special focus on under-performing schools and students.

Carol Fletcher, assistant director and research    development coordinator for Texas Regional Collaboratives for Excellence    in Science and Mathematics Teaching at the University of Texas at Austin, called the current accountability system for teachers “punitive.” She advocated an alternative approach that would encourage “teachers and principals to want to work in low-performing schools.”

Others called for new ways to evaluate the success of different educational programs and the creation of reliable metrics for the professional development of teachers.

In closing the event, Larry R. Faulkner, president of the Houston Endowment, suggested the audience use more optimistic terminology by dispensing with words like “crisis” in favor of “an ongoing social condition that we need to pay particular attention to.”

He listed five areas Texans should focus on: more good teachers, higher levels of attainment by students, scalability, ways to “fascinate” students about math and science and college readiness.

Conclusions from the forum will be published in a detailed report at http://www.tamest.org/.