1999 Department of Defense Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education Leaders Conference "Headlines and Actions" Remarks on Preparing Our Children: Math and Science in the National Interest (National Science Board, March 1999) Eamon M. Kelly Chairman, National Science Board November 3, 1999 Naval Research Laboratory Washington, DC (As Delivered) Good afternoon. My thanks to Rear Admiral Gaffney for the invitation and to the Department of Defense for the opportunity to participate in this Leaders Conference, and especially to discuss the National Science Board report, Preparing Our Children: Math and Science in the National Interest, issued last Spring. If we are here to discuss "just another report" bemoaning the state of K-12 education, then we are wasting our time. Instead, I'd like to use the next half hour or so to talk about our future and a few things we can do about it. Whether we do so is a matter of will, energy, and principle. And remember what Everett Dirksen said: I'm a man of principle, and my first principle is flexibility. Nothing is more characteristic of K-12 education in the United States than "flexibility." A decentralized system of education in 16,000 school districts is the very definition of flexibility. But there is another reality: We are all alarmed by the trends, none more striking than those summarized in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, or TIMSS. U.S. student achievement declines dramatically from 4th to 12th grade compared to students in other countries. Headlines This is not news. What continues to be news is our seeming inability to raise the bar of expectations for all students while simultaneously raising their level of performance. Given the increasing diversity in the school-aged population, the performance gap between our Nation's majority and minority children must narrow as achievement grows. K-12 education should not be a "nagging cold." That is, we are not content to let it run its course. The issue requires intervention. Of course, state and local responsibility is central. The Federal role is catalytic, representing only seven cents of the total education dollar (from all sources) spent on elementary and secondary education. Clearly, more than dollars are at stake, and at work, here. There is a second, less prominent "headline" in the data, too: "K-12 and Higher Education - Two Different Systems." There is a discontinuity between the world's finest higher education system fed by unevenly prepared students and a small cadre of students who are talented but uninformed about science-based careers as they enter U.S. colleges and universities. So the headline triggers questions: Are we skimming the cream, welcoming some and discouraging others? Are we drawing on and nurturing the racial and ethnic diversity of our student population? Are we using the appropriate yardsticks for gauging talent and promise? And are our policies in the Nation's best interest - informed by reliable research and implemented to have the greatest impact? These are the kinds of questions signaled by the National Science Board (NSB) report, a copy of which each of you should have by now. In the report, the Board points to what works in the teaching and learning of mathematics and science. It analyzes the factors, especially the role of well-trained teachers and of rigorous and engaging instructional materials, that contribute to world-class student achievement, and recommends strategies for national action. The NSB shares with you, as your presence here today shows, a conviction that nothing is more vital for higher learning and entry to the high-tech workforce of the 21st century than mathematics and science education. The NSB and Its Mission Before elaborating on that conviction, let me tell you a bit about the NSB, the National Science Foundation, and how the Preparing Our Children report reflects a larger education and human resource agenda. Then I will review the report recommendations and close with some thoughts on collective action. The NSB is a diverse body of 24 presidential appointees. More than a third of the members are women and another third are racial or ethnic minorities. The National Science Foundation Act of 1950 established the National Science Board as the governing body of National Science Foundation (NSF). In addition to the Board's responsibility for the research and education policies of the Foundation, the Act directs the Board to advise the President and Congress, "... regarding policy matters related to science and engineering and education in science and engineering..." NSF and the Federal Role NSF is a small, independent agency with an almost $4 billion annual budget. Just to be clear, NSF is neither a branch of the U.S. Department of Education nor affiliated with the National Academy of Sciences. About a quarter of the NSF budget supports "people" - education and human resource development, with most of the rest invested in "ideas" - the research projects competitively awarded - and "tools" - the observatories, laboratories, and equipment used to do world-class science across all fields of science, mathematics, and engineering. There is a division of labor in the Federal Government when it comes to education. The U.S. Department of Education is responsible for all K-12 teacher and student support, and postsecondary student financial assistance. NSF is responsible for science education at all levels. Other agencies, more than a dozen in all, invest in education activities, materials development, and workshops geared to their particular missions. DoD, of course, is unique in operating its own school systems around the world for dependents of American service personnel. Now, back to the report. The NSB and Science Education In November 1998, the Board issued a strategic plan that outlines its focus for the near term. Prominent among the plan's goals is "Educating the National Workforce." Emerging from the Board's consideration of this issue, and human resource development more generally, are the following: * Local communities must decide what is best for their children and schools, but there is a national interest in determining what every student in a grade should know and be able to do in math and science. * Engaging all students in math and science inquiry develops not only skills and knowledge, but also a foundation for future thinking in the workplace, home, and community; and * Formal education must be seen as a seamless system, K-16 and beyond. A sense of shared responsibility for preparing, nurturing, and mentoring students and teachers must be forged. The segments of the formal educational process (as it now stands) - elementary, middle, and high school, undergraduate and graduate study - reinforce specializations that sometimes appear to be ends in themselves instead of means to achieving learning objectives. Specialists in curriculum, teacher training, and testing and assessment are well-intentioned, but frequently respresent isolated islands of activity. Improving student performance will require cooperation and collaboration among the islands. This means rewarding those individual and institutional efforts that serve a broader conception of teaching and learning. To this end, the Board has resolved to encourage - through policy guidance, partnerships, and outreach - the involvement of scientists and engineers in the improvement of K-12 education, both individually, and through their employing institutions and professional associations. This resolution supports two national needs - the assurance of a skilled, highly educated, and diverse workforce, and a public that is not just well disposed toward science but one that is able as well to use its knowledge of science and mathematics. The Board's concerns encompass the full range of these needs. NSB Field Hearings At the time that Preparing Our Children was being developed during most of calendar 1998, the Board's Committee on Education and Human Resources undertook a series of field hearings on three topics in NSF's Education and Training portfolio - informal science learning, school-based reform, and connecting K-12 and higher education. The hearings enabled the Board to hear first-hand from NSF's constituents in the science, engineering, and education communities around the U.S. The report summarizing the hearings, available like all NSB documents at its web site, illustrates much of what is contained in Preparing Our Children. For example, the hearing hosted by the Chicago Public Schools (July 1998) focused on the painstaking process of reform of urban schools. Educating diverse populations with language, poverty, and deficits in academic preparation challenges teachers, schools, and political leaders - and is more the norm than the exception. It is imperative, therefore, to evaluate the changes implemented under any innovative design, be it so-called school-based management or NSF's Urban Systemic Program. Systemic Reform Let me offer additional context here: Historically, NSF has pursued two investment strategies. One consists of programs that operate on particular components of education, e.g., teacher preparation, instructional materials, and increased participation by members of underrepresented groups. The other, more experimental strategy is a nearly decade-long effort to take a systemic approach, addressing simultaneously all key components of SMET education, as epitomized in the Statewide and Urban Systemic Initiatives. In Detroit, El Paso, Memphis, Chicago, and other cities, there are dramatic signs of improvement in student performance (as measured, for example, by proficiency levels in state science and mathematics assessments). I believe we are beginning to see light in the tunnel of public education and NSF, together with many public and private sector partners, is helping to make this happen system-wide and for all children. The constructive role for higher education in the K-12 reform movement can perhaps best be seen in Puerto Rico, the site of an SSI program. Focused at the U. of Puerto Rico campuses, faculty are engaged in what is conceived as K-16 education reform. Math and science are seen as preparation for higher education, entry to the high-tech workforce, and the economic development of the island. All students are viewed as future human capital - some will pursue careers in S&T, most will join a science-literate workforce as citizens, and a few will become societal leaders. Building the capacity of a seamless system to support this requires a "scaling up" of reform. It takes leadership, accountability, and vigilance. It also, I hasten to note, takes time. The political and public expectations for change are typically unrealistic. Impatience, as well as a flawed design, can undermine the course of reform. Areas for Action Following these hearings, we moved on to the problems we face and the recommendations contained in Preparing Our Children. Mobility One very important taken-for-granted problem is a policy challenge posed by today's high rate of geographic mobility in the U.S. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, one in three students changes schools more than once between grades 1 and 8. Moving between schools, classrooms, teachers, and curricula represents upheavals in students' lives. How does one cope, much less learn, under such circumstances? What is covered in 4th grade in one place does not resemble the content of 4th grade instruction in other places. A mobile student population dramatizes the need for some coordination of content and resources. This is not a Federal "imposition," as we so often see in our daily newspapers, but rather a recognition that student mobility constitutes a systemic problem that requires some uniformity of content. Standards in Theory and Practice A core problem is the need for rigorous content standards in mathematics and science. The National Academy of Sciences has helped this case immensely. And the states are carrying the standards ball with gusto. They acknowledge that all students require the knowledge and skills that flow from teaching and learning based on world-class content standards. These are the standards in theory. But how are standards translated from what appears in state curriculum frameworks into classroom lesson plans, that is, what teachers teach and students learn? This is where the standards lag - in everyday practice. The value of TIMSS is that it helped us calibrate what our students were getting in the classroom relative to their age peers around the world. What we have learned, from TIMSS and other research and evaluation, is that U.S. textbooks, teachers, and the structure of the school day do not promote in-depth learning. While the "back to basics" debate rages on the virtues of rote v. hands-on learning, it is clear that both are needed if students are to command basic knowledge and apply it to new problems and different settings. But rigor in content is what is essential. Excellent pedagogy cannot compensate for superficial and simplistic explanations. That is where accountability comes in. Accountability for teaching and learning, which takes many forms, is now rippling through districts, schools, and classrooms. But accountability measures should be a means not only of rewarding and punishing performance. They should also help in monitoring progress and, we hope, continuously improving performance through learning about system strengths and weaknesses. Only then should appropriate incentives follow. The power of standards and accountability is that, from district-level policy changes in course and graduation requirements to well-aligned classroom teaching and testing, all students can be held to the same high standard of performance. At the same time, teachers and schools must be held accountable so that race, ethnicity, gender, physical disability, and economic disadvantage can diminish as excuses for subpar student performance. But well-prepared and -supported teachers alone will not improve student performance if other things do not change as well. The NSB report focuses on three areas for consensual national action to improve mathematics and science teaching and learning: curriculum, teacher preparation, and college admissions. I'd like to touch briefly on each. 1. Curriculum According to the TIMSS results, U.S. students are not taught what they need to learn in math and science. Most U.S. high school students take no advanced science, with only one-quarter enrolling in physics, one-half in chemistry. From the TIMSS analysis we also learned that curricula in U.S. high schools lack coherence, depth, and continuity, and cover too many topics in a superficial way. Most of our general science textbooks in the U.S. touch on many topics rather than probe any one in depth. Without some degree of consensus on content for each grade level, textbooks will continue to be all-inclusive and superficial. They will fail to challenge students to use mathematics and science as ways of knowing about the world. The AAAS Project 2061 evaluations of middle school textbooks in mathematics and science - of which you'll hear more later today - confirm that many our instructional materials serve neither teachers nor students well. How are selections made? By whom? Through what kind of process? The NSB urges active participation by educators and practicing mathematicians and scientists, as well as parents and employers from knowledge-based industries, in the review of instructional materials considered for local adoption. Professional associations in the science and engineering communities can take the lead in stimulating the dialogue over textbooks and other materials, and in formulating checklists or content inventories that could be valuable to their members, and all stakeholders, in the evaluation process. 2. Teacher Preparation According to the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, as many as one in four teachers is teaching "out of field." Science, and particularly physics, teachers are the least prepared. The National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification reports that only 28 states require prospective teachers to pass examinations in the subject areas they plan to teach, and only 13 states test them on their teaching skills. Widely shared goals and standards in teacher preparation, licensure, and professional development provide mechanisms to overcome these difficulties. This is especially critical for middle school teachers, if we take the TIMSS 8th grade findings seriously. We cannot expect world-class learning of mathematics and science if U.S. teachers lack the knowledge, confidence, and enthusiasm to deliver world-class instruction. While updating current teacher knowledge is essential, improving future teacher preparation is even more crucial. The NSB urges formation of three-pronged partnerships: institutions that graduate new teachers working in concert with national and state certification bodies, and local school districts. These partnerships should form around the highest possible standards of subject content knowledge for new teachers, and aim at aligning teacher education, certification requirements and processes, and hiring practices. If the best-prepared teachers are not favored in the hiring process, there is no incentive to acquire new skills, learn new content, and become nationally certified. Mechanisms for the support of teachers are needed, such as sustained mentoring by individual university faculty, and other teacher support mechanisms, such as pay supplements for board certification. We can honor our teachers by treating them as professionals, demanding continuous learning and responsibility for their students' performance. 3. College Admissions Quality teaching and learning of mathematics and science bestows advantages on students. Content standards, clusters of courses, and graduation requirements illuminate the path to college and the workplace, lay a foundation for later learning, and draw students' career aspirations within reach. How high schools assess student progress, however, has consequences for deciding who gains access to higher education. Longitudinal data on 1982 high school graduates point to course-taking or "academic intensity," as opposed to high school grade point average or SAT/ACT scores, as predictors of completion of baccalaureate degrees. Nevertheless, short-term and readily quantifiable measures such as standardized test scores tend to dominate admissions decisions. Such decisions promote the participation of some students in mathematics and science, and discourage others. Further, acting as "all one system" means that the strengths and deficiencies of elementary or secondary education are not just inherited by higher education. Instead, they become spurs to better preparation and opportunity for advanced learning. "Preparation" is not a K-12 problem; it is the responsibility of every educator at every level. "Partnering" by institutions of higher education demands a change in the culture of our colleges and universities, a change that is reflected in adjustments in expectations and a redefinition of the range of activities that are professionally valued and rewarded. Service to local schools, teachers, and students must be seen as instrumental to the mission of the higher education institution. These are its future clientele. The NSB urges institutions of higher education to form partnerships with local districts/schools that create a more seamless K-16 system. Partnerships can also help to increase the congruence between high school graduation requirements in math and science, and undergraduate performance demands. Moreover, they can demonstrate the links between classroom-based skills and the demands on thinking and learning in the workplace. A fourth area underlies the three above: research. Questions such as which tests should be used for gauging progress in teaching and learning, and how children learn in both formal and informal settings require research-based answers. The National Science Board sees research as a necessary condition for improved student achievement in mathematics and science. Further, research on local district, school, and classroom practice is best supported at a national level and in a global context, such as TIMSS. Knowing "what works" in diverse settings should inform those seeking a change in practice and student learning outcomes. Teachers could especially use such information. Like other professionals, teachers need support networks that deliver content and help to refine and renew their knowledge and skills. The Board urges the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education to spearhead the Federal contribution to science, mathematics, engineering, and technology education research and evaluation. No one Federal, state, or local agency can afford to sponsor and then implement the results of educational research. Efforts at the Federal level, such as the Interagency Education Research Initiative, are rooted in empirical reports by the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology and the National Science and Technology Council. Led jointly by NSF and the Department of Education, this initiative should support research that yields timely findings and thoughtful plans for transferring lessons, and influencing those responsible for math and science teaching and learning, K-16. Closing Thoughts My overview of the NSB report has gone beyond recommendations. I have suggested that federally funded activities should serve as a kind of compass or "finder's service" - a source of intervention ideas that represent reasonable alternatives to current practice. If we believe that the health of science and engineering tomorrow depends on improved mathematics and science preparation of our students today, then we dare not delegate the responsibility of teaching and learning math and science solely to teachers and schools. They cannot work miracles by themselves. Reforming and improving K-12 education is a national social responsibility. We "own" the problem and it's time we subordinate ideology, belief, parochialism, and our considerable pride to the bigger need, indeed, our obligation, to educate generations of our children for a 21st century world of science and technology-laced wonder. Will they participate fully? If they don't, how will U.S. society - and we in retirement - fare? So I leave you with the thought that only concerted action will achieve greater participation by those who have not traditionally identified mathematics and science education with their future careers and citizenship. Making the possibility of a science-informed future a reality for all students is our collective responsibility. We can act in our national self-interest to expand the capabilities of the next generation. In so doing, a balance must be struck between individual and collective incentives and accountability. In 1983, the same year that A Nation at Risk was published, the NSB Commission on Precollege Education in Mathematics, Science and Technology advised: Our children are the most important asset of our country; they deserve at least the heritage that was passed to us . . . a level of mathematics, science and technology education that is the finest in the world, without sacrificing the American birthright of personal choice, equity and opportunity. Whether we draw on the full potential of our human resources is entirely up to us. The National Science Board, among others, has affirmed that scientists and engineers, and especially our colleges and universities, must act to prepare and support teachers and students for the rigors of advanced learning and the 21st century workplace. Equipping the next generation with these tools of work and citizenship will require a greater consensus among stakeholders than now exists on the content of K-16 teaching and learning. With disagreements on how to teach mathematics, on which methods and materials, and what to teach in areas where science and religion diverge (such as evolution), a greater consensus seems more elusive than ever. Nevertheless, as leaders of our respective communities and citizens of this republic, we must prevail in keeping minds open, ideas flowing, and options plentiful, especially for those deciding how their careers will allow them to contribute to the future of the society and the planet. I began with a caveat about "just another report." When a report fails to spur action, it becomes at best an historical footnote. As the NSB report shows, national strategies can only help change the conditions of schooling if they are implemented. You can help change schooling and our understanding of it. In 1999, national strategies for excellence in education must be more than a footnote and more than a headline. Such action must be nothing less than a national imperative. Thank you. 1