Appendix C- 1

Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html Appendix C can be downloaded as a 432-Kb pdf document.

Below are short excerpts about the K-12 focus group.

Most important is the K-12 Education Focus Group Top Recommendation #1! As of 2010, it has NOT been funded, to the detriment of the nation’s ability to compete, prosper, and be secure in the global community.

Appendix C

FOCUS GROUP SESSIONS

AUGUST 6, 2005

The Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century convened focus groups on Saturday, August 6, 2005, from 9 am to 4 pm. The purpose of the focus groups was to gather experts in five broad subjects—K-12 education, higher education, science and engineering research, innovation and workforce, and national and homeland security—to provide input to the committee on how the United States can successfully compete, prosper, and be secure in the global community.

The charge to focus-group participants is listed in full on page C-3. Essentially, each group was asked to define and set priorities for the top three actions for its subject that federal policy-makers could take to ramp up the innovative capacity of the United States. Each focus group was chaired by a member of the committee, who presented the group’s priorities to the full committee during an open discussion session.

The content of those presentations is listed starting on page C-4. Focus group-biographies are listed starting on page C-9.

Appendix C- 4

K-12 Education Focus Group Top Recommendation Summary

Roy Vagelos, Chair

National Objectives

• Lay a foundation for a workforce that is capable in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)—including those who can create, support, and sustain innovation.

• Develop a society that embraces STEM literacy.

• Develop and sustain K-12 teacher corps capable of and motivated to teach science and mathematics.

• Establish meaningful measures.

Top Recommendations

1. The federal government should provide peer-reviewed long-term support for programs to develop and support a K-12 teacher core that is well-prepared to teach STEM subjects.

a. Programs for in-service teacher development that provide in-depth content and pedagogical knowledge; some examples include summer programs, Master’s programs, and mentor teachers.

b. Provide scholarship funds to in-service teachers to participate in summer institutes and content-intensive degree programs.

c. Provide seed grants to universities and colleges to provide summer institute and content-intensive degree programs for in-service teachers.

2. Establish a program to encourage undergraduate students to major in STEM and teach in K-12 for at least 5 years. The program should include support mechanisms and incentives to enable teacher retention.

a. Provide a scholarship for joint STEM bachelor’s degree + teacher certification program. Mandate a service requirement and pay a federal signing bonus.

b. Encourage collaboration between STEM departments and education departments to train STM K-12 teachers.

3. Provide incentives to encourage students, especially minorities and women, to complete STM K-12 coursework, including

a. Monetary incentives to complete advanced coursework.

b. Tutoring and after school programs.

c. Summer engineering and science academies, internships, and research opportunities.

d. Support school and curriculum organization models (state-wide specialty schools, magnet schools, dual-enrollment models, and the like).

4. Support the design of state public school assessments that measure necessary workplace skills to meet innovation goals and ensure No Child Left Behind assessments include these goals.

5. Provide support to research, develop, and implement a new generation of instructional materials (including textbooks, modules, computer programs) based on research evidence on student learning outcomes, with vertical alignment and coherence across assessments and frameworks. Link teacher development and curricular development.

K-12 Focus Group Participants

Roy Vagelos, retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Merck & Co., Inc., Chair

Carolyn Bacon, Executive Director, O’Donnell Foundation

Susan Berardi, Consultant

Rolf K. Blank, Director of Education Indicators, Council of Chief State School Officers

Rodger W. Bybee, Executive Director, Biological Sciences Curriculum Study

Hai-Lung Dai, Hirschmann-Makineni Chair Professor of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania

Joan Ferrini-Mundy, Associate Dean for Science and Mathematics Education and Outreach, College of Natural Science, Michigan State University

Bruce Fuchs, Director, Office of Science Education, National Institutes of Health

Ronald Marx, Professor of Educational Psychology and Dean of Education, University of Arizona

David Monk, Professor of Educational Administration and Dean of College of Education, Pennsylvania State University

Carlo Parravano, Executive Director, Merck Institute for Science Education

Anne C. Petersen, Senior Vice President for Programs, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Helen Quinn, Physicist, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford University

Deborah Roudebush, Physics Teacher, Fairfax County Public Schools

Daniel K. Rubenstein, Mathematics Teacher, New York City Collegiate School

J. Stephen Simon, Senior Vice President, Exxon Mobil Corporation

(For those who wish more background, a longer excerpt from Appendix C can be downloaded in MS-Word at http://modeling.asu.edu/modeling/professdevelop.html, as of 2010.)

Rising Above The Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11463.html