Posted on 06/05/2006 11:51:28 AM PDT by cogitator
BALTIMORE - Dismal new results on U.S. student performance in science ought to spur Congress to pass President Bush’s competitiveness agenda this year — and to extend his “No Child Left Behind” program to high schools.
The competitiveness agenda — which includes scholarships aimed at producing 10,000 more science teachers per year as well as increases in U.S. research funding — has bipartisan support but is moving slowly through Congress.
Markups of key legislation have yet to take place in the House or Senate, and leaders have yet to schedule floor time for the bills, which could represent a major success for Congress this year.
The need for action, shown over and over by poor U.S. student performance on national and international tests in math and science, was demonstrated again last week with results of the latest “national report card” on science.
The National Assessment of Education Progress showed a slight improvement in science test scores by fourth-graders from 1995 to 2005, no improvement by eighth-graders and a decline for 12th-graders.
It showed a narrowing of traditional performance gaps between white students and minorities in the fourth-grade, but no improvement in the eighth and a widening in the 12th. Girls consistently performed slightly below boys in all three grades.
Bills in both the House and Senate contain provisions to expand minority participation in science, but there’s reason to think extra steps should be taken to get women into computer science.
According to Lucy Sanders, CEO of the National Center for Women and Information Technology, the percentage of women enrolled as university computer-science majors has reached an all-time low despite burgeoning opportunities in the field.
Regardless of the fact that computerization accounts for much of America’s improved productivity — and is a growing field of international competition despite the early-decade “tech bust” — Sanders said applications for college computer-science programs have dropped 40 percent among both men and women since 1990.
Girls represent only 15 percent of young people taking Advanced Placement tests in computer science, she said. And girls make up less than 10 percent of computer entrants in the Intel Science Fair competition and 15 percent of bachelor’s degree awardees at major research universities, she said.
“Women are entering other science fields in large numbers,” she told me. “But we’re losing out in information technology. We’ve got to change its image from ‘geeky’ to ‘challenging.’ ”
That’s not strictly Congress’ business, of course. Sanders’ group is backed by the National Science Foundation and 100 computer companies, universities and nonprofit organizations that are trying to change school curricula and get girls to enroll in computer camps.
It also held a town meeting in Washington, D.C., earlier this month to develop new strategies to get women and minorities involved in information technology.
On the larger issue of overall U.S. competitiveness, it has finally gotten through to Congress and the Bush administration over the past year that the United States is in danger of falling behind other nations, especially China and India, which are devoting major efforts to scientific research, education and industrial development.
Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., triggered the new interest by asking for a National Academy of Sciences study, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm,” warning that the United States was in danger of losing its technological pre-eminence.
Studies have exploded one widely repeated statistic included in that study — that China graduates 600,000 new engineers each year; India, 350,000 and the United States, only 70,000.
One study showed that the actual numbers are 137,000 in the United States; 112,000 in India; and 350,000 in China, giving the United States the lead in engineers per million of population. Still, no one has challenged the basic finding that China and India are swiftly upgrading their science and research programs — and that represents a long-term threat to the United States.
After appeals by Alexander and several House members, Bush included a competitiveness initiative in his State of the Union address, calling for a doubling of the budgets of the National Science Foundation and other physical-science research programs over 10 years and expanding science education.
After the latest NAEP scores were released, Alexander said they “illustrate the urgency for Congress to pass comprehensive competitiveness legislation this year.”
His legislation, Protecting America’s Competitive Edge Act, has 70 co-sponsors, but it has yet to be marked up in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Similar legislation is scheduled for markup in the House Science Committee after the Memorial Day recess.
Meanwhile, even though the NAEP results show a sharp fall-off in science performance among high school students, similar to scores in math and reading, Congress and the administration have no plans this year to revive efforts to extend the NCLB testing and accountability requirements to high schools.
The administration made an ill-fated stab at that in 2001, but it was rebuffed by Congress under pressure from the national vocational education lobby, whose funding the administration tried to eliminate to pay for NCLB.
The Senate’s immigration bill contains provisions to attract foreign scientists and graduate students to the United States with green cards, and that’s good. But what America needs is to educate its own children — boys and girls — to love and do science. Right now, we’re still failing.
The sad fact is, Congress passed a resolution in 2002 (I think) calling for doubling NSF's budget, and they haven't come close to doing that.
My final question: if girls don't like computers, then who is doing all that Instant Messaging?
Haven't had a chance to pick up a copy yet, is this new paper any good?
I haven't seen it where I live. A friend of mine in D.C. sent me the URL to Kondracke's piece.
Where is "Congress must act on science!" found in the Constitution? Get the bleepin' freep out of education, Congress!
We need science to maintain our technical superiority. It is an important facet of military self defense.
And science teachers might cross state lines, so it's implied under the Interstate Commerce Clause. Yeah, that works.
I don't get your point well enough to respond. Could you rephrase that?
:)
No probem ... I'm having one of my Garbled days - probably should have taken a nap when I had the chance!
I meant that some justification can be made for why we "need" all kinds of things, none of which were intended by the Founders to involve the Federal government.
And, as a practical matter, we're not going to improve our technology position by putting more science teachers in high schools. Our public school students' reading and math scores start falling after the 4th grade. By high school, it's too late for most of them.
No, I don't think that the answer to useless, unconstitutional Federal spending is more inconstitutional Federal spending, even if it chances to produce some useful results.
As I said, I think putting more money toward public school science teachers will produce bupkis results. You can't teach chemistry or physics to students who can't read and understand a newspaper article, and can't do algebra.
If the money went to college scholarships for top-performing students beginning at age 16, that might produce some more scientists. (Most of them are Asian, so they get bumped out of college slots and scholarships because they aren't "Minority".)
In general, I expect capitalism to drive technological supremacy, to the extent the government gets out of the way and lets individuals and businesses spend their own money on what they value.
My goodness, I'm typing like a gerbil today! Can I blame the new keyboard, or should I just give up?
Got this new laptop yesterday ;)
The babies did something to the previous keyboard, and the new one is weird.
Both true. Our current baby (4 months) SPITS, which I think is related to the loss of key function on the other keyboard.
Glad you got your data back, at least. If you look on my profile (down past the baby), you can see our late cat with "her" laptop!
Well, of course, we have to first waste several days in a completely hopeless attempt attempt to pass the Gay Marriage Amendment. First things first.
* !!! *
Believe it or not, there actually is a part of the constitution that says congress is supposed to promote the progress of science (section 8, article 1), but that had more to do with patent law then this.
There is a clause in the constitution about congress promoting the progress of science, but that has more to do with patents then this, this would be a dubious interpretation.
With belief in space aliens, Global Warming, and UFOs so prevalent, it will be difficult to attract students to science.
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