President Bush signs into law a bill seeking to bolster math and science education
Earlier this month, President George Bush signed into law a bill that seeks to bolster mathematics and science education through improved teacher recruitment and training and the promotion of successful classroom practices through federal grants for schools. Members of Congress have dubbed the bill the America COMPETES Act, which stands for America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science, a reference to what they believe is the proposal’s potential to strengthen the quality of the U.S. workforce and gird the economy against foreign competition. The measure will broaden the Robert Noyce Scholarship Program, which provides grants of $10,000 a year to college majors in math- and science-related subjects who agree to teach in high-need schools, by expanding recipients’ years of eligibility for aid and giving them more time to finish teacher training. It will create "Math Now," a program that will seek to help students reach grade level in that subject and prepare them for algebra, which most students take in 8th or 9th grade, through federal grants that will flow to the states and then to local schools to improve K-9 instruction. The law also authorizes more grant money for the expansion of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate classes in schools nationwide—programs the administration has supported. In addition, it calls for the secretary of education to contract with the National Academy of Sciences to convene a national panel to "identify promising practices" in school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics studies—the so-called STEM subjects. Although the act authorizes new spending on math and science programs, it does not guarantee they will get that money. Appropriations for those programs are included in three separate spending bills under consideration by Congress. While acknowledging the value of a strong math and science education, two former high-ranking Education Department officials, Chester E. Finn Jr. and Diane Ravitch, cautioned in an essay in The Wall Street Journal that U.S. economic strength and innovation also spring from students receiving a rich education in other subjects, too. "The liberal arts," they added, "make us ‘competitive’ in ways that matter most."
Education Week
By Sean Cavanaugh
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: The Wall Street Journal column and NSBA’s comments to Congress on the act are below.]
[Finn and Ravitch op-ed]
[NSBA letter to Congress]