June 2008
ASTRA: 2008 STEM Education Report Cards
2008 State STEM Education Report Card contains "thirty benchmarks related to K-12 science and math teaching, socio-economic and diversity data, comparative rankings, and assessments of each state's public school educational progress as issued by the U.S. Department of Education" for each state. These STEM reports are co-located on the ASTRA web site with their ASTRA R&D Sheets for each state, and "were prepared by ASTRA for the STEM Ed Coalition, a group of nearly 400 organizations and companies concerned about current trends in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at the K-12 level."
March 2008
Educational Research Center: State Assessments in STEM Education
Technology Counts 2008, a joint project of Education Week and the Editorial Projects of the Educational Research Center, is the 11th annual assessment conducted to benchmark states against each other and the national average on 14 indicators, such as test scores, standards and policy inputs toward improving STEM education. It is highlighted, with detailed state reports, in a recent edition of Education Week online.
January 2008
National Science Foundation: Graduate Enrollment in S&E
(Focus on Foreign Students)
First-Time, Full-Time Graduate Student Enrollment in Science and Engineering Increases in 2006, Especially Among Foreign Students (nsf08302) highlights graduate student enrollment in science and engineering (2006). According to the InfoBrief, "[A]fter 2 years of decline, U.S. enrollment of foreign graduate students in science and engineering (S&E) fields increased in 2006. The increase was largely due to first-time, full-time enrollment of foreign students, which grew 16% over the 2005 level. First-time, full-time enrollment of S&E graduate students with U.S. citizenship or permanent resident status rose by slightly more than 1%. Total enrollment of first-time, full-time S&E graduate students rose 6% over the 2005 level …. Graduate enrollment in 2006 declined in two of the nine major S&E fields: agricultural sciences and computer sciences. Enrollment in computer sciences dropped less than 1% between 2005 and 2006; since its 2002 peak, enrollment has dropped almost 14%. Engineering enrollment increased 2% after dropping the previous 2 years; all engineering subfields showed increases from 2005 to 2006 except for civil engineering, which declined about 2%. Of the fields of study with the largest graduate enrollments (10,000 or more), growth of 3.0% or more occurred in mathematical sciences (3.0%), the engineering subfield of mechanical engineering (3.1%), and in the social sciences subfield of other social sciences (7.2%)."
August 2007
National Science Board: STEM Education Action Plan
A National Action Plan for Addressing the Critical Needs of U.S. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Systems focuses on the issue of STEM education in the U.S. The authors highlight the (now well-known) concern of how to ensure "an adequate supply of well-prepared and highly effective STEM teachers." The draft report discusses the issue and provides several recommendations: Create an independent, non-federal National Council for STEM Education to coordinate and facilitate STEM education initiatives throughout the nation; The Office of Science and Technology Policy should create a standing committee on STEM education within the National Science and technology Council with responsibility to coordinate all federal STEM education programs; The Department of Education should create a new Assistant Secretary of Education for STEM to coordinate their STEM programs; The NSF should lead an effort to create a national roadmap to improve pre-kindergarten to college (P-16) STEM education.
May 2007
U.S. Department of Education: Federal STEM programs
Report of the Academic Competitiveness Council highlights the magnitude and characteristics of federal programs in science, technology, engineering and math education. The study group was charged with identifying all federal programs, assessing their effectiveness, determining where any duplication or overlap occurs, and recommending processes to better integrate and coordinate these programs. They identified 105 programs with approximately $3.12 billion total FY 2006 funding; 24 K-12 programs ($574 million, 18.4% total funding), 77 undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate program ($2.4 billion, 77.2% total funding), 11 informal programs ($137 million, 4.4% total funding). An overarching finding in the report is that, "…despite decades of significant federal investment in science and math education, there is a general dearth of evidence of effective practices and activities in STEM education." They also found some overlap and general lack of coordination among many of the programs.
Business Higher Education Forum: U.S. Math and Science Workforce
An American Imperative: Transforming the Recruitment, Retention, and Renewal of Our Nation's Mathematics and Science Teaching Workforce addresses the same concerns on recruiting and retaining a qualified S&T workforce as many other studies. They provide recommendations for addressing this concern, focused on teacher recruitment, retention and renewal, with identified roles for key stakeholders (federal government, state/local government, school districts and business/industry).
April 2007
Council on Graduate Education: Graduate Education & Competitiveness
Graduate Education: The Backbone of American Competitiveness and Innovation notes (as other studies before) that the "warning signs are there" … "We face the risk of losing the highly trained workforce that is essential to maintain our economic leadership …" The report then provides "a framework of gradate education policies that will enhance U.S. competitiveness." The framework is build around actions by universities, industry leaders and policy - on a wide range of issues from funding for STEM programs to developing deemed export policies that do not jeopardize graduate students' ability to conduct research.
February 2007
National Science Foundation: National Impact Report
Math and Science Partnership Program: National Impact Report highlights progress made by the MSP program "to build capacity and integrate the work of higher education, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplinary faculty, with that of K-12 to strengthen and reform science and mathematics education." It highlights examples of partnerships at institutions that have participated in the program and provides supporting statistical data.
January 2007
General Accountability Office: Attracting Foreign Students to Higher Education
Global Competitiveness: Implications for the Nation's Higher Educational System GAO-07-135SP) (very large file - see the Highlights) highlights the results of a forum addressing the general issue of attracting and retaining foreign students in U.S. higher education While recognizing that foreign students make valuable contributions to the U.S. economy, recent trends have "raised concerns about whether the U.S. will continue to attract an appropriate share of talented international students to its universities and to its workforce after they graduate." Three overarching findings from the forum include: 1) the U.S. needs to develop a national strategic plan for international student recruitment, 2) the current immigration system needs to be reevaluated to remove barriers for international students and graduates, and 3) the U.S. needs to explore new sources for international students (i.e., in the developing world).
May 2006
Department of Education: Nation's Report Card for Science Education
Nations Report Card: Science 2005 focuses on the science portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and provides national data on students' average science scores from grades 4, 8, and 12, as well as from 44 participating states and the DOD education activity schools. According to the report, national average science scores since 1996 have increased at grade 4, shown no significant change at grade 8, and declined at grade 12.
