District Administration - April 2011 - (Page 44)

Helping STEM Take Root and we’ve got business leaders and even the president talking about it,” says James Brown, executive director of the STEM Education Coalition, a national advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. “Now we’ve got to do something about it on a state and national level.” The most important national initiative, Brown adds, is changing the terms of NCLB to include student performance in science as a measure of Adequate Yearly Progress. Since NCLB became law in 2002, a school’s AYP has depended on student results in reading and math, even though a number of states also test students in science. “You can show very clearly after math and reading determined AYP, there was a redirection of time spent on the sciences, and especially on lab experiments,” Brown explains. “It’s harder for schools to spend money on these things when they’re not part of the accountability system.” Francis Eberle, executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, says that science in elementary schools took a particularly hard hit when NCLB went into effect, with a 33 percent reduction on the time spent in class on science. “It’s had a very chilling effect on the amount of science being taught,” he insists, adding that he has heard stories of teachers being told to teach math and reading at the expense of science. The NSTA is aiming to reverse that trend. Toward that end, the organization is revising the voluntary National Science Education Standards for the first time since 1996, with the aim of having them become part of the Common Core State Standards being developed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. “We think they will fit the model of Common Standards,” predicts Eberle, who has just finished reviewing an unpublished draft of the new standards, which he says will increase inquiry-based learning and critical thinking in science classrooms. The new science standards should be ready next year, just as the Common 44 April 2011 As part of her professional development, a Halls High School teacher at Knox County (Tenn.) Public Schools gets a workout on the Pedal for Energy demonstration at the Y-12 National Security Complex in February. Teachers attend Y-12 as part of the district’s annual Vols4STEM day. Core project expands its work from reading and math into other subject areas. Meanwhile, almost a dozen states have launched STEM networks over the past three years. The growing list includes Ohio, Colorado, California, Minnesota, Indiana, Arizona, New York and Pennsylvania. Their mission statements range from building coalitions of education and business leaders to defining the STEM to Jim McIntyre, superintendent of the Knox County Public Schools. Among the innovations planned at the new academy—funded by $2 million in Race to the Top money—is an inversion of the usual course sequence in the sciences. Rather than starting with biology, ninth- and tenth-graders will take physics and chemistry, respectively, to pave the way for a more in-depth study of biology “We’ve got business leaders and even the president talking about it…Now we’ve got to do something about it on a state and national level.” —James Brown, executive director, STEM Education Coalition skills needed in the workforce, to increasing the number of qualified math and science teachers. A STEM Academy in Tennessee Last summer, Tennessee started its own STEM Innovation Network with federal Race to the Top funds and with the aim of supporting “incubator” schools for promising STEM approaches. The new STEM Academy High School—one of an emerging crop of STEM academies around the country—is set to open as a magnet school in Knoxville in August, according in grade 11. All STEM Academy students will take an additional STEM seminar. At the ninth- and tenth-grade levels, they will study topical problems or “storylines” for several weeks—the recent Gulf oil spill, for example—before presenting solutions, symposium-style, to their peers and teachers. Upperclassmen will use their STEM seminar time to “major” in areas such as renewable energy, forensic science, and sound engineering. “A lot of the thought process around the curriculum has centered on using District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - April 2011

District Administration - April 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Labor Relations
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Conversations
Superintendent Staying Power
Helping STEM Take Route
High-Stakes Cheating
Are Your Graduates Succeeding in College?
Problem/Solution
New Products
Product Focus
Online Edge
Going Mobile
Professional Opinion

District Administration - April 2011