R. Mark Sullivan, President, The College of Saint Rose
A recent cover of Time magazine asked the sobering question, "Is America Flunking Science?" If you examine this question from the standpoint of global competitiveness and national educational policy, the answer would seem to be yes. A rash of recent reports reveals some startling facts:
30 percent of the teachers surveyed in one national study revealed that they relied more on information from their high school science classes to support their teaching than science courses they took in college (U.S. Department of Education, 2004).
18 percent of high school students and 57 percent of middle school students studied mathematics with a teacher who did not have a major or minor in mathematics (National Science Board, 2004).
16 percent of high school students and 48 percent of middle school students studied physical science under a teacher who did not have a major or minor in physical science, engineering or a related field (National Science Board, 2004).
Against these sobering facts is an equally startling statistic that two-thirds of the nation's K-12 teachers are expected to retire or stop teaching between 2002 and 2012, requiring that U.S. schools fill between 1.7 million and 2.7 million positions, of which 200,000 are needed in mathematics and science.
A year ago, these facts would have been met with the predictable indifference that such data tend to arouse, despite warnings from prescient observers like Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute President Shirley Jackson. She coined the term "quiet crisis" to describe the collective impact of these and other equally alarming facts about the state of math, science and technology education in America. Suddenly, the clarion call for reform has been heard, in part because of New York Times columnist Tom Friedman's best-selling treatise on the subject, "The World Is Flat."
In Washington and in Albany, the tide has shifted from study to action as government leaders fashion programs to focus more attention on creative ways to fill the pipeline with future scientists, engineers and technology workers.
In his January State of the Union address, President Bush pledged funding to train 70,000 additional high school science and math teachers. Governor Pataki proposed six new initiatives in the 2006-07 Executive Budget to increase the number of students prepared to major and pursue careers in math and science. These initiatives focus on strengthening math and science education at the secondary level and include a special emphasis on providing scholarships to students attending New York's colleges and universities who major in these subjects and then commit to teach math and science at the secondary level in New York schools.
In the Capital Region, these federal and state initiatives are especially important as we contemplate the urgent need for more highly trained technology workers in the future -- decades into the future as nanotechnology, biotechnology and "yet to be defined" technology industries dominate the marketplace. This is why it is so important for us to take the long view on this challenge. As New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman observed, "It takes fifteen years to create a scientist or advanced engineer, starting from when that young man or woman first gets hooked on science and math in elementary school."
This is where colleges like Saint Rose play a pivotal role. We graduate more than 300 students a year who go on to teach in our state's elementary schools. We know these graduates will be expected to teach science to third-, fourth- and fifth-graders in ways that open their minds to scientific discovery and establish the foundation for future study in physics, chemistry and calculus, ultimately paving the way for advanced study in subjects like computer science, bioinformatics, nanotechnology and biomedical engineering.
For the past two years, Saint Rose has collaborated with the Charitable Leadership Foundation to radically change the way we prepare future elementary school teachers, especially those future educators who are not science "concentrators." Through a sequence of newly developed courses, these future K-6 teachers are exposed to the sciences as a set of interrelated fields. In so doing, they are taught by the same biology, geology, chemistry and physics professors who teach our students who aspire to be doctors and scientists. They are taught by teams of faculty who have expert knowledge in both the content of the science disciplines and best methods for teaching science to young children.
Beyond the Saint Rose laboratory, our future teachers will perform their student teaching assignments with veteran teachers in the region's schools who also will be trained in problem-based learning techniques by Saint Rose faculty. Down the road, these teachers could be former engineers and scientists from companies such as IBM and GE who are beginning to develop midcareer, early retirement programs for those who wish to become science teachers in our schools.
In the same Time cover story that wondered if America is flunking science, a leading scientist from the pharmaceutical industry observed, "Children love to explore the natural world but by fourth grade, we squash their curiosity with the way we teach science."
New approaches to training future science teachers, coupled with creative ways to introduce the mystery and excitement of science to young minds through programs like regional science fairs and summer science camps in university and corporate laboratory settings, may shift the tide in our favor so that America will once again be passing science with excellent grades.