Education Week: Obama Unveils Projects to Bolster STEM Teaching

via Education Week: Obama Unveils Projects to Bolster STEM Teaching.

This article is very interesting. As someone who works at a national non-profit in the STEM education field, I am happy to see that the President has announced that there will be more that $250 million (more than double the amount that Obama announced in November) in private investments to help attract and prepare new teachers for STEM. The money will also help to improve instruction in STEM by teachers that are already practicing.

The article notes that the government can not address the STEM problem alone. Therefore, a partnership between the federal government, companies, foundations, nonprofit groups and science and engineering societies will work with young people across the United States to excel in STEM. However, I think that the partnership should include other entities such as post secondary institutions (both two-year and four-year colleges) with science and engineering programs. These schools prepare students for careers in engineering and would know what is needed for them to succeed at the post secondary level.

In addition, education graduate schools would also be able to further assist in developing adequate professional development of teachers in the STEM areas.

I would also like to see more involvement from the multicultural STEM nonprofits and foundations. As the demographics of the country continue to change and Latinos become a dominant portion of the population, it is important that education to workforce development program include and reach out to all cultures.

Education Week: Obama Unveils Projects to Bolster STEM Teaching

Early Childhood Part 2

Last night, I blogged about Secretary Duncan's statement on the new bill that will provide over $8 billion over eight years into states to improve the quality of early-childhood education. This morning, I saw that Education Week had covered it in today's online edition. So for those of you who are interested, here it is.

Early Childhood Part 2

Early Childhood Education

Secretary of Education, Arnie Duncan, released a statement about the Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act that the House has passed recently. This would reallocate money into several initiatives, including the Early Learning Challenge Fund. Duncan stated:

Education and, in many ways, success in life begins with high-quality early learning experiences. We know that increasing the number of high-quality early learning opportunities, especially for low-income families, improves child outcomes. Research shows children who receive such services are less likely to be referred to special education and more likely to graduate and be successful adults. All children deserve these early opportunities to reach their full potential.

I could not agree more with Secretary Duncan. The foundation for education begins at a young age. Oftentimes, students in low-income areas are not afforded the same opportunities prior to formal education and therefore begin school at a disadvantage. I am eager to see what will come out of this.

Early Childhood Education

Aligning Curricula

Is it just me, or is this something that all states should be doing? Shouldn't high school prepare you for college? Especially this day in age, where college is really necessary for many professions. I'm glad that Texas is finally tackling this issue, but I am not sure if aligning the curricula of their high schools and colleges is the best way to lower their remediation rate.It might address the low college-going rates, but I wonder if there are other factors behind the low college-going rates in Texas.

I think that aligning the curricula may increase the retention rate of Texas high school students in college, but I am not sure how it would increase remediation or college-going rates. I believe that there may be other factors that could be attributed to the high remediation rate in Texas. For instance, teacher quality is not mentioned in this article, but may have a big effect on remediation rates. Furthermore, low college-going rates could be attributed to students not applying to colleges, or to inadequate school counselors.

While curriculum alignment is definitely a step in the right direction, I hope that Texas continues to evaluate their education system. I also hope that other states take the same steps in aligning their high school curriculum to college preparedness.

Aligning Curricula

Educating English Language Learners

Considering that English Language Learners (ELLs) are one of the fastest growing groups of students in the United States, I found this article very concerning. According to this, many states are not keeping track of the graduation rates for ELLs. Even though NCLB requires that this data is reported by different subgroups, including ELL status, 13 states still do not report the information to the public or the U.S. Department of Education. Some states don't even report the numbers accurately.

While I believe that graduation rates for ELLs is an important data point, I think it is also important to keep track of other areas of student achievement for ELLs. Achievement data has shown that ELL students lag behind their peers. Comparing achievement by the different methods of language instruction would shed some light on which methods are working the best and for whom.

In 2001, NCLB requires that states have English-language-proficiency standards that are linked to state academic standards to ensure that student improvement in English-language proficiency also results in a better understanding of the academic content. Furthermore, NCLB mandates that states must implement English-language-proficiency tests to ensure that their is progress for ELLs.

At the moment, there are four commonly used teaching methods for ELLs:

• English immersion - instruction is in English


• English as a second language - may be similar to immersion, but also may include some support to the students' native languages (classes can consist of students with different native languages)


• Transitional bilingual education - some subjects are taught in the students' native language for part of the day and the rest of the day is spent on developing English skills (classes consist of students who share the same native language)


• Two-way bilingual education - instruction is in two languages

With the ELL population becoming a higher proportion of the student poplation in the United States, I think it would be beneficial to have a study on which programs have the best student achievement and the highest graduation rates for ELLs. Obviously for this study to occur, we need clearer data. This would especially help the states with little previous experience with immigrants, but now have an increased number of ELL students, such as Arkansas, Georgia and North Carolina.

Educating English Language Learners