New Initiatives Urge Changes In Science, Math Education

Dozens of organizations converged on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to demand Congress to increase attention to math and science education.

Citing statistics indicating that American public school students just aren't competing in math and science with their international counterparts, the advocacy groups urged senators to pass the National Competitiveness Investment Act. This is just one of many governmental initiatives recently proposed to address students' lack-luster performances in these subject areas.

"As the world gets smaller and global competition increases, it's become clear that America is not preparing its students as well as other countries," Lee Umphrey, communications director of New York City-based Math for America, said. "This has an impact on trade, job creation, research, and development."

The United States ranks 17th among countries awarding science and engineering undergraduate degrees, down from a third-place ranking several decades ago, according to New York's Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities. While 66 percent of the undergraduate degrees awarded in Japan and 59 percent of those awarded in China are in science and engineering, only 32 percent of American bachelor's degrees are in these fields, according to the commission.

Blaming American students' relatively poor performances on the low salaries that public school math teachers typically receive, among other factors, Umphrey called on senators to focus on teacher recruitment. At the beginning of this year, New York City public schools needed 1,250 math and science teachers just to fill vacancies, said Annette Rickel, president of the Annette Urso Rickel Foundation, which offers scholarships to would-be teachers.

Math major Ori Sosnik, CC '09, said that he would not consider becoming a math teacher.

"If someone is learning math as an undergraduate, and they want to make lots of money, there are ways for them [to do so], such as working at an investment bank," Sosnik said.

Math for America's Newton Fellowship Program looks to attract professionals to public schools by offering stipends of $90,000 over five years and full-tuition scholarships to master's degree programs at New York institutions such as Columbia and Teacher's College. So far, the program has placed 48 fellows in New York City public schools and plans on placing 39 more next year.

Some universities have looked to fill the math and science void by attempting to recruit teachers at the undergraduate level.

The City University of New York launched the Teacher's Academy this September. The program offers a four-year scholarship to students, provided they commit to teaching two years in New York City public schools. It also pairs academic instruction in math and sciences with observation time in New York City classrooms.

"When they [students] make the transition to a teaching career, they are about as well prepared as they can be," Teacher's Academy Dean John Garvey said of this integrated approach, adding that the academy placed undergraduate students in the classroom for the same reason that medical schools place residents in hospitals.

For Sarah Hofer, a student at Queen's College Time 2000 program, a math-education program on which the Teacher's Academy is based, her undergraduate teaching program is doing its job.

"I know that when I enter the field, I'm going to be ready," she said.

New York City public school students' performance is judged largely by test results. On a citywide level, the National Assessment of Educational Progress has shown that New York City and other urban areas scored below the national average in math and science.

But some question whether test results are the best markers of student performance.

Maria Rivera, Barnard education assistant professor and science specialist, said she would like to "broaden our sense of what constitutes performance" beyond tests.

"While we need efficient measurements to be able to say students are performing well, what we lose in the interest of efficiency is really being able to push kids towards more critical thinking, more contextualized learning," she said.

Rivera said that students should be able to relate science to "who they are and their everyday lives" and that many exams test students on their ability to memorize facts.

According to Rivera, teachers are spending more time on test prep than they used to. But that doesn't mean that education professors instruct students to teach according to tests.

Barnard Director of Education and professor Lee Anne Bell said she wanted her students to be aware of state learning standards but not to stop there.

"They're a framework for teaching," she said. "But, of course, pedagogy is something more than that."