Event Summary: The Next Generation of Earth System Education

On Earth Day 2013, Monday, April 22^nd, a panel of Geo-science, technology, engineering and mathematics Master Teachers convened at the Wilson Center to discuss several innovative endeavors to engage teachers and students in Earth science studies using state-of-the art technologies and education resources.  The event was co-hosted by the Program on America and the Global Economy (PAGE) and the Global Sustainability and Resilience Program.  The event was moderated by Kent Hughes, Director of PAGE.

John Moore, Director of Geo-science STEM Education at Palmyra Cove Nature Park and Environmental Discovery Center in New Jersey, former Albert Einstein Distinguished Education Fellow, and Executive Director for the American Council of STEM Teachers opened the panel discussion by pointing out two very important and influential opportunities for reform in STEM education: the PCAST Report to the President on plans for improvements in K-12 STEM education released on September 15, 2010 and the recently released Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) report which outlines the new voluntary, rigorous, and internationally benchmarked standards for K-12 science education.  Moore emphasized the importance of, “developing the teachers’ voice,” providing several examples of projects for leadership and professional development of teachers such as the DataStreme Project, a distance learning course designed by the American Meteorological Society,  and Global Learning and Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), a worldwide network for sharing resources for primary and secondary earth science education.

Marcia Barton spoke next about the opportunities and challenges for STEM educators.  She agreed that the NGSS report provided an opportunity to transform science in the United States by integrating the sciences instead of using current standards of teaching the sciences separately.  The NGSS report also elevated earth and space science, including them more in the proposed curriculum.  The challenges for geo-science, according to Barton, were taking advantage of this increased focus and engaging the students in this material, and training the next generation of teachers.  She proposed starting an academy for innovation and sustainability to engage students in geo-science and engineering, especially with the increase in job opportunities for geoscientists.  Based on President Obama’s initiative to prepare 100,000 new STEM teachers in the next decade, Barton suggested making 30,000 of those earth and space system science teachers.

Vicky Gorman discussed efforts to promote geo-science education in her community with the Citizen Science Education Program (CSEP).  CSEP was designed by middle school students and tailored for their own community.  The program seeks to increase scientific literacy within the community and is part of the Weather Ready Nation network, a NOAA initiative.  Gorman stressed the importance of communication and leadership skills within students to prepare them for the workforce, with development of those skills starting in middle school.  She stated, “Unless students are marketable, all their education goes to waste.”  Gorman emphasized the importance of geo-science education as it encompasses chemistry, physics, and biology and applies to real-life situations and the global economy and where our workforce needs to be.

Peter Dorofy commented on the technology challenges of teaching earth science.  Traditionally, earth science is a non-lab course but with increasing technological advances such as GPS, GIS, remote sensing, and real-time data, that is changing.  He spoke of the challenges at his technical college in New Jersey, such as budget cuts and shifting programs, and how to make earth science relevant to students who have already chosen a career.  Dorofy stated it was key to identify real-life situations in which earth science can be applied and to take advantage of all the technology in the field to excite students.

John Moore recapped the first part of the panel and reiterated that teachers have a unique opportunity to push earth science.   The problem is in implementation.  Moore stated that in many schools the 1996 NGS Standards are barely implemented today, therefore, the responsibility will lie with the next generation of teachers to ensure that these new standards are realized.

Kevin Simmons and Jin Kang explained new technology in the geoSTEM field: cubesats, microsatellites, which are powerful, interactive tools that can be used by schools to provide data from space.  Cubesats introduce children to systems engineering and allow them to put the engineering method, which Simmons distinguished from the scientific method, into practice.  Kang emphasized the two essential factors of effective education: motivation and hands-on education which are key to encouraging creativity and innovation.

The panel responded to audience questions about the integrity of the geoSTEM programs, differences between the U.S. and Korean education systems, and the new common core standards and standardized testing.

Drafted by Elizabeth White

Click here to view the video recording of this event.

You are invited: The Next Generation of Earth System Education

The Program on America and the Global Economy and the Global Sustainability and Resilience Program Present:

The Next Generation of Earth System Education

Monday, April 22, 2013

3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

5^th Floor Conference Room, Woodrow Wilson Center

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Panelists: 

John D. Moore, Albert Einstein Distinguished Education Fellow Emeritus, Director for Geoscience STEM Education, Palmyra Cove Nature Park and Environmental Discovery Center

Marcia Barton, Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow, NSF, Directorate for Geosciences

Peter Dorofy, NESTA Eastern Regional Director, American Meteorological Society K-12 Distinguished Educator

Vicky Gorman, AMS DataStreme Atmosphere Resource Teacher, GLOBE Program

Kevin Simmons, Albert Einstein Distinguished Education Fellow Emeritus, Senior Policy Analyst, EDJ Associates Inc., Industrial Innovation and Partnerships Division Engineering Directorate, NSF

Jin Kang, Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering, U.S. Naval Academy

Moderator: 

Kent Hughes, Director, Program on America and the Global Economy

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Celebrate Earth Day as a select panel of GeoSTEM Master Teachers discuss how teacher-leaders have come together to put policy into practice.  GeoSTEM is an ongoing educational endeavor to engage teachers and students in an innovative study of Planet Earth using state-of-the-art technologies and educational resources. Through programs such as the American Meteorological Society’s DataStreme Project, the GLOBE Program, and others, teachers are enhancing content knowledge, developing projects, and collaborating in projects that utilize real time and remote sensing data, promote 21st Century Workforce Development Skills, involve the local community and contribute to building the next generation of geoscientists.

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Visit The Program on America and the Global Economy website for more information and to RSVP or send an email (acceptances only) to page@wilsoncenter.org

The Wilson Center is located in the Ronald Reagan Building at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave., NW. (Federal Triangle Metro stop on the Blue/ Orange Line) For a map and directions see: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/directions.  Please bring a photo ID and arrive 15 minutes ahead to allow time for the security checkpoint. 

Graduation Rates: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

One of the main goals President Barack Obama laid out during his first term was to return America to its previously held position as the country with the highest number of college graduates per capita by 2020. This American Graduation Initiative (AGI) requires increasing the percentage of college graduates in the US workforce by 50% by the end of the decade. In order for the AGI to be accomplished, the number of college graduates would have to increase by an annual 16% every year from 2010-2020. However, the problem in reaching this goal may be rooted in low graduation rates, rather than low enrollment numbers.

America2020 is a private sector approach to the same problem, focusing specifically on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) graduates. Their plan is to encourage STEM degree completion by committing industry professionals to volunteer their time mentoring and teaching students in these fields. There will be an estimated 10 million STEM job openings by the year 2020, and OECD data reports that US students tend to have a low interest in science. This approach has already seen significant improvements in graduation rates with the schools involved and those students who have participated in the program are far better prepared for college.  Citizen Schools, one of the major forces behind the America2020 initiative, along with representatives from the White House and several big-name companies recently convened here at the Wilson Center to discuss details of its implementation and how they could be involved.

The American Dream 2.0 is an initiative by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that, “offers a comprehensive framework for how the hundreds of billions invested in the financial aid system can increase college access, affordability, and completion”. According to the Foundation’s findings, 46% of students enrolled in higher education institutions fail to graduate within six years. This rate increases to 63% for African Americans and 57% for Hispanics. In addition, total annual borrowing for college has more than doubled in the past ten years, as tuition rises faster than family income or inflation. These statistics are worrying, because those who borrow money for school but end up dropping-out without earning a degree have higher unemployment rates than those who graduate.

Good news comes from high school completion rates, which reached a record high in 2010 at 78.6%. While this is certainly heartening, fewer than half of those in the class of 2012 were ‘college ready’ as determined by the College Board last fall. In order to meet the challenges of President Obama’s AGI, education policymakers need to focus not only on college enrollment rates, but also on access, affordability, completion rates, and high school rigor. Although in the current fiscal climate, large scale investments in education may be harder and harder to implement, the effects of education investment on the productivity and success of our nation’s young people are immeasurably important.

By: Ben Copper

Sources: Huffington Post, PR Newswire, White House records, EducationSector.org, Citizenschools.org

Photo Credit: flickr user: Smithsonian Institution

You are Invited: Nation Building: The Plan for Public Education in Post-Earthquake Haiti

The Program on America and the Global Economy Presents:

Nation Building: The Plan for Public Education in Post-Earthquake Haiti 

Thursday, Feb. 7^th, 2013

3:00 – 4:30 p.m.

Flom Auditorium, 6^th Floor, Woodrow Wilson Center

1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC

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Speakers:

H.E. Vanneur Pierre, Minister of Education, Haiti

Paul G. Vallas, distinguished scholar, Wilson Center, education reform expert and lead education consultant to the

Government of Haiti

Moderator: 

Kent Hughes, Director, Program on America and the Global Economy

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Nearly 50% of the Haitian population is under the age of 18. Thus restructuring Haiti’s education system is the Government of Haiti’s top priority, a challenge complicated by the devastating 2010 earthquake. The Haitian Minister of Education, along with U.S. education reform expert Paul G. Vallas, share the details, the challenges, the progress and the need to realize Haiti’s vision for its future through education.

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Please RSVP acceptances only to page@wilsoncenter.org

Directions to the Wilson Center: www.wilsoncenter.org/directions

Watch the live webcast here

Please bring a photo ID and arrive 15 minutes ahead to allow time for a security checkpoint.

 

Media guests, including TV crews, are welcome and should RSVP directly to elizabeth.white@wilsoncenter.org

*Media bringing heavy electronic equipment – such as video cameras – MUST indicate this in their response, so they may be cleared through our building security and allowed entrance. Failure to indicate your intention to bring video cameras 24 hours before the event may result in being denied access to the Wilson Center building, please err toward responding if you would like to attend.

 

Is Having the Right Skills Enough to Get Hired in Post-Recession America?

One of the most common explanations for the persistent high unemployment in America since the 2007 recession is the skills gap. An Accenture report estimates that, “about a third of employers worldwide are experiencing critical challenges filling positions due to a lack of available talent, and almost three-fourths of employers are affected by talent shortages to some degree”.  Technology and globalization processes have increased the demand for talented and high-skilled workers, and many say that the nation’s education institutions have not risen to meet the challenge effectively.

The Brookings Institute issued a report that includes eleven “new learning skills in the 21^st century” that are crucial for our students. These include: simulation, multitasking, and distributed cognition (effectively utilizing tools that enhance mental capacity). Meanwhile, the Center for 21^st Century Skills advocates six different skills: information literacy, creativity & innovation, collaboration, problem solving, communication, and responsible citizenship. Proponents of the skills gap view see unemployment as structural, a product of supply falling behind demand in the skilled labor market. A recent Wilson Center publication by Paul Vallas argues that the skills gap “poses a major threat to the United States’ long-term economic competitiveness”. The American education system is falling further behind the performance of other countries, and addressing the “massive achievement gap present within the U.S. between minority and socio-economically disadvantaged students and their more affluent peers” should be a national priority.

However, many disagree with this assessment of a skills gap as the main cause of high US unemployment, and propose a demand-side rebuttal that focuses on the drop in real household wealth associated with the recent recession. This has decreased household demand nationwide and thus crippled job growth. Research done by the Economic Policy Institute  argues that persistent unemployment at all levels of education, and in most major sectors of the economy indicates that the current high rates of unemployment are caused by more than just a skills gap. They also attribute the rise in educated labor as a percentage of the total labor force to the rapid growth in sectors that demand high-skilled labor. Other research  at the Economic Policy Institute points to record corporate profits in the past year, saying that businesses learned during the recession how to make money with lower labor costs, and now don’t need to hire as many people to make higher rates of profit. Some of this can be explained by the fact that traditionally labor intensive industries have been the hardest hit by the recession, while high-tech companies with lower labor demands have seen the most growth.

To create policy that will improve the state of the economy, it is important to understand the causal linkages for the unemployment problem in America. . For example, structural unemployment cannot be solved with demand-side economics such as stimulus packages. On the other side, education initiatives and on the job training is the answer to a skills gap.

Posted by: Ben Copper

Sources: Accenture, Brookings Institute, Economic Policy Institute, CNNMoney, Commerce Department

Photo Credit: flickr user, Dita Margarita

US College Degree Attainment Remains Stagnant as Other Countries Pull Ahead

According to a December 2012 report by the Center for Public Education, the percentage of young adults in the US who are  college graduates has not significantly changed from the percentage of college graduates aged 55-64. This contrasts with the great gains that have been made in other parts of the world (such as South Korea, Japan, and most of the EU) where the percentage of college graduates is significantly rising each year. For those aged 25-34, the United States  now ranks 14^th in the world for the percentage of workers with a college degree. While the United States remains 2^nd in the world for 4 year degree attainment, just behind Norway, the main lag is in 2-year degree attainment, where the United States comes in 18^th place.

The report shows that students fare better in college if they are well prepared in high school. This is especially true for low-income and low-performing students. According to the Council on Competitiveness, “simply being an American is not an entitlement to a secure, high-wage job” due to competition from emerging markets.  To win the skills race, workers need to attain a higher level of education, and success starts in K-12 programs.

The recent PAGE publication by education reformer, Paul Vallas: “Making a Success of Every School”, points out that it is not underinvestment that is hurting our public schools (out of OECD countries, the United States spends the 2^nd most on public education), it is “the inability to invest wisely in the systemic reforms that would remove obstacles impeding the modernization of our educational system to meet new realities.”  Some strategies to improve American K-12 education include: providing greater access to educational technology in classrooms, encouraging partnerships between high schools and local vocational or community colleges, and ensuring the financial predictability that is crucial to long-term planning. The US system must evolve to meet the challenges of the 21^st century if its workers are to remain competitive in global markets.

Posted by: Ben Copper

Sources: Center for Public Education, Council on Competitiveness

Photo Credit: Teacher in Classroom courtesy of Flickr user www.audio-luci-store.it

Fiscal Cliff Temporarily Averted

President Obama’s signing of the deal agreed upon by Congress to avert the “fiscal cliff” may have allowed Americans to stop holding their breath over the impending sequestration, but no one is breathing a sigh of relief quite yet.

An agreement was made between the House and the Senate regarding taxes but delayed other tough decisions on spending cuts.  Congress agreed to make the Bush-era tax cuts permanent while raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Yet, Americans are likely to see smaller paychecks, since the lowered payroll tax rate expired on January 1.  The bill also extends unemployment insurance and delays cuts on R&D and education but with many more deadlines coming soon, it is unsure what cuts will continue to be spared.

Despite signing off on an agreement, Congress still faces three other cliff-like deadlines over the following months. The debt ceiling still looms overhead and failure to address this could lead to further downgrade of the country’s credit rating and stock market plummets.  The threat of sequestration must be faced again in two months. Furthermore, the current continuing budget resolution is set to expire on March 27^th.

Hopefully, with Congress beginning afresh, they can put the past behind them and work together to jumpstart the American economy.

Posted by: Elizabeth White

Sources: CNNMoney, Financial Times

Photo source: flickr user MyEyeSees

STEM Education: a Federal Priority for the New Year

STEM education is a priority for the Obama Administration in the coming years, the White House announced on Monday, December 24^th. According to the official statement, this latest initiative seeks to increase the current amount of undergraduate students receiving STEM degrees by 34% before 2020. This number is equivalent to about 1 million additional STEM graduates.

The announcement cited the desire of the US to “maintain its global preeminence” in the fields of STEM- science, technology, engineering, and math- as the motivation for the programs prioritization. America’s competitiveness is on the decline, as discussed by PAGE earlier this year. Encouraging a wider community of educated workers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math is vital to filling the needs of the nation.

In order to achieve this objective, the “Federal Government will work with education partners to improve the quality of STEM education at all levels”. There are no further details as to the specific strategies the government seeks to employ, or the funding this initiative will take. Currently, federal spending on STEM is primarily funded through the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and the Health and Human Services Department and totals approximately $3.4 billion annually.

During his first term President Obama has launched other STEM initiatives, such as Educate to Innovate, which may be coordinated under this over-arching goal.

Posted by: Sophia Higgins

Sources: the White House, Educate to Innovate, STEM Reports

Photo Credit: Get back to work!! @ photostream courtesy of Flickr user Robotkiss

Wilson Center Policy Brief Series: Manufacturing Matters, Strengthening America: Inventing the Future

The Wilson Center recently released two essays by Kent Hughes, Director of the Program on America and the Global Economy, in its series of policy briefs on critical issues which will run from now until Inauguration Day.

 

Manufacturing Matters

Manufacturing plays a key role in the U.S. economy and will continue to do so. The private sector provides roughly 70 percent of total U.S. spending on research and development, and the bulk of that amount comes from manufacturing enterprises. Manufacturing generates 90 percent of U.S. patents. It also is central to the system that translates laboratory research into commercial products, thus generating jobs and creating wealth. Manufacturing also constitutes the single most important export sector of the economy and is thus critical to America’s ability to pay its way in the international economy. Finally, manufacturing generates millions of jobs, which provide pay and benefits that exceed the national average. Looking ahead, the United States needs a manufacturing strategy that can support the emergence of advanced manufacturing processes that, in conjunction with low-cost energy, can revitalize the U.S. manufacturing sector.

>> Read the Policy Brief in its Entirety

Strengthening America: Inventing the Future

The U.S. innovation system has enormous strengths, including public and private support for research and development, the world’s best university system, and an entrepreneurial risk-taking culture. But those elements of the system now face several domestic and international challenges. In the United States, cuts in federal spending could reduce support for university research. The kindergarten through 12th grade (K–12) education system struggles to keep pace with the rising demands of the 21st-century workplace. Internationally, the United States now faces competition to attract or keep advanced manufacturing firms, research facilities, and top scientific talent. The United States will need to maintain support for research and development (R&D), improve its education system, and learn from best practices around the world.

>> Read the Policy Brief in its Entirety

Making a Success of Every School

The Wilson Center and the Program on America and the Global Economy are proud to share a recently released publication on U.S. education reform:

Paul Vallas, distinguished scholar and noted education reformer, identifies the main challenges facing U.S. education in the 21^st century.  He notes that US performance on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranks American 15 year olds as 17^th in science and 25^th in mathematics.  Vallas and others stress that American schools have not declined.  Rather it is a case of technology, a changing job market, and rising international competition demanding much more of America’s educational system.  Attracting and retaining top teachers is vitally important, but Vallas stresses that one cannot neglect early childhood education, school improvement-focused state and district governance, and a 21^st century curriculum.

Click here to access the full report