Saturday, May 31, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
A Lottery with Dire Consequences
Hope in the Unseen
Every once in a while as a journalist you see a scene that grips you and will not let go, a scene that is at once so uplifting and so cruel it’s difficult to even convey in words. I saw such a scene last weekend at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland in Baltimore. It was actually a lottery, but no ordinary lottery. The winners didn’t win cash, but a ticket to a better life. The losers left with their hopes and lottery tickets crumpled.
The event was a lottery to choose the first 80 students who will attend a new public boarding school — the SEED School of Maryland — based in Baltimore. I went along because my wife is on the SEED Foundation board. The foundation opened its first school 10 years ago in Washington, D.C., as the nation’s first college-prep, public, urban boarding school. Baltimore is its second campus. The vast majority of students are African-American, drawn from the most disadvantaged and violent school districts.
SEED Maryland was admitting boys and girls beginning in sixth grade. They will live in a dormitory — insulated from the turmoil of their neighborhoods. In Washington, nearly all SEED graduates have gone on to four-year colleges, including Princeton and Georgetown.
Because its schools are financed by both private and public funds, SEED can offer this once-in-a-lifetime, small-class-size, prep-school education for free, but it can’t cherry-pick its students. It has to be open to anyone who applies. The problem is that too many people apply, so it has to choose them by public lottery. SEED Maryland got more than 300 applications for 80 places.
The families all crowded into the Notre Dame auditorium, clutching their lottery numbers like rosaries. On stage, there were two of those cages they use in church-sponsored bingo games. Each ping-pong ball bore the lottery number of a student applicant. One by one, a lottery volunteer would crank the bingo cage, a ping-pong ball would roll out, the number would be read and someone in the audience would shriek with joy, while everyone else slumped just a little bit lower. One fewer place left ...
It was impossible to watch all those balls tumbling around inside the cage and not see them as the people in that room tumbling around inside, waiting to see who would be the lucky one to slide out and be blessed. No wonder a portrait of hope and anxiety was on every face.
“I am so hopeful about the school and just so overwhelmingly anxious about what happens to the students who don’t get in,” said Dawn Lewis, the head of the SEED Maryland school. “During the six or seven months of recruiting, we heard all the stories of all the problems these kids are confronting in their schools, and each time [parents] would tell us, ‘This kind of school is the answer — the thing this child needs to be successful.’ When we were completing the applications, we received so many letters from guidance counselors and teachers and principals and even pastors saying, ‘Please, just exempt this kid from the lottery — because without this, there is no chance for this kid, there may not be another opportunity.’ ”
If you think that parents from the worst inner-city neighborhoods don’t aspire for something better for their kids, a lottery like this will dispel that illusion real fast.
Ms. Lewis said she’s seen people on crack walking their kids to school. “We had parents who came into our office who were clearly strung out,” she added. “They could not read or write, but they got themselves there and said, ‘I need help on this application’ for their son or daughter. Families do want the best for their children. If they have a chance, they don’t want their kids to inherit their problems. ... These aspirations are so underserved.”
Ms. Lewis said that she and her colleagues would meet with parents begging to get their kids in, help them fill out the applications and then, after the parents left, go into their offices, shut the door and cry.
Tony Cherry’s son Noah, an 11-year-old from Baltimore County, was one of the lucky ones whose number got pulled. “His teacher said if he got picked they’re going to have a party for him,” said Mr. Cherry. “This is a good opportunity. It’s going to give him a chance. ... Wish they could take all of them.”
Not everyone selected was in attendance, said Carol Beck, SEED’s director of new schools development. So, on Monday SEED notified those who had won. “We called one school counselor the next day and told her that so-and-so was chosen,” said Ms. Beck, “and she said: ‘Thank you. You have just saved this child’s life.’ ”
There are so many good reasons to finish our nation-building in Iraq and resume our nation-building in America, but none more than this: There’s something wrong when so much of an American child’s future is riding on the bounce of a ping-pong ball.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
AIM for Partnered Repository?
Believe in the HYPE at Detroit library
May 16, 2008
The Detroit Public Library couldn't have made a finer use of the $350,000 it invested in a six-month conversion of the east wing of its main branch.
In part, it's a return to history, since the wing originally opened in 1923 as the children's library. Starting today it reopens as the system's high-tech teen center, 3,394 square feet of space that library officials hope will catch on with Detroit youth simply with the name of HYPE (Helping Young People Excel).
Considering the careful attention to detail and level of youth input that went into the center's creation, it isn't hard to imagine Detroiters of every age getting hyped about its existence.
One of the sad facts of life in this city is that young people are bombarded more by negatives than with affordable enrichment activities that can plant seeds of success. Detroit's cultural center is a natural destination to add one more alternative. The library sits along a major bus route, Woodward Avenue, so it ought to become a relatively easy stop for teens with desire but no other transportation.
HYPE is also a savvy move for the library. Like museums, it is increasingly forced to rethink how to do business in the digital age. Attracting young people in particular has meant an embrace of gadgets that were once verboten in libraries, such as computers, video gaming stations and tournaments, and cutting edge music stations. HYPE makes all of this available to Detroit youth with only one catch: They have to sign up for a free library card.
By keeping pace with teenagers, the library also increases the chance its will have an audience to serve in the future. Getting them through the door is one of surest ways to get young people hooked on books, too.
Learn more about opening week activities at www.dplhype.org <http://www.dplhype.org>
May 16, 2008
The Detroit Public Library couldn't have made a finer use of the $350,000 it invested in a six-month conversion of the east wing of its main branch.
In part, it's a return to history, since the wing originally opened in 1923 as the children's library. Starting today it reopens as the system's high-tech teen center, 3,394 square feet of space that library officials hope will catch on with Detroit youth simply with the name of HYPE (Helping Young People Excel).
Considering the careful attention to detail and level of youth input that went into the center's creation, it isn't hard to imagine Detroiters of every age getting hyped about its existence.
One of the sad facts of life in this city is that young people are bombarded more by negatives than with affordable enrichment activities that can plant seeds of success. Detroit's cultural center is a natural destination to add one more alternative. The library sits along a major bus route, Woodward Avenue, so it ought to become a relatively easy stop for teens with desire but no other transportation.
HYPE is also a savvy move for the library. Like museums, it is increasingly forced to rethink how to do business in the digital age. Attracting young people in particular has meant an embrace of gadgets that were once verboten in libraries, such as computers, video gaming stations and tournaments, and cutting edge music stations. HYPE makes all of this available to Detroit youth with only one catch: They have to sign up for a free library card.
By keeping pace with teenagers, the library also increases the chance its will have an audience to serve in the future. Getting them through the door is one of surest ways to get young people hooked on books, too.
Learn more about opening week activities at www.dplhype.org <http://www.dplhype.org>
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
AIM for DREAMS Crafted for Self-Fulfilling Prophecies
LEONARD PITTS JR.
Mississippi kids learn to have dreams -- and fulfill them
BY LEONARD PITTS JR. • KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS • May 13, 2008
SUNFLOWER, Miss. -- Joaquin Burse wants to go to Harvard and be a laser tech.
You might think that's a lofty goal. Truth is, you have no idea how lofty it is.
Because Joaquin, 13, is black and lives here, in the heart of Mississippi's Delta, where median family income is $25,000, the teen pregnancy rate is said to be about 25%, and half of all young people grow up in poverty. To get here from Memphis, you drive past two prisons, dozens of cotton fields and innumerable junk cars. This is not, in sum, a place where most people have even heard of the career Joaquin dreams.
But he has an advantage: It is the Freedom Project.
If the name resonates, you're remembering Freedom Summer, 1964, when college kids descended on Mississippi to teach black children in "freedom schools" and register their parents to vote. The Freedom Project, created in the idealistic spirit of that era, was founded in 1998 by Chris Myers Asch and Shawn Raymond, alumni of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates to teach in urban and rural schools, and Charles McLaurin, an organizer of the original Freedom Summer.
The result? A nonprofit program, tucked into an obscure corner of an obscure place, offering academic enrichment, martial arts, media production classes, mentoring, exposure to writers like Rudyard Kipling, Alice Walker and Albert Camus, and field trips to such far-flung places as Mexico, Washington and Orlando.
In short, something that works, as in my series of columns spotlighting that which has proved successful at steering black kids away from the well-worn catalogue of dysfunction to which too many of them are too often lost.
Here are the numbers: 42 kids currently enrolled (families are asked to pay $300 annually, no small amount here). An annual budget of $200,000, much of it from donors like the Kellogg Foundation.
The program accepts students from middle school up. Executive Director Greg McCoy says kids usually see their reading scores improve by a grade level a year and overall grades rise by 15%.
"Students who stick with the program and make it to that sixth year thus far have had 100% college enrollment and high school graduation rates."
But, as is often the case, one gets a better idea of this program's success by talking to the kids. They are, bluntly stated, not like the average child who has not gone through this, or a similar program. They are, in a word, focused. They dream things so many black children do not.
Like Amberly, who plans to attend USC to be a vet. Like Alesha, who wants to study law. Like Joaquin, who's going to Harvard. "I think it's somewhere I've got to get," he says, "because most of the people in my family didn't get a chance to go to college."
This, says McCoy, is a place where "the images you see on a daily basis are not people actively doing things to benefit the community, but a lot of people standing around. It's a relatively small town and when the Great Migration happened and the trains stopped coming through, a lot of business went out."
In such a place it is easy to believe lofty dreams are for other people. So the key to success, says McLaurin, lies in offering young people lessons and experiences that broaden their understanding of the world and their potential in it. That's what worked for him.
"When I first saw Martin Luther King," he recalls, "right away I wanted to be like him. The young man who mentioned that he wanted to go to Harvard, I bet you there are not 20 people in this community that's even thought about Harvard. Maybe something was already in him, but through this project, he has seen the possibility."
LEONARD PITTS JR. is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132. Write to him at lpitts@miamiherald.com.
Mississippi kids learn to have dreams -- and fulfill them
BY LEONARD PITTS JR. • KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS • May 13, 2008
SUNFLOWER, Miss. -- Joaquin Burse wants to go to Harvard and be a laser tech.
You might think that's a lofty goal. Truth is, you have no idea how lofty it is.
Because Joaquin, 13, is black and lives here, in the heart of Mississippi's Delta, where median family income is $25,000, the teen pregnancy rate is said to be about 25%, and half of all young people grow up in poverty. To get here from Memphis, you drive past two prisons, dozens of cotton fields and innumerable junk cars. This is not, in sum, a place where most people have even heard of the career Joaquin dreams.
But he has an advantage: It is the Freedom Project.
If the name resonates, you're remembering Freedom Summer, 1964, when college kids descended on Mississippi to teach black children in "freedom schools" and register their parents to vote. The Freedom Project, created in the idealistic spirit of that era, was founded in 1998 by Chris Myers Asch and Shawn Raymond, alumni of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates to teach in urban and rural schools, and Charles McLaurin, an organizer of the original Freedom Summer.
The result? A nonprofit program, tucked into an obscure corner of an obscure place, offering academic enrichment, martial arts, media production classes, mentoring, exposure to writers like Rudyard Kipling, Alice Walker and Albert Camus, and field trips to such far-flung places as Mexico, Washington and Orlando.
In short, something that works, as in my series of columns spotlighting that which has proved successful at steering black kids away from the well-worn catalogue of dysfunction to which too many of them are too often lost.
Here are the numbers: 42 kids currently enrolled (families are asked to pay $300 annually, no small amount here). An annual budget of $200,000, much of it from donors like the Kellogg Foundation.
The program accepts students from middle school up. Executive Director Greg McCoy says kids usually see their reading scores improve by a grade level a year and overall grades rise by 15%.
"Students who stick with the program and make it to that sixth year thus far have had 100% college enrollment and high school graduation rates."
But, as is often the case, one gets a better idea of this program's success by talking to the kids. They are, bluntly stated, not like the average child who has not gone through this, or a similar program. They are, in a word, focused. They dream things so many black children do not.
Like Amberly, who plans to attend USC to be a vet. Like Alesha, who wants to study law. Like Joaquin, who's going to Harvard. "I think it's somewhere I've got to get," he says, "because most of the people in my family didn't get a chance to go to college."
This, says McCoy, is a place where "the images you see on a daily basis are not people actively doing things to benefit the community, but a lot of people standing around. It's a relatively small town and when the Great Migration happened and the trains stopped coming through, a lot of business went out."
In such a place it is easy to believe lofty dreams are for other people. So the key to success, says McLaurin, lies in offering young people lessons and experiences that broaden their understanding of the world and their potential in it. That's what worked for him.
"When I first saw Martin Luther King," he recalls, "right away I wanted to be like him. The young man who mentioned that he wanted to go to Harvard, I bet you there are not 20 people in this community that's even thought about Harvard. Maybe something was already in him, but through this project, he has seen the possibility."
LEONARD PITTS JR. is a columnist for the Miami Herald, 1 Herald Plaza, Miami, Fla. 33132. Write to him at lpitts@miamiherald.com
Monday, May 12, 2008
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Hummmm! Leveraged (Private Sector) 21st Century Digital Learning Communities!
Posted: Monday, 05 May 2008 3:41PM
'Creative Economy' Firms Can Now Get State Tax Credits
Michigan's creative business community will get a boost as a result of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's signature on a series of bills that would make creative businesses eligible for state MEGA tax credits.
State officials say the bill, sponsored by State Sen. Jud Gilbert (R-Algonac), will have a significant impact on Southeast Michigan's efforts to develop creative economy jobs by broadening the definition of businesses eligible for MEGA credits to include those in the creative sector.
State Sens. Jason Allen (R-Traverse City) and Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) played a vital role in the success of this legislation and lead the advocacy to include the creative businesses for the MEGA eligibility.
Creative businesses have been defined as:
*Architecture and design including architectural design, graphic design, interior design, fashion design, and industrial design
* Digital media including Internet publishing and broadcasting, video gaming, Web development, entertainment technology
* Advertising and marketing firms including advertising and marketing agencies,public relations agencies, and display advertising* Music production including record production and development, soundrecording studios, and integrated high-tech record production and distribution
* Film and video including motion picture and video production and distribution, postproduction services, and teleproduction and production services
Businesses meeting these criteria will be eligible for high-tech or high-wage MEGA credits which are credits against the Michigan Business Tax. A high-wage business is a business that has an average wage of 300 percent or more of the federal minimum wage.
The bills take immediate effect.
"In this new economy based on innovation and globalization, progressive leaders recognize that creativity now drives global competitiveness," said Doug Rothwell, president of Detroit Renaissance, lead advocates for amending the bill to include the creative sector.
"Those communities that can develop and sustain an environment in which its creative talent can thrive will be able to most effectively drive economic development success -- both because of job growth in specific creative industries and because communities with a dynamic, creative soul attracthigh impact employers and talented, skilled employees."
Added James C. Epolito, president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.: "These incentives will encourage creative business enterprises to consider Michigan and bring new opportunities to attract new media and advertising companies to locate in our state. We now can promise our most talented writers, film-makers and artists new job opportunities that were previously only available elsewhere."
Rothwell noted that globally, creative industries are estimated to account for more than 7 percent of world GDP and the annual growth of the creative industries is twice that of the service industries and four times that of the manufacturing industries.
Developing Detroit's creative economy is one of the main recommendations of Detroit Renaissance's Road to Renaissance, a plan to transform Southeast Michigan's economy.
More at http://www.detroitrenaissance.com/.
© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.
'Creative Economy' Firms Can Now Get State Tax Credits
Michigan's creative business community will get a boost as a result of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's signature on a series of bills that would make creative businesses eligible for state MEGA tax credits.
State officials say the bill, sponsored by State Sen. Jud Gilbert (R-Algonac), will have a significant impact on Southeast Michigan's efforts to develop creative economy jobs by broadening the definition of businesses eligible for MEGA credits to include those in the creative sector.
State Sens. Jason Allen (R-Traverse City) and Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) played a vital role in the success of this legislation and lead the advocacy to include the creative businesses for the MEGA eligibility.
Creative businesses have been defined as:
*Architecture and design including architectural design, graphic design, interior design, fashion design, and industrial design
* Digital media including Internet publishing and broadcasting, video gaming, Web development, entertainment technology
* Advertising and marketing firms including advertising and marketing agencies,public relations agencies, and display advertising* Music production including record production and development, soundrecording studios, and integrated high-tech record production and distribution
* Film and video including motion picture and video production and distribution, postproduction services, and teleproduction and production services
Businesses meeting these criteria will be eligible for high-tech or high-wage MEGA credits which are credits against the Michigan Business Tax. A high-wage business is a business that has an average wage of 300 percent or more of the federal minimum wage.
The bills take immediate effect.
"In this new economy based on innovation and globalization, progressive leaders recognize that creativity now drives global competitiveness," said Doug Rothwell, president of Detroit Renaissance, lead advocates for amending the bill to include the creative sector.
"Those communities that can develop and sustain an environment in which its creative talent can thrive will be able to most effectively drive economic development success -- both because of job growth in specific creative industries and because communities with a dynamic, creative soul attracthigh impact employers and talented, skilled employees."
Added James C. Epolito, president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corp.: "These incentives will encourage creative business enterprises to consider Michigan and bring new opportunities to attract new media and advertising companies to locate in our state. We now can promise our most talented writers, film-makers and artists new job opportunities that were previously only available elsewhere."
Rothwell noted that globally, creative industries are estimated to account for more than 7 percent of world GDP and the annual growth of the creative industries is twice that of the service industries and four times that of the manufacturing industries.
Developing Detroit's creative economy is one of the main recommendations of Detroit Renaissance's Road to Renaissance, a plan to transform Southeast Michigan's economy.
More at http://www.detroitrenaissance.com/.
© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
AIM to DOUBLE-DOWN on our STEM ITEST Grant Work!
Fri, May 02, 2008
Summit: Save STEM or watch America fail
At current rates of investment in STEM research and education, America is losing its competitive edge, panelists warn
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
Panelists say awareness is not enough and that the U.S. needs to take action.
Two years after a report called "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" warned that the United States is falling behind in math and science education, endangering America's competitiveness in the global economy, education leaders, lawmakers, and cabinet members met for a national summit in Washington, D.C., to discuss what progress--if any--has been made in closing the gap. Their verdict: The U.S. needs to make a greater investment in critical math, science, and research programs for these efforts to succeed.
In the two years since the National Academies issued its "Gathering Storm" report, Congress passed a bill called the America COMPETES Act, which outlined measures to improve math and science research and education. The legislation called for expanding science research by doubling the basic research budgets for the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the Department of Defense. It also created programs to hire and train more highly qualified math and science teachers and increase the number of Advanced Placement (AP) classes in underprivileged schools.
But the bill was only an authorization, not an appropriation, and lawmakers failed to fund many of these programs in the 2008 federal budget. (See "Final 2008 budget a mixed bag for schools.")
Though Congress passed many of the measures recommended by the "Gathering Storm" report, "we're [just] now in the process of passing appropriations to support those actions," acknowledged Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology.
"Authorizations are not enough," agreed Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. "We won't get anywhere without funding."
Private-sector funding from Exxon Mobil, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has supported the creation of a project called the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). In its first year, NMSI rolled out grants to launch AP Training and Incentive programs in seven states, as well as replicate a math and science teacher-training program called UTeach at 13 universities. (See "Schools aim to solve huge math problem.") But summit panelists said the federal government needs to step up its support for these kinds of initiatives, too.
Panelists cited many examples of success, such as the largest initial public offering in history and the launch of a new research university with a day-one endowment of $10 billion (equal to what it took MIT 142 years to accumulate).
Trouble is, these accomplishments are happening in China and Saudi Arabia, respectively--not in the United States. In fact, in spite of bipartisan agreement on the need to improve student achievement in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] disciplines, little has been done in the U.S.
In a recent op-ed piece published in advance of the summit, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, had this to say: "We are starting to see the consequences of our neglect in STEM. China has surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest exporter of information-technology products--and the U.S. has become a net importer of those products. We must redouble our efforts to ensure that America is the world's technological leader in the 21st century."
Even so, federal funding has not increased, according to reports from Tapping America's Potential and the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation. Basic research funding at federal agencies has not increased, and some programs have been cut. The research and development tax credit has not been made permanent and has been allowed to expire.
In addition, policy makers have not been able to agree on visa and permanent resident green-card reform for highly educated professionals.
G. Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, said nothing has really happened in the last two years to advance the goals of the "Gathering Storm" report. Declared Clough: "Our momentum has not only slowed--it's reversed."
Craig Barrett, chairman of the board at Intel Corp., condemned the shortsightedness of politicians and elected officials. "Unless you're a short-term program during an election [season], you won't get funding," he said. "We're not investing in the future; we're not looking forward, because we have this sense of entitlement."
"Churchill said that you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else," said Norman Augustine, CEO emeritus of Lockheed Martin. "Our nation's leaders need to follow through on their bipartisan effort in the America COMPETES Act and fund improvements to math and science education. Otherwise, our nation's greatest export is likely to be our jobs and our standard of living."
Sally Ride, chief executive officer of Sally Ride Science and the nation's first female astronaut, said it takes a long time to build a new foundation. "It reminds me of that Road Runner cartoon where the coyote keeps chasing after the road runner, and he keeps running and running until he realizes he's off the cliff and loses his footing. That's us right now," she explained.
Ride said she believes not enough people, especially parents and students, understand how important it is to take an interest in science. She cited a report from Public Agenda, titled "Important, But Not for Me: Parents and Students in Kansas and Missouri Talk About Math, Science, and Technology Education," which found that even though parents and students say they understand the importance of STEM education, they don't see how it applies to them personally.
Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering and former president of MIT, believes Americans are simply too comfortable and are riding out the momentum gained by the rise of STEM education in the 1950s and 60s.
"The enemy I fear most is complacency," said Vest. "The science and engineering talent, tools, and research required to prosper and be a world leader in this century do not grow on trees. We urgently need to invest in people and knowledge and create well-paying jobs. We must again be the ‘can do' nation--building a strong, competitive economy and meeting the challenges of energy, security, healthcare, and global change."
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said he believes the U.S. is falling behind in STEM education because Americans "value the fruits of science, but they don't know where they come from. That's why we're currently under-investing in R&D in every sector. It's a result of the 1950s, where we had a bimodal population. We basically told people: ‘If you're not going to be a scientist, then don't bother studying science.'"
Wolf attributed the lack of appropriations to the state of the country's fiscal health. Because of the nation's $54 trillion debt, and with the dollar decreasing in value every day, America simply doesn't have the funds needed to support STEM programs or provide more for the National Science Foundation and NASA, he said.
"Every science program is under discretionary spending," said Wolf. "This needs to change; but how? Should the U.S. declare bankruptcy?"
For many panelists, boosting the federal investment in STEM-related research and education begins with creating a greater sense of urgency.
"The initial [Gathering Storm] report helped to start and maintain public focus," said Vest, "but now we must establish a sense of urgency, not just awareness."
Tom Luce, CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative, said the summit's goal is to help move the report from the playing field to the goal line.
"We're here to help implement strategies, not just talk about what the report says. It's more than just a report--it's an action plan that needs to be developed," said Luce.
According to Clough, Congress and the general population need to understand the link between this report and the economy. He said Americans need to care about the COMPETES Act and many other calls to action delivered by the report, because without STEM education, America won't be able to compete globally--causing a stagnation of median income and a lower standard of living.
"People at the state level get what's going on. We're just lacking the will at the national level," he said.
Concluded Vest: "Tell your representatives and senators--as well as your favorite presidential candidate--that funding math and science education, investing in basic research and development, and welcoming the best and brightest from around the world is the only way to guarantee that their children and grandchildren will enjoy the continuously rising standard of living that Americans have come to expect.
"America can't afford to wait while the rest of the world surges forward. The Cold War is over. Globalization and modernization are racing ahead, there are billions of new competitors in the economic race with the United States--and we are falling behind."
National Academies http://www.nationalacademies.org
Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml
National Math and Science Initiative http://www.nationalmathandscience.org
UTeach http://uteach.utexas.edu
Tapping America's Potential http://tap2015.org
Task Force on the Future of American Innovation http://www.futureofinnovation.org
Sally Ride on TechWatch http://www.eschoolnews.com/video-center/esn-techwatch/?i=53391;_hbguid=0f29fd65-c137-45d2-8967-f0ad7e1ee463
Summit: Save STEM or watch America fail
At current rates of investment in STEM research and education, America is losing its competitive edge, panelists warn
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News
Panelists say awareness is not enough and that the U.S. needs to take action.
Two years after a report called "Rising Above the Gathering Storm" warned that the United States is falling behind in math and science education, endangering America's competitiveness in the global economy, education leaders, lawmakers, and cabinet members met for a national summit in Washington, D.C., to discuss what progress--if any--has been made in closing the gap. Their verdict: The U.S. needs to make a greater investment in critical math, science, and research programs for these efforts to succeed.
In the two years since the National Academies issued its "Gathering Storm" report, Congress passed a bill called the America COMPETES Act, which outlined measures to improve math and science research and education. The legislation called for expanding science research by doubling the basic research budgets for the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and the Department of Defense. It also created programs to hire and train more highly qualified math and science teachers and increase the number of Advanced Placement (AP) classes in underprivileged schools.
But the bill was only an authorization, not an appropriation, and lawmakers failed to fund many of these programs in the 2008 federal budget. (See "Final 2008 budget a mixed bag for schools.")
Though Congress passed many of the measures recommended by the "Gathering Storm" report, "we're [just] now in the process of passing appropriations to support those actions," acknowledged Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology.
"Authorizations are not enough," agreed Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va. "We won't get anywhere without funding."
Private-sector funding from Exxon Mobil, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has supported the creation of a project called the National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI). In its first year, NMSI rolled out grants to launch AP Training and Incentive programs in seven states, as well as replicate a math and science teacher-training program called UTeach at 13 universities. (See "Schools aim to solve huge math problem.") But summit panelists said the federal government needs to step up its support for these kinds of initiatives, too.
Panelists cited many examples of success, such as the largest initial public offering in history and the launch of a new research university with a day-one endowment of $10 billion (equal to what it took MIT 142 years to accumulate).
Trouble is, these accomplishments are happening in China and Saudi Arabia, respectively--not in the United States. In fact, in spite of bipartisan agreement on the need to improve student achievement in STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] disciplines, little has been done in the U.S.
In a recent op-ed piece published in advance of the summit, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, had this to say: "We are starting to see the consequences of our neglect in STEM. China has surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest exporter of information-technology products--and the U.S. has become a net importer of those products. We must redouble our efforts to ensure that America is the world's technological leader in the 21st century."
Even so, federal funding has not increased, according to reports from Tapping America's Potential and the Task Force on the Future of American Innovation. Basic research funding at federal agencies has not increased, and some programs have been cut. The research and development tax credit has not been made permanent and has been allowed to expire.
In addition, policy makers have not been able to agree on visa and permanent resident green-card reform for highly educated professionals.
G. Wayne Clough, president of the Georgia Institute of Technology, said nothing has really happened in the last two years to advance the goals of the "Gathering Storm" report. Declared Clough: "Our momentum has not only slowed--it's reversed."
Craig Barrett, chairman of the board at Intel Corp., condemned the shortsightedness of politicians and elected officials. "Unless you're a short-term program during an election [season], you won't get funding," he said. "We're not investing in the future; we're not looking forward, because we have this sense of entitlement."
"Churchill said that you can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they have tried everything else," said Norman Augustine, CEO emeritus of Lockheed Martin. "Our nation's leaders need to follow through on their bipartisan effort in the America COMPETES Act and fund improvements to math and science education. Otherwise, our nation's greatest export is likely to be our jobs and our standard of living."
Sally Ride, chief executive officer of Sally Ride Science and the nation's first female astronaut, said it takes a long time to build a new foundation. "It reminds me of that Road Runner cartoon where the coyote keeps chasing after the road runner, and he keeps running and running until he realizes he's off the cliff and loses his footing. That's us right now," she explained.
Ride said she believes not enough people, especially parents and students, understand how important it is to take an interest in science. She cited a report from Public Agenda, titled "Important, But Not for Me: Parents and Students in Kansas and Missouri Talk About Math, Science, and Technology Education," which found that even though parents and students say they understand the importance of STEM education, they don't see how it applies to them personally.
Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineering and former president of MIT, believes Americans are simply too comfortable and are riding out the momentum gained by the rise of STEM education in the 1950s and 60s.
"The enemy I fear most is complacency," said Vest. "The science and engineering talent, tools, and research required to prosper and be a world leader in this century do not grow on trees. We urgently need to invest in people and knowledge and create well-paying jobs. We must again be the ‘can do' nation--building a strong, competitive economy and meeting the challenges of energy, security, healthcare, and global change."
Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., said he believes the U.S. is falling behind in STEM education because Americans "value the fruits of science, but they don't know where they come from. That's why we're currently under-investing in R&D in every sector. It's a result of the 1950s, where we had a bimodal population. We basically told people: ‘If you're not going to be a scientist, then don't bother studying science.'"
Wolf attributed the lack of appropriations to the state of the country's fiscal health. Because of the nation's $54 trillion debt, and with the dollar decreasing in value every day, America simply doesn't have the funds needed to support STEM programs or provide more for the National Science Foundation and NASA, he said.
"Every science program is under discretionary spending," said Wolf. "This needs to change; but how? Should the U.S. declare bankruptcy?"
For many panelists, boosting the federal investment in STEM-related research and education begins with creating a greater sense of urgency.
"The initial [Gathering Storm] report helped to start and maintain public focus," said Vest, "but now we must establish a sense of urgency, not just awareness."
Tom Luce, CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative, said the summit's goal is to help move the report from the playing field to the goal line.
"We're here to help implement strategies, not just talk about what the report says. It's more than just a report--it's an action plan that needs to be developed," said Luce.
According to Clough, Congress and the general population need to understand the link between this report and the economy. He said Americans need to care about the COMPETES Act and many other calls to action delivered by the report, because without STEM education, America won't be able to compete globally--causing a stagnation of median income and a lower standard of living.
"People at the state level get what's going on. We're just lacking the will at the national level," he said.
Concluded Vest: "Tell your representatives and senators--as well as your favorite presidential candidate--that funding math and science education, investing in basic research and development, and welcoming the best and brightest from around the world is the only way to guarantee that their children and grandchildren will enjoy the continuously rising standard of living that Americans have come to expect.
"America can't afford to wait while the rest of the world surges forward. The Cold War is over. Globalization and modernization are racing ahead, there are billions of new competitors in the economic race with the United States--and we are falling behind."
National Academies http://www.nationalacademies.org
Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/index.jhtml
National Math and Science Initiative http://www.nationalmathandscience.org
UTeach http://uteach.utexas.edu
Tapping America's Potential http://tap2015.org
Task Force on the Future of American Innovation http://www.futureofinnovation.org
Sally Ride on TechWatch http://www.eschoolnews.com/video-center/esn-techwatch/?i=53391;_hbguid=0f29fd65-c137-45d2-8967-f0ad7e1ee463
Friday, May 02, 2008
Cognitive Educational Competitiveness Differentiator
May 2, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Cognitive Age
By DAVID BROOKS
If you go into a good library, you will find thousands of books on globalization. Some will laud it. Some will warn about its dangers. But they’ll agree that globalization is the chief process driving our age. Our lives are being transformed by the increasing movement of goods, people and capital across borders.
The globalization paradigm has led, in the political arena, to a certain historical narrative: There were once nation-states like the U.S. and the European powers, whose economies could be secured within borders. But now capital flows freely. Technology has leveled the playing field. Competition is global and fierce.
New dynamos like India and China threaten American dominance thanks to their cheap labor and manipulated currencies. Now, everything is made abroad. American manufacturing is in decline. The rest of the economy is threatened.
Hillary Clinton summarized the narrative this week: “They came for the steel companies and nobody said anything. They came for the auto companies and nobody said anything. They came for the office companies, people who did white-collar service jobs, and no one said anything. And they came for the professional jobs that could be outsourced, and nobody said anything.”
The globalization paradigm has turned out to be very convenient for politicians. It allows them to blame foreigners for economic woes. It allows them to pretend that by rewriting trade deals, they can assuage economic anxiety. It allows them to treat economic and social change as a great mercantilist competition, with various teams competing for global supremacy, and with politicians starring as the commanding generals.
But there’s a problem with the way the globalization paradigm has evolved. It doesn’t really explain most of what is happening in the world.
Globalization is real and important. It’s just not the central force driving economic change. Some Americans have seen their jobs shipped overseas, but global competition has accounted for a small share of job creation and destruction over the past few decades. Capital does indeed flow around the world. But as Pankaj Ghemawat of the Harvard Business School has observed, 90 percent of fixed investment around the world is domestic. Companies open plants overseas, but that’s mainly so their production facilities can be close to local markets.
Nor is the globalization paradigm even accurate when applied to manufacturing. Instead of fleeing to Asia, U.S. manufacturing output is up over recent decades. As Thomas Duesterberg of Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a research firm, has pointed out, the U.S.’s share of global manufacturing output has actually increased slightly since 1980.
The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S.
The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.
The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information’s journey is the last few inches — the space between a person’s eyes or ears and the various regions of the brain. Does the individual have the capacity to understand the information? Does he or she have the training to exploit it? Are there cultural assumptions that distort the way it is perceived?
The globalization paradigm leads people to see economic development as a form of foreign policy, as a grand competition between nations and civilizations. These abstractions, called “the Chinese” or “the Indians,” are doing this or that. But the cognitive age paradigm emphasizes psychology, culture and pedagogy — the specific processes that foster learning. It emphasizes that different societies are being stressed in similar ways by increased demands on human capital. If you understand that you are living at the beginning of a cognitive age, you’re focusing on the real source of prosperity and understand that your anxiety is not being caused by a foreigner.
It’s not that globalization and the skills revolution are contradictory processes. But which paradigm you embrace determines which facts and remedies you emphasize. Politicians, especially Democratic ones, have fallen in love with the globalization paradigm. It’s time to move beyond it.
Op-Ed Columnist
The Cognitive Age
By DAVID BROOKS
If you go into a good library, you will find thousands of books on globalization. Some will laud it. Some will warn about its dangers. But they’ll agree that globalization is the chief process driving our age. Our lives are being transformed by the increasing movement of goods, people and capital across borders.
The globalization paradigm has led, in the political arena, to a certain historical narrative: There were once nation-states like the U.S. and the European powers, whose economies could be secured within borders. But now capital flows freely. Technology has leveled the playing field. Competition is global and fierce.
New dynamos like India and China threaten American dominance thanks to their cheap labor and manipulated currencies. Now, everything is made abroad. American manufacturing is in decline. The rest of the economy is threatened.
Hillary Clinton summarized the narrative this week: “They came for the steel companies and nobody said anything. They came for the auto companies and nobody said anything. They came for the office companies, people who did white-collar service jobs, and no one said anything. And they came for the professional jobs that could be outsourced, and nobody said anything.”
The globalization paradigm has turned out to be very convenient for politicians. It allows them to blame foreigners for economic woes. It allows them to pretend that by rewriting trade deals, they can assuage economic anxiety. It allows them to treat economic and social change as a great mercantilist competition, with various teams competing for global supremacy, and with politicians starring as the commanding generals.
But there’s a problem with the way the globalization paradigm has evolved. It doesn’t really explain most of what is happening in the world.
Globalization is real and important. It’s just not the central force driving economic change. Some Americans have seen their jobs shipped overseas, but global competition has accounted for a small share of job creation and destruction over the past few decades. Capital does indeed flow around the world. But as Pankaj Ghemawat of the Harvard Business School has observed, 90 percent of fixed investment around the world is domestic. Companies open plants overseas, but that’s mainly so their production facilities can be close to local markets.
Nor is the globalization paradigm even accurate when applied to manufacturing. Instead of fleeing to Asia, U.S. manufacturing output is up over recent decades. As Thomas Duesterberg of Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI, a research firm, has pointed out, the U.S.’s share of global manufacturing output has actually increased slightly since 1980.
The chief force reshaping manufacturing is technological change (hastened by competition with other companies in Canada, Germany or down the street). Thanks to innovation, manufacturing productivity has doubled over two decades. Employers now require fewer but more highly skilled workers. Technological change affects China just as it does the America. William Overholt of the RAND Corporation has noted that between 1994 and 2004 the Chinese shed 25 million manufacturing jobs, 10 times more than the U.S.
The central process driving this is not globalization. It’s the skills revolution. We’re moving into a more demanding cognitive age. In order to thrive, people are compelled to become better at absorbing, processing and combining information. This is happening in localized and globalized sectors, and it would be happening even if you tore up every free trade deal ever inked.
The globalization paradigm emphasizes the fact that information can now travel 15,000 miles in an instant. But the most important part of information’s journey is the last few inches — the space between a person’s eyes or ears and the various regions of the brain. Does the individual have the capacity to understand the information? Does he or she have the training to exploit it? Are there cultural assumptions that distort the way it is perceived?
The globalization paradigm leads people to see economic development as a form of foreign policy, as a grand competition between nations and civilizations. These abstractions, called “the Chinese” or “the Indians,” are doing this or that. But the cognitive age paradigm emphasizes psychology, culture and pedagogy — the specific processes that foster learning. It emphasizes that different societies are being stressed in similar ways by increased demands on human capital. If you understand that you are living at the beginning of a cognitive age, you’re focusing on the real source of prosperity and understand that your anxiety is not being caused by a foreigner.
It’s not that globalization and the skills revolution are contradictory processes. But which paradigm you embrace determines which facts and remedies you emphasize. Politicians, especially Democratic ones, have fallen in love with the globalization paradigm. It’s time to move beyond it.
Reading First Initiative
An Initiative on Reading Is Rated Ineffective
President Bush’s $1 billion a year initiative to teach reading to low-income children has not helped improve their reading comprehension, according to a Department of Education report released on Thursday.
The program, known as Reading First, drew on some of Mr. Bush’s educational experiences as Texas governor, and at his insistence Congress included it in the federal No Child Left Behind legislation that passed by bipartisan majorities in 2001. It has been a subject of dispute almost ever since, however, with the Bush administration and some state officials characterizing the program as beneficial for young students, and Congressional Democrats and federal investigators criticizing conflict of interest among its top advisers.
“Reading First did not improve students’ reading comprehension,” concluded the report, which was mandated by Congress and carried out by the Department of Education’s research arm, the Institute of Education Sciences. “The program did not increase the percentages of students in grades one, two or three whose reading comprehension scores were at or above grade level.”
The study, “Reading First Impact Study: Interim Report,” analyzes the performance of students in 12 states who were in grades one to three during the 2004-5 and 2005-6 school years. It is to be followed early in 2009 with a final report that will analyze additional follow-up data, the institute’s director, Grover J. Whitehurst said.
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and President Bush have consistently extolled Reading First as a highly effective program. But last year, Congressional Democrats reduced financing for the program for this year by about 60 percent, to about $400 million from the $1 billion it had received in several previous years.
On Thursday, Ms. Spellings had no comment on the study. Amanda Farris, a deputy assistant secretary of education, said in a statement that Ms. Spellings planned to look at the study “to inform our efforts,” and would “look forward to reviewing the final report.”
Ms. Farris said that one of the consistent messages Ms. Spellings has heard from educators, principals and state administrators “is about the effectiveness of the Reading First program in their schools and their disappointment with Congress” for cutting its financing.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the education committee, and who has long criticized the program, said, “The Bush administration has put cronyism first and the reading skills of our children last, and this report shows the disturbing consequences.”
In 2006, John Higgins, the department’s inspector general, reported that federal officials and private contractors with ties to publishers had advised educators in several states to buy reading materials for the Reading First program from those publishers.
The Reading First director, Chris Doherty, resigned in 2006, days before the release of Mr. Higgins’s report, which disclosed a number of e-mail messages in which Mr. Doherty referred to contractors or educators who favored alternative curriculums seen as competitors to the Reading First approach as “dirtbags” who he said were “trying to crash our party.”
Thursday, May 01, 2008
AIM for STEM Center
Wednesday, 30 April 2008 7:47PM
Detroit Science Center Breaks Ground On School Addition
The Detroit Science Center, in collaboration with the Thompson Educational Foundation, broke ground Wednesday on an 80,000 square-foot addition to the museum that will house University Prep Science & Math Middle School, a public charter school that will serve 486 students.
Also included in the addition will be a new museum lobby, cafe, gift shop and group welcome center.
The partnership between the Detroit Science Center and University Prep Science & Math will provide a unique opportunity for students and teachers to combine classroom learning with hands-on exhibits, dynamic theater shows and in-depth museum programs on a daily basis.
UPSM plans to open a high school at another location in 2010.
The Thompson Foundation is funding the $15 million middle school construction project and will lease the building to UPSM for $1 per year under an agreement that requires the charter school system to graduate no fewer than 90 percent of its students and send no fewer than 90 percent on to college.
"Our goal at the Detroit Science Center is to inspire children to get excited about engineering, technology and science and to encourage them to pursue careers in those fields," said Kevin F. Prihod, president and CEO of the Detroit Science Center.
"It's a natural step in the evolution of the Detroit Science Center to be affiliated with a school where we can not only inspire these children on a daily basis, but see them apply that inspiration back in the classroom. We look forward to collaborating with the school's teachers and administration to create innovative learning opportunities for its students utilizing our hands-on exhibits, programs and theater shows."
Margaret Trimer-Hartley, superintendent of UPSM, said the partnership is giving families in Detroit and across the metropolitan area a one-of-a-kind opportunity to prepare youth for the science, technology, engineering and math careers of the knowledge economy.
"UPSM's mission is to prepare students to pursue STEM careers at highly selective colleges and universities," Trimer-Hartley said. "Our rigorous and exciting program has already proven to be a regional magnet, drawing a diverse group of families from the city as well as the surrounding suburbs."
Construction on the new addition is starting this month with a spring 2009 opening. It will be located on the north side of the Science Center building in an area formerly used for parking. The architect is Gunn Levine. The general contractor is DeMaria. Both companies are based in Detroit.
More at www.detroitsciencecenter.org.
UPSM is a public charter school affiliated with the highly successful University Prep Academy system of schools. University Prep schools are small and focused on providing rigor, relevance and strong relationships through personalized learning, small classes and community partnerships.
© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.
Detroit Science Center Breaks Ground On School Addition
The Detroit Science Center, in collaboration with the Thompson Educational Foundation, broke ground Wednesday on an 80,000 square-foot addition to the museum that will house University Prep Science & Math Middle School, a public charter school that will serve 486 students.
Also included in the addition will be a new museum lobby, cafe, gift shop and group welcome center.
The partnership between the Detroit Science Center and University Prep Science & Math will provide a unique opportunity for students and teachers to combine classroom learning with hands-on exhibits, dynamic theater shows and in-depth museum programs on a daily basis.
UPSM plans to open a high school at another location in 2010.
The Thompson Foundation is funding the $15 million middle school construction project and will lease the building to UPSM for $1 per year under an agreement that requires the charter school system to graduate no fewer than 90 percent of its students and send no fewer than 90 percent on to college.
"Our goal at the Detroit Science Center is to inspire children to get excited about engineering, technology and science and to encourage them to pursue careers in those fields," said Kevin F. Prihod, president and CEO of the Detroit Science Center.
"It's a natural step in the evolution of the Detroit Science Center to be affiliated with a school where we can not only inspire these children on a daily basis, but see them apply that inspiration back in the classroom. We look forward to collaborating with the school's teachers and administration to create innovative learning opportunities for its students utilizing our hands-on exhibits, programs and theater shows."
Margaret Trimer-Hartley, superintendent of UPSM, said the partnership is giving families in Detroit and across the metropolitan area a one-of-a-kind opportunity to prepare youth for the science, technology, engineering and math careers of the knowledge economy.
"UPSM's mission is to prepare students to pursue STEM careers at highly selective colleges and universities," Trimer-Hartley said. "Our rigorous and exciting program has already proven to be a regional magnet, drawing a diverse group of families from the city as well as the surrounding suburbs."
Construction on the new addition is starting this month with a spring 2009 opening. It will be located on the north side of the Science Center building in an area formerly used for parking. The architect is Gunn Levine. The general contractor is DeMaria. Both companies are based in Detroit.
More at www.detroitsciencecenter.org.
UPSM is a public charter school affiliated with the highly successful University Prep Academy system of schools. University Prep schools are small and focused on providing rigor, relevance and strong relationships through personalized learning, small classes and community partnerships.
© MMVIII WWJ Radio, All Rights Reserved.
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