Thursday, April 25, 2013

Baccalaureate Origins of U.S.-trained S&E Doctorate Recipients

Baccalaureate Origins of U.S.-trained S&E Doctorate Recipients

by Mark K. Fiegener and Steven L. Proudfoot[1]

Foreign institutions and U.S. research universities play large roles in the baccalaureate education of U.S.-trained science and engineering (S&E) doctorate recipients.[2] In 2011, about one-third (35%) of individuals earning S&E doctorates from U.S. universities held bachelor's degrees from foreign institutions, and 29% earned bachelor's degrees from U.S. doctorate-granting institutions with very high research activity[3] (table 1). Other doctorate-granting universities, master's colleges and universities, and baccalaureate colleges combined to account for another 28%. Among U.S. S&E doctorate recipients, the proportion with a foreign bachelor's degree increased 4 percentage points from 2002 to 2011, while the proportion with a bachelor's degree from a U.S. institution declined slightly over this period for each type of institution.


http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf13323/

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Next Generation Science Standards are now available.



The Next Generation Science Standards are now available.  Twenty-six states and their broad-based teams worked together with a 41-member writing team and partners throughout the country to develop the standards.
Download PDFs of the NGSS:
The standards are also available on Scribd.
The NGSS are composed of the three dimensions from the NRC Framework. Click on the links to the left to learn more about the standards

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing?


Book Cover"Following a 2011 report by the National Research Council (NRC) on successful K-12 education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), Congress asked the National Science Foundation to identify methods for tracking progress toward the report's recommendations. In response, the NRC convened the Committee on an Evaluation Framework for Successful K-12 STEM Education to take on this assignment. The committee developed 14 indicators linked to the 2011 report's recommendations. By providing a focused set of key indicators related to students' access to quality learning, educator's capacity, and policy and funding initiatives in STEM, the committee addresses the need for research and data that can be used to monitor progress in K-12 STEM education and make informed decisions about improving it.

The recommended indicators provide a framework for Congress and relevant deferral agencies to create and implement a national-level monitoring and reporting system that: assesses progress toward key improvements recommended by a previous National Research Council (2011) committee; measures student knowledge, interest, and participation in the STEM disciplines and STEM-related activities; tracks financial, human capital, and material investments in K-12 STEM education at the federal, state, and local levels; provides information about the capabilities of the STEM education workforce, including teachers and principals; and facilitates strategic planning for federal investments in STEM education and workforce development when used with labor force projections. All 14 indicators explained in this report are intended to form the core of this system. Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 STEM Education: A Nation Advancing? summarizes the 14 indicators and tracks progress towards the initial report's recommendations."

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Need a Job? Invent It

Need a Job? Invent It - http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/31/opinion/sunday/friedman-need-a-job-invent-it.html?_r=0

WHEN Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist, describes his job today, he says he’s “a translator between two hostile tribes” — the education world and the business world, the people who teach our kids and the people who give them jobs. Wagner’s argument in his book “Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World” is that our K-12 and college tracks are not consistently “adding the value and teaching the skills that matter most in the marketplace.....................Every young person will continue to need basic knowledge, of course,” he said. “But they will need skills and motivation even more. Of these three education goals, motivation is the most critical. Young people who are intrinsically motivated — curious, persistent, and willing to take risks — will learn new knowledge and skills continuously."
      
Josh Haner/The New York Times
Thomas L. Friedman