What Constitutes a Successful STEM Education Program? (March 24, 2011)

This past October MIT's Dean of Engineering, Subra Suresh, undertook a career change and took over as director of the United States' National Science Foundation (NSF).

A fortnight ago he faced a hostile Frank Wolf (Republican - Virginia) chair of the commerce, science, and justice appropriations subcommittee in the House of Representatives who in 2009 asked the NSF to describe the ingredients of successful STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education programs in U.S. elementary and secondary schools.

A report was to be delivered within 6-months, i.e. by June 2010.

Clearly annoyed Representative Wolf told Dr Suresh: "You say you're excited about improving STEM education, but I don't see it. Why the delay?" And while acknowledging Dr Suresh was new to the directorship grumbled that the previous director, Arden Bement, "left without getting this done. Why hasn't this happened?"

Then Representative John Culberson (Republican - Texas) joined in: "Why are you floundering?" Thomas Jefferson High School [for Science and Technology] is ranked No. 1 in the country. And it's only 8 miles away from your office. It shakes me up that you can't answer the chairman's questions about best practices in STEM education when the answer is only 8 miles away."

Dr Seresh undertook a measured explanation: "I arrived on 18 October, and as soon as I found out about the need for the report, I asked for an update on its status. … Last week I was given an interim report on where things stand ... We will include all the right models, from everywhere."

According to ScienceInsider's Jeffrey Mervis: "[In fact NSF has been busy] although Suresh offered few details at the hearing. And [NSF's] response was predictable: As a research agency driven by peer review, NSF chose experts in the field to examine the issue [and looked to] the National Academies' National Research Council (NRC). NRC [with $500,000 at its disposal] has assembled] a panel that will hold a public workshop on 11-12 May to explore the causal factors that produce high-quality STEM education. 'We don't go by reputation, we go by the evidence,' explains panel chair Adam Gamoran, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, about Culberson's assertion that Thomas Jefferson should be the sole model for NSF's study [and continued] 'What exactly are effective STEM practices, and what is the best way to apply them?' The panel hopes to write a report within a month of the workshop, Gamoran said, although that document must then be vetted internally by the Academies."

In addition the NSF has awarded a $200,000 grant to the Urban Institute's Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research to "track the progress of students through the system and beyond and possibly correlate it with the contributions from individual teachers and specific educational practices. NSF officials have also asked a Bethesda, Maryland, consultant to assess best practices within an existing NSF-funded program that pairs university researchers with local school districts."

Representative Wolf according to Mr Mervis: "[T]raditionally has been very supportive of NSF's efforts in science education. But Wolf warned Suresh he won't really be happy unless the report "gets out to the people who matter--the school superintendents..."