Boost science, math
Contra Costa Times 3/13/07
Yet the Golden State is anything but a leader in math and science education, despite being home to some of the world's top science and math universities, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, Cal Tech, UCLA and three national laboratories.
Fourth- and eighth-grade students ranked in the bottom five states on national math tests and second-to-last on national science tests. These discouraging assessments are from the U.S. Department of Education. Making matters worse, grade school and high school students in the United States lag behind their peers in most industrialized countries.
The continued poor performance of U.S. and California students in math and science concerns the business community. Industrial leaders see the low achievement levels in math and science as a serious threat to the nation's future.
John Engler, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, fears a dark future as the nation loses its competitive edge in industries that depend on workers with skills in math and science.
The number of jobs requiring science, engineering or technical training is estimated to grow by 24 percent in the next few years, while the number of unskilled jobs is decreasing. Manufacturing and even service jobs more than ever require skills in math and science.
The poor levels of achievement in math and science by U.S. students are nothing new. However, with new competition from China and India as well as Japan and Europe, business leaders, scientists and politicians are taking notice.
It is clear that the state and nation cannot continue to lag behind in science and math. But finding qualified teachers in those fields is not easy. Pay levels of college graduates with math and science degrees are considerably higher than they are for teachers.
California schools should consider significantly raising pay scales for teachers in math and science. The education establishment no longer can afford to ignore market forces that result in shortages of good science and math teachers.
Schools should make it easier for people who would like to transition from industry to teaching math and science. Requiring some classroom education training makes sense, but the process of credentialing new teachers from industry needs to be expedited.
Schools also need to do a better job of motivating students to take math and science courses, which can lead them to well-paying jobs.
Educators in California and the rest of the nation cannot continue to do business as usual. The current system is failing our students and threatening the economic future of the state and nation.