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Triangle Coalition Electronic Bulletin
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This Week's Topics:
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| The nomination process for Raytheon Company's 2008 Math Hero Awards has now opened on MathMovesU.com. These annual awards reward and celebrate teachers and tutors for promoting math achievement to students in a fun and challenging learning environment. Raytheon believes tomorrow's engineers and technologists need to be excited by and interested in math today. The MathMovesU program grants $1 million annually to students, teachers, and schools in scholarships, grants, and awards. Based on a nomination process, math teachers and volunteers who work with students are eligible to receive a $2,500 Math Hero award, and their schools or an approved math-related nonprofit organization of their choice receive a $2,500 matching grant. Math Heroes demonstrate an enthusiastic and creative approach to math, often using new and innovative ideas in working with their students. Parents, students, or other teachers are invited to nominate their Math Hero. Submissions are due by July 15, 2008 and winners will be announced on November 15, 2008. Additional information on the Math Hero Awards and an application may be found at www.mathmovesu.com. Raytheon created MathMovesU to encourage students to realize their math potential and reinforce their math skills through an interactive website, events, and scholarships. MathMovesU.com educates and entertains through games and activities that showcase the math behind students' favorite pastimes. The site engages kids on their own terms, encourages them to invite their friends, interact with on-line characters, and compete in contests centered on music, fashion, and sports. Since the program's inception in November, 2005, MathMovesU has awarded more than $2 million in grants and scholarships to students, teachers, and schools. . |
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The gender gap in math perceived to exist between girls and boys has long been contested. New research published in the journal Science sheds clarity on the debate and demonstrates that girls perform better in mathematics in more gender equal societies, in some cases besting male peers. The research, led in part by Kellogg School of Management Professor Paola Sapienza, sought to address the issue of whether social and cultural factors influence women's success in math and science. Sapienza and her colleagues empirically investigated whether a global gender gap exists in math to understand the relative importance of biology and culture on the development of basic mental attributes that are valuable for conducting math and science. In search of bridges across the math gender gap, Sapienza and her colleagues analyzed data from more than 276,000 children in 40 countries. The large number of subjects and broad range of social systems represented were key to the validity of the study. Each child took the 2003 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), an internationally standardized assessment of math, reading, science, and problem-solving ability. Based on the PISA analysis, Sapienza and her colleagues determined that while the global pattern shows that boys tended to outperform girls in math (on average girls score 10.5 points lower than boys), this advantage was not always the case. In a few countries, including Iceland, Sweden, and Norway, girls scored as well as boys or better. . |
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| Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals and Triangle Coalition member, the Biotechnology Institute, is launching an intensive program to teach and inspire local young people to consider careers in science and technology. The two-pronged program will focus on students from less advantaged communities. The partnership establishes the “Bayer Minority Fellows Program,” a mentoring program pairing Bayer scientists and executives with ten top-quality graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in life sciences disciplines, particularly those with an interest in research and development and manufacturing. Bayer Minority Fellows will be selected from universities with proximity to Bayer's West Coast facilities. With Bayer experts to guide them, Fellows will explore careers in the biotechnology industry, particularly research and development and biomanufacturing. Fellows will undergo rigorous professional development training in areas such as emerging technologies and industrial entrepreneurship. They will also receive coaching in career-building skills, including interviewing techniques and resume writing. The Bayer/Biotechnology Institute partnership also includes a two-day teacher professional development session on biotechnology for 20 middle and high school teachers from East Bay schools, particularly those in lower-income communities. The session, to be held at Bayer in November, will again tap the expertise of Bayer scientists, who will serve as subject matter experts and mentors. The partnership with the Biotechnology Institute is an important addition to Bayer's portfolio of science education initiatives. Bayer founded the award-winning Biotechnology Partners program in 1992 as a way to train disadvantaged local high school and community college students for careers in the booming industry. Other initiatives include "Making Science Make Sense," the company's national program that brings scientists into public schools for hands-on science training, and programs ranging from elementary school science curriculum development to fellowships for minority graduate and post-doctoral students. The Biotechnology Institute is an independent, national nonprofit organization dedicated to education about the present and future impact of biotechnology. Its mission is to engage, excite, and educate the public, particularly students and teachers, about biotechnology and its immense potential for solving human health, food, and environmental problems. . |
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The American Association of University Women (AAUW) has released a report that analyzes trends in educational achievement by gender, race, ethnicity, and income. This report shows that girls and boys from the fourth grade through the end of college are making steady educational gains. An analysis of data from all 50 states indicates that girls' successes do not come at the expense of boys. This report is also the first to analyze gender differences within economic and ethnic categories. The data show that family income is more closely associated with academic success than gender is. The report, "Where the Girls Are: The Facts About Gender Equity in Education," presents a comprehensive look at girls' educational achievement during the past 35 years, paying special attention to the relationship between girls' and boys' progress. Analyses of results from national standardized tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the SAT and ACT college entrance examinations, as well as other measures of educational achievement, provide an overall picture of trends in gender equity from elementary school to college and beyond. Across the board, on all measures, when girls perform better academically, so do boys. "A rising tide lifts all boats. When girls perform better in school, we see improvements across gender, race, and income lines," stated AAUW Executive Director Linda Hallman. In states where girls do well on standardized tests, so do boys. On the other hand, in states where girls do not do well on standardized tests, neither do boys. Standardized test performance in elementary and secondary school has improved or remained stable for both sexes across the board. . |
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| American public education is in the midst of intense change, and teachers, in particular, are facing pressure to produce better outcomes for students. As policymakers, teachers unions, and other stakeholders react to changing demands on the nation's public education system, there remains considerable debate about what teachers think and what they want. Too often assumptions define the conversation rather than actual evidence of teachers' views. In an effort to facilitate and inform this conversation, Education Sector and the FDR Group surveyed 1,010 K–12 public school teachers about their views on the teaching profession, teachers unions, and a host of reforms aimed at improving teacher quality. The survey asked specific questions about the work teachers do and about reform proposals that are currently being debated. Some key findings from the survey include: * Seventy-six percent of teachers say that too many burned-out veteran teachers stay because they don't want to walk away from benefits and service time accrued. And over half (55 percent) say that it's very difficult and time-consuming to remove teachers who shouldn't be in the classroom. * Only 26 percent of teachers say that their most recent formal evaluation was useful and effective in helping them to improve their teaching. * Teachers are less likely today (than they were in 2003) to support paying teachers more based on test scores. Only half of teachers support the idea to measure teacher effectiveness based on student growth or "value added." The Joyce Foundation provided funding for this project; the full report is available online. . |
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TCEB Sponsors
To find out how your organization can sponsor the TCEB or support the Triangle Coalition in other ways, visit www.trianglecoalition.org/support.htm __________________________________________________________________________ |
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