Education Law

STEM in the spotlight as education gets a major media focus

From a pair of segments on Oprah to a multi-day media blitz on NBC to a televised address from the president himself, the state of education in the U.S. has, arguably, never enjoyed as much publicity as it has over the last week and a half.

And the subjects of science, technology, engineering, and math have been a prominent part of the coverage.

President Barack Obama, for instance, launched a national initiative on Monday to recruit 10,000 teachers in the STEM fields.

“Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing our students to compete in the 21st century economy and we need to recruit and train math and science teachers to support our nation’s students,” Obama said in a prepared statement.

Teachers, no doubt, like Dos Pueblos High School physics and engineering teacher Amir Abo-Shaeer, who learned last Monday that he was one of the 23 recipients— and the only public school teacher— named as the 2010 MacArthur Fellow, a prestige that also carries with it $500,000 in unfettered funds.

Perhaps with a national recruitment project and local champions like Abo-Shaeer, more states can be like New Jersey, whose college students earn more Bachelor degrees in science and engineering than any other field.

Want to learn how to engage students and the community in STEM subjects? Prepare teachers for these dynamic and challenging fields? Or create career paths to enhance STEM in your district and beyond? Then you should attend this year’s T+L conference, held in Phoenix from October 19-22. Register here.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on September 29, 2010 (boomark / email).