Two programs
In 1999, the Third International Math and Science Study found that the longer
U.S. students are in school, the farther they fall behind internationally in
math and science proficiency. That prompted Bush to propose the National Math
and Science Partnership (MSP) program as part of No Child Left Behind.
The goal of the partnership program is to strengthen K-12 science and math education
by promoting a vision of education as a continuum that begins with the youngest
learners and progresses through adulthood with teacher training. Among its activities,
the program supports partnerships that unite K-12 schools, institutions of higher
education and private industry.
Congress took the presidents suggestion and created in 2002 an MSP program
at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of the agencys authorization
and another partnership program at the Department of Education as part of No
Child Left Behind. These two acts of Congress were not made in duplication.
The funds allocated under No Child Left Behind for the Department of Education
MSPs go directly to the states as formula grants, providing funds to all states
to replicate and then implement the best of the NSF partnerships throughout
the country. Once states receive the money, they make competitive grants to
local partnerships.
The competitive, peer-reviewed NSF partnerships seek to develop scientifically
sound model-reform initiatives that will improve teacher quality, develop challenging
curricula, and increase student achievement in math and science. NSF awarded
the first grants to local school districts in September 2002 and announced the
second round of grants last fall.
At a hearing last October, the House Science Committee found that this new partnership
program is on the right track toward improving math and science education.
Testifying before the committee, M. Susana Navarro, executive director of the
El Paso Collaborative for Academic Excellence MSP, said: What the MSP
now provides is an opportunity to bring together partners across the community,
K-16, toward the shared development and implementation of high quality math
and science content and instructional practices aimed at improving student achievement
among all students.
For example, in Stark County, Ohio, a $7.5 million five-year NSF MSP grant funded
in October 2002 is connecting 44 middle and high schools to five local colleges
and universities. Among its accomplishments, the Stark County partnership has
already developed a database of math, science and education professors, implemented
a coaching program for math and science teachers, and provided teacher internships.
Stark County believes that educating its teachers and providing them with accessible
resources will increase student achievement and reduce the achievement gap at
the secondary level.
Shifting funds
Just three months after that hearing, President Bush released his budget proposal
for fiscal year 2005 (FY05), which phases out the NSF partnership programs and
shifts the funding to the MSP companion program at the Department of Education.
If approved by Congress, this would result in a $269.1 million budget request
for the MSP program an 80 percent increase over last year.
However, the $120 million increase requested for 2005 is not slated to fund
additional MSPs on the local level; instead it would finance a new program focused
on accelerating the math learning of secondary-school students, especially those
who are at risk of dropping out of school because they lack basic skills in
math. Susan K. Sclafani, assistant secretary for the Department of Education,
told The New York Times on April 14th that summer math remediation programs
are the more pressing need because students who do not get a good math background
before Algebra 1 are not prepared to do math or science in high school.
Under No Child Left Behind, all schoolchildren must be proficient in reading
and math by 2014 an incredibly high mandate set in the law. It is also
a largely unfunded mandate: The presidents budget proposal for Title I,
the portion of the law dedicated to improving the academic achievement of disadvantaged
children, is $5 billion below what Congress has authorized for FY05.
The presidents proposal for FY05 would thus stymie the NSF program, which
has the advantage of combining the best of what we already know with innovative
practices developed by some of todays finest minds in math and science
education. It then gives science education short shrift under the Department
of Educations MSP funding in order to make up for shortcomings in the
No Child Left Behind Act.
Tough fight
With scant funds and high standards, the Bush administration must either undertake
some creative financing in order to pay for and implement No Child Left Behind
or admit that they aimed too high and begin to grant exemptions. Fourteen states
have already notified the Department of Education that soon the majority of
their schools would be unfairly labeled as failing simply because they didnt
have the money to implement the new reforms.
All of this is turning into a political nightmare for the Bush administration.
It is pitting Congress long-term planning against the presidents
need to make good on his signature education initiative. It is also pitting
the president against fellow Republicans, such as Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers (R-Mich.),
a research physicist and six-term Congressman who has served on both the education
and science committees, and Rep. Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-N.Y.), the current
chairman of the House Science Committee.
Both Democrats and Republicans have been out in force this spring. They are
authoring and signing letters urging those who make the final funding decisions
for NSF and the Department of Education to keep the MSP programs as they are
in their current form to safeguard the peer-review process and the formula
grants for all states.
Geotimes Home | AGI Home | Information Services | Geoscience Education | Public Policy | Programs | Publications | Careers |