Advocating for an Inventive and Transformative Recovery in National STEM Education

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

The US Department of Education is disbursing about $5 billion in ARRA funds to states aimed at promoting innovations in the educational system. The stated model for disbursing these funds is to support the goals of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the America Competes Act of 2007, within the framing of No Child Left Behind. There is extensive scientific discussion about how to allocate and measure the impact of this $5 billion. The goal of this project is to convene an expert panel to examine the proposed framework for disbursing the funds for innovation in education from the points of view of learning, technology, science and economics in the light of prior reform efforts. The resulting papers and monograph draw on the theoretical and empirical literature to describe policies and practices that provide a scientific basis for the federal and state investments of the innovation dollars. Such investments include: (a) ?start at the top? programs that link high school teachers and students and faculty and undergraduates with authentic science practices with likely economic payoff, (b) richer forms of assessment of authentic science and mathematics learning, and (c) more sophisticated economic measures of student achievement. Broader Impacts: The potential broader impact of this project is the provision of a scientific basis for the definition, implementation and measurement of outcomes associated with investments in educational innovation. The broader impacts include the generation of richer measures of achievement in student learning and of STEM investment outcomes in general. In addition, the project supports policies that involve modern assessments and sophisticated economic tracking of achievement, each of which is key to the successful management of what is likely the largest investment in innovation in education ever attempted by the United States.