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while only three out of 10 say students don’t get enough. Meanwhile, American 15-year-olds placed 24th among students in 40 countries in a test of ability to apply math concepts to real-world problems.
These statistics make it abundantly clear that we must make science and math courses more exacting and exciting — not just in our high schools, but also our middle schools. We won’t get more bright college students majoring in science and math unless we increase the flow out of our public schools. To do that, we need math and science teachers who are as well-trained and knowledgeable as the young people hired by IBM and other high-technology companies. And, we need lots of new math and science teachers who come out of business and industry and decide to teach — like those in the IBM Transition to Teaching program.
It will require public expenditures to outfit laboratories in high schools and to pay higher salaries to attract teachers capable of instilling the desire for math and science careers in their students. We need more mid-career enrichment opportunities for these teachers.
This means cooperative arrangements between public schools, universities and businesses. Our colleges and universities need to forge stronger linkages between schools of education and the academic departments in the sciences, engineering and mathematics.
We need to recapture the sense of challenge known during the early laps of the space race. President Kennedy not only sent Americans off to the moon but also stimulated a generation of research and development. If we don’t run faster in producing more scientists, mathematicians and engineers, we will almost surely leave the next generation worse off than their parents.
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