Change the Equation Blog

There's probably only a few parents that would willingly move their children into a state or district where proficiency rates dropped drastically over the last year. But in the case of Virginia, who recently released the results of its latest SOL (Standards of Learning) testing round from this school year, the decline in the number of students passing is actually a great sign.

That's because Virginia's superficial "decline" was the result of the state's implementation of more rigorous state math exams, along with updated cut scores.  The latest iteration of the SOLs incorporates technology for about 15% of the questions, instead of relying on traditional multiple-choice strategies. This development mirrors what will likely happen in the two Race To The Top-funded exams, created by the Smarter Balanced and PARCC consortiums (Virginia is not participating in either).

The implementation of a new exam is great for Virginia students and parents.  The older version of the test had cut scores -- the pass rates for a test -- that were much lower than those seen in other states nationally. That meant students considered proficient in Virginia might not be if they moved states. Now, though, the new test scores will give students and parents a clearer idea of how they actually stack up to peers across the U.S. (It should be noted that despite the low cut scores, Virginia students still did pretty well on the nationwide NAEP exams).

Next up? Science exams. Cut scores in science have not been updated since 1998, so the updated test -- set to roll out next spring -- will be very welcome.

While we've written about the role that community colleges can play in giving the workforce the necessary skills for STEM-related jobs, a recent article in the Atlantic takes the case-by-case evidence one step further and argues that investment in two-year schools will provide the American economy with the workforce boost that it needs.

Community colleges are an important topic for anyone concerned with STEM education or college- and career-readiness, and author Curtis Valentine, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, makes several solid arguments based on community college's utility and flexibility. Community colleges, as he points out, are uniquely placed to focus on the needs of their communities, canadapt easily to serve the needs of a changing workforce, and are able to provide continuing education to those already in the workforce who need to expand their skillset. Enrollment in two-year schools has expanded over the last decade, and schools are responding to the economic demands by creating public-private partnerships with employers and "early college" high schools in order to ensure that Americans are career-ready.

At the same time, an overreliance on community colleges won't solve problems created in the K-12 education system. Community colleges already need to remediate a third of their students, especially in math, and only one quarter of remediated students leave with an associate's degree. The sheer number is huge, and we still need to focus on winnowing that number so that investmenti n community college is most successful. If we can more adequately prepare students before they enter higher education, they'll be more successful. Period. 

The shortfalls that lead to the skills gap are apparent at all levels of the education, from early childhood on up, and they require innovation and investment at all levels. Because of their agility and responsiveness to the fluid demands of the workforce, community colleges play an important part, but we should also ensure that all students receive the best K-12 math and science education possible to reduce the amount of remediation and give students the best shot at completing a degree program. There's no one hole in the STEM pipeline, and therefore we need strong investment in more than one solution.

Gabby Douglas and Missy Franklin earned their first gold medals last week for after years of practice and preparation. Early this morning, several scientists and engineers accomplished a gold-medal worthy feat as well when Curiosity, a Martian rover packed with technology that represents a giant leap forward in space exploration, landed on Mars and transmitted the first images back to Earth. The rover, the size of a small car, will spend the next several months exploring a Martian crater looking for molecules that indicate that life may once have been possible on Mars.

The landing comes at a critical time for NASA, and reaffirms both what is possible in terms of space exploration and the relevance of strong investment in science and technology. Even with the concern over the state of science and technology in the U.S., the United States is still the only country to have successfully landed any spacecraft on Mars, and last night's landing used American discoveries and technologies to complete what many have said was impossible.

Once upon a time, the 1969 moon landing inspired a generation of kids -- including Sally Ride -- to go into science and technology, and one can hope that this may spark similar passions. Millions of kids are focused this week on the (rightfully) inspiring accomplishments of sports heroes like Douglas and swimmer Michael Phelps, and one can hope that some of that excitement can transfer to the countless STEM heroes that made this feat possible. In his 2011 State of the Union Address, President Barack Obama famously declared that, "it's not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair."

The landing -- and now, whatever discoveries the rover makes -- took the coordiination of a broad spectrum of scientists and engineers, from minerologists to physicists, all of whom were inspired and encouraged, at some point, to pursue this field. And while Curiosity's discoveries will hopefully be further validation of the need for strong investment in science and technology education, watching them celebrate their triumph is a pretty good reminder for right now.

Before you go out and buy your child's homeroom teacher that 24-pack of Kleenex and 10 reams of paper for the first day, double check: Those longtime staples might not be what they'll actually need for a successful year.

A recent survey (check out the infographic) by PBSLearningMedia found that many teachers, hoping to better engage their digitally-reared students -- for whom the iPod has always been on the market and who likely have a cell phone by the second grade -- would love to get more technology to enhance their classrooms. Only 1 in 5 teachers believed they had the right amount of technology to support learners in the classroom, three-fourths wanted more, and more than 60 percent of them attributed the gap to the cost of purchasing those tools.

Technology can be a valuable educational resource, if used properly (whether or not it's simply promoting rote memorization is still up for debate). It's long been a part of the classroom -- try to imagine calculus without calculators or biology without microscopes -- but the explosion of the Internet and the rise of the connected kid has made it all the more necessary. Computer programs like WISE (part of the STEMWorks Database)  and technology like Classroom Clickers and SmartBoards allow students to see and participate in science and math in new and exciting ways -- think Skyping scientists or touring engineering marvels on the Smartboard or allowing teachers to immediately know how many students understand fraction multiplication with clickers.

Obviously, buying a classroom a SmartBoard, a set of clickers, or any of the latest snazzy devices requires you to reach further into your pocket than that 24-pack of Kleenex does. One option is to band together with other parents on the roster: A new iPad is $800 for one parent, but only $40 if all twenty families chip in -- much more wallet-friendly. And -- since low-income and minority households are less likely to have Internet access, increasing their need in school -- Donor's Choose will help you donate to a project of your choice in a classroom with a verified, identified need.