Education Article

I had this article published in a trade ezine earlier this month. DAC stands for Design Automation Conference, and is the largest annual show in my industry.

Education: A Lifelong Adventure

In Bill Gates’ recent testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, he highlighted the gathering threat to U.S. preeminence in science and technology innovation. For the United States to secure its continuing global leadership in technology innovation, he warned, we must as a nation commit to a strategy for excellence in, among other things, education.

There is a crisis in our public education systems today.

As professionals in the technology arena, most of us have an inkling of the statistics that reveal the seriousness of the state of education in our country. According to the U. S. Department of Education, we have one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the industrialized world. Thirty percent of ninth graders, and nearly half of all African American and Hispanic ninth graders, do not graduate on schedule. Of those students who do graduate and go on to college, a full 25% must take remedial courses on material they should have learned in high school. Less than 40% of our high school students graduate ready to attend college.

The record of American students in math and sciences is particularly alarming. Tests indicate that U.S. fourth graders rank among the top students in the world in science, and above average in math. By the time they reach eighth grade, they are only average compared to their peers in other nations. By 12th grade, U.S. students score near the bottom in math and science, across all industrialized nations. As a result, too many U.S. students enter college without even the basic skills needed to pursue a degree in science and engineering.

It is hard to disagree with Bill Gates’ stance regarding the importance of education from a competitive and societal standpoint. In fact, I so strongly felt the need to better understand what has gone wrong with education, and to, in some way, be part of the solution, that I recently took a year out from my career in technology to teach. I chose to teach seventh grade science in an urban Massachusetts public school.

The experiences I had teaching science to those seventh graders were exciting, frustrating, eye opening, and infinitely rewarding. Here are some of the things I learned:

• Most students are hungry to learn, but the structure of public school classroom education and the budget pressures in many communities leave both students and teachers underserved.
• Seventh grade is around the time that the lack of a solid foundation in math and science starts to stress kids. Students, particularly girls, either get hooked on science or lose all interest in it.
• The quality of math and science teachers in the public schools is proportional to the compensation provided for them.
• Until teachers are held accountable for understanding the material that they are hired to teach, it is the students who will be shortchanged.

You may not be able to take a year away from your current profession and teach math or science as I did. If you are reading this, you do have the power to make great changes in the quality of public education in your community. Here are some steps to take:

• Take an interest in the quality of public school education.
• Encourage your employer to get involved. Sponsor a science field trip, provide supplementary educational materials, and expose children to the rewards of careers in technology.
• Volunteer to tutor a child in math or science.
• Ask your children’s teachers what help they need to succeed.
• As a person in a technology profession, volunteer to talk about what excites you about your work.

Moving forward, I’m encouraged by Bill Gates’ call to action and applaud his use of his celebrity status to bring attention to this problem. He recommends a commitment from the U.S. government to build a strategy for innovation excellence, and suggests a set of initiatives and policies to provide the foundation to strengthen U.S. competitiveness. His proposal to build educational opportunities for students to ensure they have the skills to succeed is an idea we all should embrace. As someone who has been on the front lines, I endorse these reforms to improve educational opportunities and invest in our young people. Take a moment while at DAC to consider how you, as a technology professional, can effect improvements in public education.

To read the entire transcript of Bill Gates’ testimony March 12, 2008 before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, visit: link