Editor's note: Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, died on Monday of pancreatic cancer. She was 61. Outside her trail-blazing career as an astronaut, Ride was also a major champion of STEM education. In 2010, she helped found an initiative called Change the Education to bolster student engagement in math and science programs. Here, again, is that story from September 16, 2010.
Out of 30 industrialized nations, the United States ranks 21st in science and 25th in math. We’re spending more money than ever on schools, but with few results. Huge federal programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top are clunky, slow-moving bureaucratic nightmares. The American education system is broken. In order to fix it, the public sector needs to start keeping pace with the private sector. How? By getting the private sector involved.
[On September 19, 2010], President Obama announced the launch of Change the Equation, a CEO-driven initiative to increase student literacy in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). More than 100 companies joined forces--from Facebook to Microsoft, DreamWorks to Google--to improve education in these fields, which will account for some eight million jobs by 2018.
“Change the Equation (CTE) is funded by, directed by, and run with the urgency of the private sector,” explains Craig Barrett, chair of CTE and former CEO of Intel. “The best people to get kids interested in STEM, are the ones doing STEM.”
Barrett says that while many of these companies already invest heavily in education--Intel alone invests $100 million annually--CTE is a vehicle to consolidate their efforts in STEM education. Corporations will drive change on a local level, pushing state politicians to move faster, promoting the adoption of common curriculums, and sponsoring science fairs, robotics competitions, and teacher training programs--the crucial starting points for inspiring children to enter a STEM-related field. Wha...
[Source: Fast Company]
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