Clinton Challenges Nation to Improve Math and
Science Education
On March 16, President
Clinton President challenged public officials, business leaders, universities,
schools, teachers, parents, and students to take the steps necessary to
boost student achievement in math and science. Included:
The text of his speech.
On March 16th, 1998, President Clinton convened leaders from government,
business, education, and the scientific community to discuss how the nation
should respond to recent findings from the Third International Math and
Science Study (TIMSS) showing that U.S. 12th graders lagged below the
international average in science and math. This followed earlier findings
showing U.S. 4th graders near the first in the world in science and above
average in math, with U.S. 8th graders slipping to slightly above average
in science and below average in math. The President called on the nation
to move forward on his plan to improve American education and issued new
challenges to boost student achievement in math and science. He also announced
new on-line math and science help for parents, teachers, and students.
A CHALLENGE TO IMPROVE MATH AND SCIENCE EDUCATION.
Improved math and science education is critical to prepare our students
and nation for the 21st century. President Clinton challenged public officials,
business leaders, universities, schools, teachers, parents, and students
to take the steps necessary to boost student achievement in math and science.
Reducing out-of-field teaching. The President challenged states
to reduce the percentage of math and science teachers without a major
or minor in their subject area. The average K-8 math teacher takes only
three undergraduate math courses. Twenty-eight percent of secondary math
teachers lack a major or minor in their subject area, as do 18 percent
of secondary science teachers and 55 percent of physics teachers.
Rigorous Tests for New Teachers. To help address this challenge,
the President called on states to require all new teachers of math and
science to pass challenging tests of math or science knowledge and teaching
proficiency. With nearly half of our nation's teaching force to be replaced
over the next several years in order to accommodate growing student enrollments
and an aging teaching force, raising standards of teaching now can boost
the quality of our schools for decades.
A Call to Action for Schools, Students, and Parents. The President
also challenged schools to offer and students to take tough math and science
courses in middle school and high school. Just a quarter of U.S. students
take algebra before high school, and only 25 percent of U.S. high school
students take physics. The President also called on parents to insist
that states and school districts provide ways of showing how children
are doing compared to national standards and international benchmarks.
Today parents have no way of finding out how their children do compared
to the international standards in TIMSS. The President called on the nation
to take the steps necessary to boost student achievement in math and science
and encouraged young people with proficiency in math and science to consider
careers in teaching.
PRESIDENT CLINTON'S EDUCATION AGENDA:
MAKING OUR SCHOOLS THE FINEST IN THE WORLD
The recent TIMSS findings demonstrate the importance of President Clinton's
bold plan to improve American education and boost student achievement
in math, science, and other academic subjects.
Voluntary National Standards and Tests in Math and Reading. In
his 1997 State of the Union Address, President Clinton challenged every
state to adopt high national standards and to test every 4th grader in
reading and 8th grader in math to make sure these standards are met. Rigorous
8th grade math testing can help make sure that middle school students
are prepared to succeed in tough math and science courses in high school.
Voluntary national tests are being developed under the control of the
bipartisan, independent National Assessment Governing Board.
Smaller Classes with Well-Prepared Teachers. President Clinton
is proposing to help local schools provide small classes with well-prepared
teachers in the early grades. The new initiative will help hire an additional
100,000 well-prepared teachers and reduce class size in grades 1-3 to
a nationwide average of 18. The President is also proposing support for
training teachers in math, science, and technology and for recruiting
quality teachers into poor schools and high-need subjects like math and
science.
Modern School Buildings to Improve Student Learning. For students
to learn and to compete in the global economy, schools must be well-equipped
and they must be able to accommodate smaller class sizes. That's why President
Clinton is proposing federal tax credits to pay interest on nearly $22
billion in bonds to build and renovate public schools.
Education Opportunity Zones: Ending Social Promotion and Fixing Failing
Schools. The President's budget contains support for urban and rural
school districts undertaking tough reforms including ending social promotion
and fixing failing schools. This initiative would help students meet promotion
standards at selected grades, help turn around failing schools, and expand
parental choice among public schools.
Technology for Our Schools and Rigorous Math and Science Courses
for Our Students. The President's plan would ensure that all our children
get access to the "information superhighway." His "High Hopes" plan would
support partnerships to help low-income students get access to the rigorous
math and science courses needed to prepare them for college. The President's
budget also contains $60 million to improve math and science curriculum
and teaching in middle schools.
NEW: ON-LINE ASSISTANCE
President Clinton announced two new on-line resources developed by the
U.S. Department of Education and other agencies.
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) Web-site.
A new Web site is available today to connect teachers, parents, and students
to teaching and learning resources in math, science, and other subject
areas from NASA, the Energy Department, the National Science Foundation,
and other agencies. The address is http://www.ed.gov/free
The TIMSS On-Line Challenge. The U.S. Department of Education
will launch this fall a Web site that puts TIMSS math and science problems
on-line. This will enable parents to give a quiz to their children, learn
what their children should know in math and science to be internationally
competitive, and learn how their children are doing compared to students
from other countries.
RECENT STUDY SHOWS NEED TO BOOST
ACHIEVEMENT IN MATH AND SCIENCE
TIMSS showed that U.S 12th graders scored among the lowest of 21 nations
in general math and science. Performance of U.S. 12th graders in advanced
math and physics courses also lagged behind other nations. The 12th grade
findings completed a multi-year study showing U.S. 4th graders near the
first in the world in science and above average in math, with U.S. 8th
graders slightly above the international average in science and below
the international average in math.
While other tests (including the National Assessment of Educational
Progress) show that U.S. student achievement is improving, TIMSS makes
clear that these improvements are not rapid enough to keep pace with other
nations in an increasingly global economy.
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT EDUCATION ROUNDTABLE
THE PRESIDENT: First of all, let me welcome you all here. Let
me thank you for coming. Many have made an extraordinary effort to come
from a long way away, and I thank you so much for that.
I want to make some brief opening remarks and ask Secretary Riley and
Mr. Schmidt make some remarks, and then we'll just begin the roundtable.
And I want to hear from everyone before we go.
Earlier this month our country received a wake-up call. Our high school
seniors ranked near the bottom in math and science achievement when compared
with their peers around the world, according to the TIMSS test results.
This must be a call to action for all of us. That's why I've asked some
of America's top educators, advocates, political and business leaders
here today, to mobilize our schools to raise standards, demand accountability,
and specifically, to strengthen math and science education and performance
all across America.
A little over 40 years ago -- a lot of us are old enough to remember
when America got another wake-up call -- when the Soviets had just launched
Sputnik and beat us into space. Then President Eisenhower said, if we
were going to conquer the heavens we had to strengthen math and science
education here on Earth. Because we answered the call, in the years since
we have landed on the moon, roved the surface of Mars, launched countless
satellites that have revolutionized the way we live, work and play here
on Earth. And we're preparing to put the international space station into
work.
The young people Eisenhower inspired are now fueling America's new economy.
They work at NASA, at NIH, in high-tech labs in Silicon Valley, in Wall
Street boardrooms, in classrooms all across our nation. Now we have to
strengthen math and science education for a new generation of Americans
in the 21st century. We know that for our time we need a revolution in
high standards, accountability, and rising expectations. We know the revolution
works. A report released just today by the University of Minnesota has
found that charter schools are meeting and sometimes exceeding their promises
to raise academic achievement. Now we have to spread these lessons throughout
the educational system.
In our balanced budget I proposed a comprehensive strategy to help make
our schools the best in the world -- to have high national standards of
academic achievement, national tests in 4th grade reading and 8th grade
math, strengthening math instruction in middle schools, providing smaller
classes in the early grades so that teachers can give students the attention
they deserve, working to hire more well-prepared and nationally certified
teachers, modernizing our schools for the 21st century, supporting more
charter schools, encouraging public school choice, ending social promotion,
demanding greater accountability from students and teachers, principals
and parents.
And we have to bring more mentors into our middle schools to inspire
our students to prepare for college early. I am pleased that this strategy
is already moving forward in many, many states; that our nation's governors
and state legislators of both parties are choosing to make a solid commitment
to boost education, to advocate high standards, and to take advantage
of this era of budget surpluses and good times to make our schools better
so that we'll have even better times in the future. We'll work hard with
Congress to make sure this plan becomes a reality. I urge the Senate to
take the first step by passing the proposals to modernize schools this
week.
In this era of fiscal discipline, we have to recognize that government
alone cannot do the job. We also have to mobilize all other Americans
in a concerted effort, especially let me say, on the topic we're here
today -- math and science education. States have to make sure that every
math and science teacher is qualified to do the job. We have to insist
that they've majored in their subjects in college.
Today nearly one of every five science teachers, more than a quarter
of all math teachers, more than half of all physics teachers has neither
majored in, nor minored in the subjects they teach. The typical elementary
and middle school teacher has taken just three undergraduate math courses.
We can, and we must, do better.
So I call on the states to require new math and science teachers to
pass high-level competency tests in their subjects before getting licensed.
The requirements must be vigorously enforced. School districts simply
mustn't continue hiring people who don't meet the standards. Students
must challenge themselves and take the most advanced math and science
courses they can. Again, this is a big problem. Among college-bound seniors,
half have not taken physics or trigonometry. Three-quarters have not taken
calculus. Around the world, middle students are learning algebra and geometry.
Here at home, just a quarter of all students take algebra before high
school.
Our children must not glide through school without gaining these important
skills. Business has to help us get the message out, too, so that they
will hear that young people who study and do well will do better in the
future.
Today I want to say that later this year I intend to convene a group
of business leaders specifically to discuss ways that they can contribute
to raising student performance across our country. Universities can also
help by strengthening their programs in math and science teaching so that
more students will consider teaching as a career, and so that our newest
teachers will be better prepared than ever for the classrooms of the 21st
century.
Finally, we need help from our parents, who should encourage and insist
on teachers and students who do their best. I think it is profoundly important
that parents keep up not only with the progress of their children in the
courses they're taking, but also in whether they're taking the right courses.
If we all do our part, I'm convinced this is a challenge that we can
clearly meet.
Springbrook High School Silver Spring, Maryland March 16, 1998
On March 16, President
Clinton President challenged public officials, business leaders, universities,
schools, teachers, parents, and students to take the steps necessary to
boost student achievement in math and science. Included:
The text of his speech.