If you reply to this long (7 kB) post please don't hit the reply
button unless you prune the copy of this post that may appear in your
reply down to a few relevant lines, otherwise the entire already
archived post may be needlessly resent to subscribers.
According to Stephanie Lee's (2009) Inside Higher Ed report
"'Mobilization' for Math and Science Education," Vartan Gregorian,
president of the Carnegie Corporation, said: "The quality of math and
science learning at colleges and universities ultimately begins with
solid instruction at the K-12 level. While higher education remains
strong, it is clear it cannot continue without a strong foundation."
"From experience I know that the quality of math and science learning
at colleges and universities ultimately DOES NOT begin with solid
instruction at the K-12 level, it begins with the quality of math and
science learning at colleges and universities. For far too long
higher education has 'passed the buck' by not producing qualified
teachers."
RIGHT ON, STEVE! The NSF's (1996) report "Shaping the Future" put it
this way [my insert at ". . . . [insert]. . . ."]:
"Many faculty in SME&T. . . .[Science, Mathematics, Engineering, &
Technology]. . . at the postsecondary level continue to blame the
schools for sending underprepared students to them. But,
increasingly. . . .[but not conspicuously]. . . .the higher education
community has come to recognize the fact that teachers and principals
in the K-12 system are all people who have been educated at the
undergraduate level, mostly in situations in which SME&T programs
have not taken seriously enough their vital part of the
responsibility for the quality of America's teachers."
In consonance with the above, physicist Don Langenberg (2001, p. 23),
(at the time) Chancellor of the University of Maryland System, put it
bluntly:
"Although we in higher education are very skillful at ignoring the
obvious, it is gradually dawning on some of us that we bear a
substantial part of the responsibility for this sad situation [the
state of K-12 education]."
How sad is the state of K-12 education in the U.S.? According
Schmidt, Houang, & Shakrani (2009):
"The consequences of our scattered approach. . . .[to K-12
education]. . . .are obvious - low standards by international
comparisons, mediocre student performance (especially in eighth and
twelfth grades), huge inequalities in curricular opportunities, and
loss of future job possibilities. . . . Today the performance gap
between the most and least proficient students in the United States
is among the highest of all OECD countries [OECD (2007)]. Unless the
American education system begins to prepare all of its students for
post-secondary education and the changing workplace, disturbing
trends in international comparisons will only worsen."
REFERENCES [Tiny URL's courtesy <http://tinyurl.com/create.php>.]
BHEF. 2001. Business - Higher Education Forum (a partnership of the
American Council on Education and the National Alliance of Business),
Winter, "Sharing Responsibility: How Leaders in Business and Higher
Education Can Improve America's Schools" online as a 248 kB pdf at
<http://tinyurl.com/lhenqd>.
NSF. 1996. "Shaping the Future: New Expectations for Undergraduate
Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology,"A
Report on its Review of Undergraduate Education by the Advisory
Committee to the NSF, chaired by Melvin George, online at
<http://tinyurl.com/m93862>. Also online as a Google book preview at
<http://tinyurl.com/n72qh7>. This report is one of the few that
emphasizes the crucial role of higher education in determining the
quality of K-12 education.
OECD. 2007. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development,
"PISA 2006: Science Competencies for Tomorrow's World," online at
<http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/16/28/39722597.pdf> (360 kB).
Schmidt, W.H., R. Houang, & S. Shakrani. 2009. "International Lessons
About National Standards," online as a 180 kB pdf at
<http://tinyurl.com/lqtaj9>.