Please enjoy this week's STEM Ed update.

The Long Haul: ESEA Reauthorization Timeline
Education Week

U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash., had their fingers crossed that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would schedule their bipartisan Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization bill for debate before the May 22 Memorial Day recess. But with McConnell having just teed up a debate on trade instead, that timeline now seems unlikely.

Read more here.

Innovation

When people are asked what scientists do, too often the answer is "Oh, they wear a white coat and have a lot of academic degrees and work in the back of a laboratory studying the chemistry of butterfly wings." In short, the public, writ large, does not relate scientific research  to its own well-being. So who should care, other than perhaps a few scientists? Well, for starters, the answer is (1) anyone who wants to have a job, (2) anyone who seeks the kind of lifestyle most Americans enjoy today, and (3) the not inconsiderable fraction of readers of this piece who otherwise would not be alive. 

Read more here. 

Fordham Institute

In 2007, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute published what was probably the most influential study in our eighteen-year history: The Proficiency Illusion . Using data from state tests and NWEA's Measures of Academic Progress, our partners at NWEA estimated the "proficiency cut scores" of most of the states in the country. We expected to find a race to the bottom during the No Child Left Behind era; instead we found a walk to the middle. Importantly, though, we also demonstrated the vast discrepancies from state to state-and within states, from subject to subject and even grade to grade-when it came to what counted as "proficient."

Read more here.

 American is Failing its Children by not Teaching Code in Every High School

Nextgov

There are many reasons why American schools are poor at teaching coding-so many that the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) published a 75-page report enumerating them. The biggest is that the public school system is decentralized. Most public schools follow national teaching guidelines-the Common Core-and complete standardized tests based on those, but US states and local bodies make classroom-level decisions.

Read more here.

We at the STEM Education Coalition hope you have enjoyed this week's edition of the STEM Ed Newsletter. 

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