January 2012
PIPELINE NEWS
Dear STEM Leaders,
On January 9, 2012, the NAPE Education Foundation and its partners, the Community
College of Baltimore County and the Maryland State Department of Education,launched
the Educators' Equity STEM Academy. This program, funded by
an $886,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, will help community college
faculty and secondary school teachers to select, develop, and evaluate teaching
tools, resources, and strategies designed to improve the academic outcomes of diverse
student populations in STEM career-related courses.
I recently learned that the following original members of Iowa's STEM Equity Pipeline
State Leadership Team have been appointed to a new Governor's STEM Council: Linda
Bisgaard, Jeanette Thomas (NAPE Executive Committee), Jeffrey Weld (also NAPE Education
Foundation Board), and Jhonna Wallerich. Congratulations to all four!
Regarding the 2012 NAPE Professional Development Institute, I am pleased to announce
that Moncia McManus, Chief Information Officer, Lockheed Martin
Corporation, has accepted our invitation to speak during the luncheon on Tuesday,
April 17, 2012, and Jane Oates, Assistant Secretary, Employment & Training Administration,
U.S. Department of Labor, and Brenda Dann-Messier, Assistant Secretary for Vocational
and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education have accepted NAPE's invitation
to kick off our Public Policy Day on Wednesday, April 18, 2012. Please join us!
I am very pleased to welcome Dr. Yolanda Comedy as our newest consultant working to promote
equity and diversity in the nation's educational institutions and in the workplace.
Dr. Comedy is an independent consultant working on policy issues, including cybersecurity;
space commercialization; STEM and diversity; and business strategy. She has worked
for more than 15 years in both the public and private sectors on critical public
policy issues, primarily in science and technology policy.
For access, equity, and diversity,
Mimi
NEWS FROM WASHINGTON
Obama Pushes STEM in State of the Union
Jason Koebler, USA Today
President Obama once again put the STEM crisis front and center in his State of
the Union address.
Read More
PUBLICATIONS
Study Questions Popular Explanation for Gender Gap in Math
Erik Robelen, Education Week
A new study casts doubt on the popular notion that a gender stereotype-namely, that
girls are bad at math-explains why men dominate the higher levels of mathematics
achievement and accomplishment. The researchers suggest that evidence is "weak at
best" for what's been called the "stereotype threat" explanation. They suggest this
comes at a real cost, because focusing interventions on this particular issue leads
to neglect of other, and possibly more promising, paths to better gender balance
in the math field.
Read More
Bringing STEM Into Focus
Bringing STEM Into Focus
What do we intend when using the acronym STEM?...State education agencies, national
membership organizations, advocacy groups, and state policymakers have been seeking
definitions for STEM for quite some time, and with good reason. Today, not only
do we have numerous definitions of STEM, but we also have branded numerous entities
to be STEM councils, STEM schools, STEM networks, and STEM curricular outcomes.
Despite the well-intended branding, understanding of the brand itself remains elusive.
It is a conundrum.
Read More
Career Clusters: Forecasting Demand for High School Through College Jobs
Career Clusters: Forecasting Demand for High School Through College Jobs
This report discusses how future employment opportunities will correlate with CTE
Career Clusters
Learn More from CTE Trailblazers Magazine
American Students Are Taking Harder Math, Science Courses
Jason Koebler, US News & World Report
American high school graduates are taking harder math and science classes, according
to a recent report by the National Center for Education Statistics. In September,
Tom Luce, former CEO of the National Math and Science Initiative, said that the
United States needs a "STEM-literate population" that starts by "convinc[ing] the
entire country that every child must conquer Algebra II." America has made steady
progress toward that goal-in 1982, just 40 percent of high school graduates took
Algebra II; in 2009, more than 75 percent did.
Read More
Out-of-School Time Drawing Girls Into STEM
Nora Fleming, Education Week
Efforts are under way to engage minority, underprivileged, and female students in
STEM learning via programs outside the traditional school day.
Read More
Women in IT
Campus Technology
Look around any IT conference and the disparity is obvious: Women are completely
outnumbered. Why does IT remain a male-dominated field, and how can more women find
success in it?
Read More
How Small Groups Sap Intelligence--Especially in Women
Maia Szalavitz, Time
There's a reason the term "designed by committee" is not a compliment. A new study
suggests that the dynamics of being in a small group can reduce some people's IQ
performance, and the decline is far more pronounced in women than in men.
Read More
STEM EQUITY PIPELINE WEBINARS
All STEM Equity Pipeline webinars are archived. Past titles include:
- GESA Works! Generating Expectations for Student Achievement Assessing Effectiveness:
Do Your Program Activities Make a Difference?
- Cognitive Beliefs and Cultural Variables Matter in STEM Career Development
- Implicit Bias in STEM: The Power of Automatic, Unintended Mindsets
- Effective Program Assessments
- And more!
Access Webinars
February 21 Webinar
"Is the US Producing Enough STEM-Capable Students? Projections of education demand
for the future workforce," with Nicole Smith, Georgetown University
Learn More
NAPE 2012 PDI
"Access, Equity, and Diversity: We've Got an App for That" April 16-19, 2012 Arlington,
VA
Registration is now open! In addition, NAPE has issued a Request for Presentations.
Sponsorships and advertising are available.
Learn More!
RESOURCES
Video: Award-Winning Teenage Science in Action
Check out: The
Skills That Work Toolkit from Young Invincibles, which lists the top ten
fastest growing jobs in your state over the next decade, and offers straightforward
info on which majors, skills, or areas of study have the highest employment.
The CAITE Alliance
designs and pilots programs addressing issues of underrepresentation of women and
minorities in IT.
The STOMP Network
is designed to create partnerships between STEM outreach programs.
The FabFems
Project is designed to dispel stereotypes and expand career options by connecting
middle and high school girls with female STEM professionals.
Which Computing Majors Are Right for Me explains how computing interests
and talents line up with different undergraduate degrees and the careers that follow.
Black Girls Code is
an educational non-profit designed to increase the numbers of young women of color
in the field of digital and computer technology.
CALENDAR
National Conference on Girls' Education, Washington, DC, February 10-12,
2012
CSCP/NGCP Joint Webinar: Engaging Underserved Youth: Strategies for Family Involvement,
February 22, 2012, 11:00 AM Pacific
Virtual
Global Marathon For, By and About Women in Engineering and Technology, March
5-10, 2012
NGCP Webinar: Effective Tools You Can Use to Change the Image of Computing Among
Girls, March 14, 2012, 11:00 AM Pacific
USA Science and Engineering
Festival Finale Expo, Washington, DC, April 28-29, 2012
American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and
Exposition, San Antonio, TX, June 10-13, 2012
WEPAN Columbus,
OH, June 26-28, 2012
DISCLAIMER
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions, or recommendations expressed in the material
published in the NAPE Update are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect
the views of NAPE. Furthermore, inclusion of a product, program, or practice in
the NAPE Update does not imply its endorsement by NAPE.
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