The Growing Role of States in Setting STEM Education Policy

1. Pushing in the Same Direction??? The Growing Role of States in Setting STEM Education Policy THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Engineering Institute of Medicine National Research Council Jay Labov National Research Council Washington, DC jlabov@nas.edu http://nas.edu AAAS Annual Meeting February 15, 2014, Chicago, IL

2. A Perfect Storm of Opportunities for States to Improve STEM Education? • Continual reduction of financial support to public institutions of higher education. • Increasing calls for accountability in higher education by states. • Increasing number of governors view STEM education as a primary means to improve and diversify state economies. • The future of STEM R&D will require new approaches to STEM education. • Public-private partnerships in the service of education. http://nap.edu

3. A Perfect Storm of Opportunities for States to Improve STEM Education? • Continual reduction of financial support to public institutions of higher education. • Increasing calls for accountability in higher education by states. • Increasing number of governors view STEM education as a primary means to improve and diversify state economies. • The future of STEM R&D will require new approaches to STEM education. • Public-private partnerships in the service of education. http://nap.edu

4. Continual reduction of financial support to public institutions of higher education.

5. Continual reduction of financial support to public institutions of higher education

6. State Funding: A Race to the Bottom • Despite steadily growing student demand for higher education since the mid-1970s, state fiscal investment in higher education has been in retreat in the states since about 1980. • WY and ND have increased contributions since 1980. • All other states have reduced their support by anywhere from 14.8 percent to 69.4 percent between fiscal 1980 and fiscal 2011. Excerpted from American Council on Education, Winter 2012 http://www.acenet.edu/the-presidency/columns-and-features/Pages/state-funding-a-race-to-the-bottom.aspx

7. State Funding: A Race to the Bottom • Based on the trends since 1980, average state fiscal support for higher education will reach zero by 2059, although it could happen much sooner in some states and later in others. • If public institutions are no longer state supported who owns and governs them? Who should they serve? Modified from American Council on Education, Winter 2012 http://www.acenet.edu/the-presidency/columns-and-features/Pages/state-funding-a-race-to-the-bottom.aspx

8. Increasing calls for accountability in higher education by states.

9. …on average, performance funding programs had little impact on college completions. In the few cases where there were positive effects, they did not appear until, at earliest, seven years after introducing the new funding model (for baccalaureate degrees) and there were some negative effects for associate degrees. Source: Tandberg and Hillman. State Performance Funding for Higher Education: Silver Bullet or Red Herring? Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education.

10. Source: Tandberg and Hillman. State Performance Funding for Higher Education: Silver Bullet or Red Herring? Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education.

11. Source: Tandberg and Hillman. State Performance Funding for Higher Education: Silver Bullet or Red Herring? Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education.

13. The future of STEM research will require new approaches to STEM education.

14. A New Biology for the 21st Century:Addressing & Affecting Urgent Problems • FOOD:Nearly a billion undernourished in ’07; still increasing, especially where the food supply is already inadequate • ENVIRONMENT:Human activities are stressing, altering and destroying ecosystems on which we rely • ENERGY:Transportation fuels depend almost fully on limited non-renewable resources • HEALTH:Healthcare decisions based on statistics; rely on costly technologies that may not benefit a given individual

15. A New Biology for the 21st Century:4 areas of interdisciplinary focus • FOOD • Generate food plants to adapt and grow sustainably in changing environments • ENVIRONMENT • Understand and sustain ecosystem function and biodiversity in the face of rapid change • ENERGY • Expand sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels • HEALTH • Understand individual health

16. A New Biology for the 21st Century:Why Now? A moment of unique opportunity – • Integration of subdisciplines within biology • Cross-discipline integration: life science research by physical, computational, earth scientists, engineers • Technological advances enable biologists to collect data unprecedented in quantity and quality • Past investments providing value beyond what was expected

17. A New Biology for the 21st Century: Implications for Education • The New Biology Initiative provides an opportunity to attract students to science who want to solve real-world problems. • The New Biologist is not a scientist who knows a little bit about all disciplines, but a scientist with deep knowledge in one discipline and a “working fluency” in several. • Highly developed quantitative skills will be increasingly important. • Development and implementation of genuinely interdisciplinary undergraduate courses and curricula will both prepare students for careers as New Biology researchers and educate a new generation of science teachers well-versed in New Biology approaches. • Graduate training programs that include opportunities for interdisciplinary work are essential. • Programs to support faculty in developing new curricula will have a multiplying effect.

18. Source: PCAST (2012) Engage to Excel, Fig. F-1, p.68

19. THE EMERGING HIGHER EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM The Workplace Community College High School 4-Year Institution THE TRADITIONAL PIPELINE

20. THE EMERGING HIGHER EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM Community College 4-yr. applied baccalaureates The Workplace Post- Graduate Education? Community College High School Bachelor Students Acquiring Specific Skills - Dual Enrollments - Teacher Education 4-Year Institution ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? Online Courses/ MOOCs NEW DIMENSIONS/OPPORTUNITIES ??

24. “Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It is time to start thinking.”Sir Ernest Rutherford, Nobel Laureate (Chemistry)

25. “It would be a major mistake for leaders to believe that their main worries are the inwardly focused challenges and politics of negotiating the campus constituency groups through an unpleasant budget realignment. • “The institutions that survive will be those that have built collaborations among internal constituencies in order to compete externally for students, faculty talent, and financial resources.”(p. 26) * Peter Facione, Adaptive Budgeting: Thirty-four Suggestions for Raising Revenues, Cutting Costs, Retaining Students, and Saving Jobs in Hard Times. Liberal Education. 95(3): 24-30. Summer, 2009

26. “A CRISIS IS A TERRIBLE THING TO WASTE” * Peter Facione, Adaptive Budgeting: Thirty-four Suggestions for Raising Revenues, Cutting Costs, Retaining Students, and Saving Jobs in Hard Times. Liberal Education. 95(3): 24-30. Summer, 2009