Eric.ed.gov – Math and Science Education. IDRA Focus.

This newsletter focuses on efforts to make math and science more attractive, relevant, and accessible to students, especially limited-English-proficient, minority, economically disadvantaged, female, and at-risk students. “TAAS Math Performance” (Linda Cantu) outlines recent statewide results for the controversial Texas Assessment of Academic Skills and describes Project Pathways, a staff development program to help Texas students, especially minority and disadvantaged students, master the test. “Content in Context: Technology That Makes Sense in Education” (Felix Montes) discusses the trend in educational technology towards engaging students as active creators of knowledge by making an assortment of learning tools available to them in a flexible format. “Texas Statewide Systemic Initiative” (David Hill) describes a collaborative effort among education, business, government, and community to provide Texas communities with the resources to implement contemporary, rigorous, and engaging mathematics, science, and technology education for all students. “Making Math and Science Relevant” (Kate Mahoney, Kirby Gchachu) discusses using a child’s home culture as a springboard to learning science and math, and describes the implementation in a Zuni Pueblo school of Playtime Is Science, a program that involves parents in experiencing how everyday activities and chores are related directly to science. In “I’d Never Really Thought about Being a Scientist,” Eloy Rodriguez, the first U.S.-born Latino to hold an endowed position in the sciences, comments on his education and experiences. Sidebars profile two IDRA programs: the Engineering, Science and Math Increases Job Aspirations program for minority female middle school students, and the Young Scientists Acquiring English program for content-area teachers of English language learners. (TD)