Science board to release report with specific recommendations

The National Science Board (NSB) releases a report, Preparing Our Children: Math and Science Education in the National Interest, on Wednesday, March 3, recommending ways to combat poor achievement by U.S. students in mathematics and science, as revealed in early 1998 by the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

NSB Chair Eamon Kelly will meet with the media on Wednesday, March 3, at 10:00 a.m. to discuss the specific recommendations. Copies of the executive summary will be distributed there, as will the full report. Both will be available on the web by Monday, March 8.

Preparing Our Children makes four recommendations on how to improve the nation's standing in math and science achievement. The recommendations assign scientists, engineers and their institutions key responsibility to assist K-12 schools, students and teachers in this effort. Believing that education is simultaneously a local responsibility and a national priority, the NSB asserts that local efforts can converge on what matters most: rigorous content standards, high expectations for teaching and learning, rewards and incentives to cultivate well-prepared teachers, and reliable measures of accountability. The Board urges an interagency education research and evaluation effort to inform policymakers with practical, evidence-based data.

Who: Eamon Kelly, Chair of the National Science Board

What: Media Availability to discuss NSB report on math & science education

When: 10:00 a.m. Wednesday, March 3, 1999

Where: National Science Foundation - Room 1240
     4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA
     (Ballston Metro Stop)
     (Check-in at the second-floor security desk is required.)*

* Notify the media contact in advance to facilitate passage through security.

Editors: The NSB report Preparing Our Children will be available March 5 at: http://www.nsf.gov/nsb/documents. The July 1998 NSB statement, Failing Our Children, is posted there now.