Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Published by the MIT News Office at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
6 RECOMMENDATIONS Faculty Hears K-12 Report By Robert C. Di Iorio News Office The MIT Committee on K-12 has called for the Institute to play a major role in bringing about a national cultural change in how education is valued. Such a change must occur, the committee says, if the country is to remain socially and economically healthy in a technologically intensive world. In a report to the November 20 faculty meeting, Professor Ronald M. Latanision, who headed the committee, outlined the group's six recommendations. The recommendations are being studied by the newly appointed Council on Primary and Secondary Education, which Professor Latanision also heads. Work groups of council members and others in the community are developing proposals to implement each of the K-12 committee's recommendations. Professor Latanision pointed out, however, that the recommendations of the committee are neither a strategic plan nor a proposal for support. Part of the work of the Council on Primary and Secondary Education will be to identify those areas in which MIT can make a contribution, he said. In other business at the meeting, Professor Herman Feshbach, chairman of the Equal Opportunity Committee, and Provost Mark S. Wrighton urged their faculty colleagues to be "talent scouts" in the Institute's continuing efforts to recruit more women and underrepresented minority group members to MIT's professorial ranks. "Faculty are key to making appointments at all levels and you're all talent scouts," Professor Wrighton said. (A article on these efforts will be carried in a future issue of MIT Tech Talk.) The faculty meeting also accepted a resolution on the death of Professor Margaret L.A. MacVicar, which was read by Dr. Paul E. Gray, chairman of the MIT Corporation. Faculty had a variety of reactions to the K-12 recommendations: They're too ambitious, calling on MIT to bite off more than it can chew; they ought to include studies other than science, engineering and math; MIT doesn't know anything about the secondary education business and should stay out of that area. At the end of the 90-minute discussion, President Charles M. Vest made a closing comment he said was "implicit in some of the discussion. . ." As the Institute moves into this area, the president said, "we have to do it in the MIT way and the Number One ground rule is, if you can't do it well you don't do it." That is exactly the way Professor Latanision and the council are examining the problem, President Vest said, as they work to develop the necessary external resources. "As [Provost] Mark [Wrighton] has said, we must find for ourselves the range of commitment that is going to be required to do this and we've got to fit those resources to the tasks that we specifically take on . . ." Referring to the lengthy and spirited discussion that had just concluded, President Vest said: "The phenomena that occurred today . . . occurs everywhere this topic comes up. As I have gone around the country to address various groups, particularly alumni and alumna . . ., I get up and talk about 50 things that MIT is doing and thinking about doing and somewhere if. . . I sort of whisper K-12 you'll get an hour and a half discussion. "This morning [November 20], Neil Rudenstine (Harvard's president) and I had a breakfast for the Massachusetts congregational delegation and this was very high on their level of interest. . . Several of them have observed some of the things we are already doing through Ron's efforts, programs at Haystack Observatory, and so forth. . .There is enthusiasm out there and I think we have to keep seeking what I referred to as the natural fit and we're very hopeful that we will find it." The Committee on K-12 Education was appointed in the fall of 1990 by the then dean of engineering, Gerald L. Wilson, and asked to examine whether there was an institutional role for MIT in the K-12 issue. In its executive summary, the committee said it believes "the system's problems are rooted in America's current cultural values, massive social and demographic changes and global economic trends." Despite a flood of reports over the last 10 years on secondary education, the committee said it believes that no reform will succeed "without a corresponding change in the attitudes of students, parents, teachers. . . towards the value of education in the technologically intensive world of the 21st century. What is needed, in short, is a change in culture in order to move this nation into the next century. The committee believes that education is the lever that may bring about such change." It recommended that MIT: Convene a council with the goal of developing ways to use the media to educate the public about the need for higher educational attainments by American children, particularly in science and math, and the corresponding need for these students to spend greater time and effort on their studies. A media campaign like those devoted to wearing seat belts and stopping smoking is what the committee said it has in mind. Begin an initiative to bring together schools, universities and businesses to organize a network of summer institutes for teacher enhancement across the country. As a first step, the committee recommends that MIT join with local partners to develop a prototype summer institute on math and science. That MIT faculty collaborate with faculty elsewhere and with school teachers on a long-term research program and curriculum development in math and science in grades K-12. Develop and evaluate advanced technologies to amplify efforts to revitalize K-12 science and math education and encourage electronic networks to link teachers and schools with one another and with colleges and universities. Create a fellowship program for in-service teachers, similar to the Knight Science Journalism Fellows program. Integrate teacher-training activities in to the MIT undergraduate program to encourage those students who express an interest in teaching at the K-12 level. It also called for teaching internships and scholarships for MIT students who plan to teach. Continue to encourage a variety of individual efforts in K-12 education by faculty and students and staff, establishing an office to coordinate these ad hoc activities and raise money for them. Establish a special program for elementary and secondary education to assume primary responsibility for the execution of recommendations and an advisory committee to provide policy guidance as programs are developed.