Policymakers Join Curriculum Designers and Publishers at May 15–17
Conference Hosted by AAAS's Project 2061
May 8, 2002
Washington, D.C. — Project 2061, leading a national effort to improve
science and mathematics textbooks, will bring together state education officials—those
responsible for setting statewide standards—with curriculum developers,
textbook publishers, and national policymakers in a Washington, D.C., conference.
The invitation-only meeting will take place from May 15–17, 2002 at the
headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Project 2061 is AAAS's long-term initiative to reform K–12 science and
mathematics education.
"Effective reform requires change throughout the education system. Textbooks
and tests must both be aligned with standards," said Dr. Alan I. Leshner,
chief executive officer of AAAS. "We can only move forward if curriculum designers
and textbook publishers are on the same page as the state leaders who are
setting standards. Right now they all operate in different realms. We're bringing
them together to help set the stage for productive collaboration."
The importance of consistent state policy, reflected in curricula and testing,
will be addressed by keynote speaker David Cohen of the University of Michigan.
Cohen's book, Learning Policy: When State Education Reform Works,
reviews successes and failures in California's ambitious and controversial
program to improve mathematics education. He concludes that policy and practice
must be consistent, with substantial professional opportunities for teachers
to learn the practices proposed by the policy. Other speakers include Andrea
Bowden of the Baltimore City Public Schools, Virginia Malone of Harcourt Publishing,
and Diane Briars of Pittsburgh Public Schools.
This is the third in a series of Project 2061 conferences on science and mathematics
textbooks. According to Jo Ellen Roseman, the project's acting director, "These
meetings are forging essential connections among scientists, educators, and
policymakers with developers of curricula and textbooks." Funded with grants
from the National Science Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation,
the conferences build on AAAS's rigorous evaluations of middle- and high-school
science and mathematics textbooks, which concluded that few texts make use
of strategies and activities that research shows are likely to help students
learn important concepts and skills. These evaluations examined how well the
texts help all students achieve the learning goals set out in nationally recognized
standards, including Benchmarks for Science Literacy, developed
earlier by Project 2061. (Reports on the evaluations and earlier conferences
are available on www.project2061.org.)
With 134,000 members and 272 affiliated organizations, the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific
society and publisher of the weekly journal Science. Since 1985, AAAS's Project 2061 has worked to reform
K-12 education so that all high-school graduates are science literate—that
is, prepared to live interesting, responsible, and productive lives in a world
increasingly shaped by science and technology. The project is creating a
coordinated set of tools and services—books, CD-ROMs, online resources,
and professional development workshops—that educators, parents and families,
and community leaders can use to make meaningful and lasting improvements
in teaching and learning for all students.
###
Contact
Information:
Mary
Koppal
(202) 326-6643
