Focus on American Education

Combating the decline in American educational achievement has been the focus this week of the following events/sites: NBC's Education Nation, the new Teach.gov recruitment site, and President Obama's press release announcing plans to recruit 10,000 new Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teachers over the next two years. Highlights from the September 26-27 education summit in New York are available on the Education Nation website and include interviews with such notables as President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell to name a few. Teach.gov is the United States Department of Education's effort to let young people know what it is like to be a teacher and give them the tools to become one. In his STEM press statement President Obama stressed expanding education and career opportunities for underrepresented groups such as women and minorities, giving American students the tools to catch up with their peers in other high performing nations, and helping them learn to think critically in STEM fields. Now the challenge is to turn the focus into results.