| Announcements: April 1, 2000 - August 13, 2002 | |||||
Even with considerable progress made by women and girls in science and technology jobs and education, many women still feel that labs and other technology workplaces are unfriendly or hostile environments, according to a recent report by the National Council for Research on Women. The NCRW released the report "Balancing the Equation: Where are Women and Girls in Science, Engineering and Technology?" in mid-July. The study found that women made up 45 percent of the 1996 U.S. work force but held only 12 percent of business and industrial science and engineering jobs. "The results are not surprising," says Laura Meyer, president of WorldWIT, an online community for women in technology. Meyer says that many of the WorldWIT members work in jobs that support the IT industry, such as finance, public relations, and law. But for the women in WorldWIT and elsewhere who hold technical positions, reaching the senior management is still difficult, Meyer says. "There are very few women in higher-level IT positions, especially in the CTO job. [Women] are not breaking into the top levels, into top decision-making positions," Meyer says. "A large part of that is that there is a smaller pool of women coming up. There are not as many women at the top level to mentor other women." Education The report includes statistics that show significant gender differences in university degrees earned by discipline. In 1984, women earned 37 percent of undergraduate computer science degrees. But by 1999, women earned fewer than 20 percent of computer science degrees. In 1996, women earned 53 percent of undergraduate degrees in biology, 46 percent of degrees in math and statistics, 19 percent of physics degrees, and 18 percent of engineering degrees. In 1996, 56 percent of Advanced Placement test takers were female. But 90 percent of computer science test takers and 78 percent of physics test takers were male. Closing the gap The "Balancing the Equation" report calls for businesses and educational institutions to take action to narrow science's and technology's gender gap. Employers should develop strategies to make the workplace more diverse, promote capable women to senior decision-making positions, provide role models for younger women employees, and offer more opportunities for networking and learning from mentors. Top executives should institute and promote family-friendly policies. To improve retention rates, employers should immediately assign new science and engineering graduates to real projects, rather than training exercises. The WorldWIT president agrees that businesses must do more to get women into IT and into the higher ranks. But she also sees that traditional business structures may need to be rethought. "Putting in face time ... isn't always the most conducive. Some women need more flexibility to be successful, not the 9 to 5 hierarchical structure which is the main structure for work today." Meyer believes that companies don't take the gender gap seriously enough. "Getting women into higher-level positions is not on the radar screen for many businesses. [But] women can do these jobs." ============
Statewide articulation is a state-level process that identifies commonly articulated technical courses at the secondary level and aligns them with content-equivalent courses at the postsecondary level. The process allows students who successfully complete these career/technology courses, graduate from any secondary school in the state, and meet conditions of the statewide standard articulation agreement, to receive articulated credit from any public postsecondary two-year degree-granting institution in the state that offers the corresponding college courses. The statewide standard articulation agreement outlines criteria for award of credit, and streamlines and standardizes the articulation process for students, schools, and colleges. It does not replace local articulation efforts for courses not included in statewide articulation. Students benefit from statewide articulation because they are able to apply for credit in two-year colleges across the state, and they save valuable time and resources by starting their college major while in high school. Schools and colleges benefit because they do not need to duplicate articulation efforts, and taxpayers benefit because students are receiving a streamlined education that avoids costly repetition of courses. http://www.techpreptexas.org ============
Career Clusters - A new way for schools to organize guidance and instruction according to students’ interests and career goals Academics Taught in Context - Helping all students master higher-level academic and technical skills by connecting what they are learning with what they already know and the way they learn best Standards-Based Curricula - The new curricula will feature sequences organized around career clusters, scope and content based on state-established standards, and unified pathways that encompass high school and a variety of postsecondary options. Work-Based Learning - Sharing the environment, knowledge, experience, and culture of the workplace with students to help them become “work ready” and achieve certain of today’s required standards Career Guidance and Exploration - Career guidance, exploration, and planning are integrated into the entire curriculum to help students develop flexible, realistic plans and goals for career success and lifelong learning. Interdisciplinary Problem Solving - Moving away from “teaching the task” and memorization to challenging learning opportunities that combine the use of information and skills with analysis, critical thinking, and “real world” open-endedness and teamwork. High School Career Academies - New “schools within schools” or magnet schools that provide small learning communities, offering high academic standards within the context of career preparation in particular occupational clusters A Community and Technical College Focus - Offering postsecondary curricula that provide academically based career preparation for full-time students who have recently graduated from high school from Connections, National Tech Prep Network Newsletter ============
Emerging Trends in Contextual Learning Show Positive Results for Students At a time when academic expectations are rising for American high school students, contextual learning, in which students master rigorous academic content in real-world or work-based learning experiences, is emerging as an important strategy for improving student achievement. Survey results show that at-risk students who participate in contextual learning experiences based on academic standards are more likely than other students to take honors courses in math, science, lab science and advanced computer science. These students also are more likely than their peers to believe that they will graduate from high school, earn a college degree and be employed full time at the age of 30, according to Initial Tabulations: 1997 National Longitudinal Survey for Youth, released in 1999. Contextual learning makes a positive difference, not only for at-risk students, but also for all students. The Employer’s Role in Linking School and Work, a 1998 report by the Center for Economic Development, reported that school-to-work programs that use contextual learning may result in better course-taking patterns, improved reading and math scores, fewer dropouts, and more college enrollments. These positive results should not come as a surprise. Research shows that only about 40 percent of students remember best what they see or read, and fewer than 30 percent recall best what they hear. Most people are “tactile” or “kinesthetic” learners, who learn best by moving, touching and doing - the hands-on activities that form the basis of contextual learning. Contextual learning raises the bar for all students, challenging them to deepen academic learning by putting it in meaningful contexts. Algebra, for example, morphs from an obscure mathematical language into a useful tool when students use it to build a product. Geometry moves from the realm of the abstract to the zone of reality when students use it to design construction blueprints. Contextual Learning Produces Higher Achievement, Better Results Research consistently shows that contextual learning produces positive results for high-risk students. Because contextual learning helps make education more relevant and meaningful to students, high-risk students who participate in such activities show higher achievement, more ambitious course-taking patterns and better preparation for higher education than their nonparticipating peers. As these figures indicate, career academies - a rapidly expanding form of contextual learning that engages students in academic work and workplace experiences tightly focused on a particular business or industry - hold enormous promise. Students participating in career academies take more academic courses and are more likely to graduate from high school on time than other students. from WorkAmerica, February 2000 ============
Although high technology has become a popular explanation for much of Texas’ rapid economic growth, the bulk of the new jobs in the state in the next 10 years will be created by more traditional forces. According to the most recent occupational projections from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), most of the jobs created in Texas will be in large, slow-growing occupations. High technology, as expected, will create a large share of fast-growth positions, in occupations such as systems analysts and computer/electrical engineers. The rapidly growing health care industry will also produce a large number of fast-growth occupations such as nurses, home/health care aides and nursing aides/orderlies. Finally, child-care centers, restaurants and food preparation services will produce another set of fast growing jobs in a wide range of generally modest-paying retail and service occupations. Half of the new jobs in Texas will be in occupations growing at 75 percent to 125 percent of the statewide average. Here, of course, will lie some of the state’s biggest job-producing occupations, including cashiers and retail salespersons; general managers, executives and other administrators/supervisors; helpers and laborers; truck drivers; waiters and waitresses; and elementary and secondary teachers. from Fiscal Notes, April 2000 ============ |
