HR: 09:15h
AN: ED21A-06    [PDF]
TI: Alabama's Education Coalition Focuses on Supporting the State's Math, Science and Technology Initiative and on Building Distance Learning Programs
AU: * Denson, R L
EM: denson@nsstc.uah.edu
AF: Alabama Math, Science and Technology Education Coalition, c/o National Space Science and Technology Center, 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville,, AL 35805 United States
AB: The Alabama Math Science Technology Educational Coalition (AMSTEC) was formed as a non-profit after a 1998 NASA Linking Leaders program brought in education and corporate leaders to address systemic education reform in Alabama public schools. AMSTEC was instrumental in the creation of the Alabama Math Science Technology Initiative (AMSTI), a K-12 program designed using data from national and international research and local teacher survey. In the face of dwindling government support in a state ranked last in education funding, AMSTEC believes that its best hope for improved STEM education lies in strengthening its community/industry partnerships and building upon the Department of Education's newly created AMSTI program. NASA's GLOBE program is the primary earth science education component being integrated into AMSTI. AMSTI is structured to provide teachers with (1) the materials, equipment, technology and supplies necessary to deliver high quality, inquiry-based instruction; (2) professional development linked directly to the educational resources with the intent of strengthening content knowledge, instructional strategies, and use of assessment tools; and (3) on-site support and mentoring throughout the year in the interest of achieving these goals. Roles for community partners to support these objectives far exceed that of mere funding - especially in the area of mentoring and professional development. Currently, AMSTEC consists of 100+ members including classroom teachers and district officers, education department representatives from higher educational institutions, policy makers and administrators, and government and industry representatives. AMSTEC remains partially tied to NASA fiscally and is administratively housed by the National Space Science and Technology Center's Earth System Science Center. AMSTEC's partnership emphasis is focused on increasing corporate and industry participation to support the implementation of AMSTI and its hub-site-based program. Future foci for AMSTEC are development and implementation of distance learning programs across Alabama's K-12 public schools.
UR: http://www.amstec.org
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 6615 Legislation and regulation
DE: 6630 Workforce
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting