Vol. 5, No. 22 - 24 September 2004

ARTICLES & ANNOUNCEMENTS (CALIFORNIA FOCUS)

• California Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (CAMTE)

• Paige Delivers Annual Back-To-School Address Live from the National Press Club
• "Education Levels Rising in OECD Countries but Low Attainment Still Hampers Some"
• Request for Proposals: Mathematics and Science Education Research Grants
• Request for Proposals: Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE)--Comprehensive Program

ARTICLES & ANNOUNCEMENTS (CALIFORNIA FOCUS)

California Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (CAMTE)

Are you actively involved in the preparation and professional development of K-12 mathematics teachers? If so, you are invited to play a role in the formulation of the California Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (CAMTE), a proposed professional organization for California's mathematics teacher educators. We hope that you will join us in Palm Springs during the California Mathematics Council-South (CMC-S) conference on November 5-7 as we convene to discuss the goals, vision, and constitution for what we anticipate will be the next state affiliate of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (http://amte.net). If you would like to nominate yourself or a colleague to serve as an officer in CAMTE, email Carol Fry Bohlin at carolb@csufresno.edu or call 559-278-0237.

California State University (CSU) mathematics teacher educators have convened twice over the past 2 years (http://www.csufresno.edu/mathed/b9.html) and discussed establishing an organization for California's mathematics teacher educators. At the CSU Mathematics Education Summit held in January 2004, it was decided that the target audience for an AMTE California affiliate should include (a) post-secondary (UC, CSU, and CC) educators involved in the preparation of K-12 mathematics teachers and (b) educators involved in the professional development of K-12 teachers. (A PowerPoint presentation available at http://www.csufresno.edu/mathed/CAMTE-CFB.ppt provides additional background.)

The 2004 CMC-SS conference program includes a Teacher Educator strand. Visit http://www.cmc-math.org/pscamte for session dates, times, locations, speakers, and descriptions. Two sessions will be geared specifically to a discussion of CAMTE and related issues:

(a) CAMTE Organizational Meeting - November 6; 10:30 a.m.-noon; Hilton [Palm Springs] Horizon I - Session Convener: Carol Fry Bohlin

(b) Luncheon and Keynote Address - "Mathematics Teacher Educators: Who Are We and What is Our Role?" - November 6; noon-1:30 p.m.; Hilton Horizon II - Speaker: Judith E. Jacobs

To attend the luncheon session, you must register by October 22 by emailing your name, affiliation, address, and phone number to Judith Jacobs (jejacobs@csupomona.edu). In addition, please mail a $30 check (made payable to CAMTE--Judith Jacobs) to Judith at 1603 Aspen Village Way, West Covina, CA 91791.

ARTICLES & ANNOUNCEMENTS (NATIONAL FOCUS)

(1) Paige Delivers Annual Back-To-School Address Live from the National Press Club

Source: U.S. Department of Education

URL: http://www.connectlive.com/events/deptedu/

On Wednesday, September 24, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige delivered his annual back-to-school speech from the National Press Club. The speech, "No Child Left Behind: The Transformation of our Public Schools," was webcast live and is now archived at http://www.connectlive.com/events/deptedu/

(2) "Education Levels Rising in OECD Countries but Low Attainment Still Hampers Some"

Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; Paris, France) - 14 September 2004   

URL: http://www.oecd.org/document/31/0,2340,en_2649_201185_33710751_1_1_1_1,00.html            

URL (Education at a Glance): http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/34/55/33714494.pdf

More people around the world are completing university courses and other forms of tertiary education than ever before, according to the 2004 edition of Education at a Glance, the OECD's annual compendium of education statistics. However, progress has been uneven across countries and some have significantly fallen behind, potentially compromising their future ability to keep up with economic and social progress.     

On average across [the 30 OECD member] countries, half of today's young adults now enter universities or other institutions offering similar qualifications at some stage during their life. An average of 32% complete a first university-level degree, but this ranges from less than 20% in Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland to 45% in Australia and Finland.

Almost all OECD countries have seen a rise in the education levels of their citizens over the past decade, and in some countries the increase has been spectacular. Enrollment in tertiary education, which covers both university-level education and high-level vocational programs, increased between 1995 and 2002 by more than 50% in the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Korea and Poland, and still by more than 20% in Australia, Finland, Ireland, Mexico, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Austria, France and Germany are the only countries which did not see increases, mainly because rising enrollment rates could not make up for the demographic decline in these countries.

However, in eight OECD countries, 20% or more of 20-to-24-year olds have at most only lower secondary school qualifications and are not in education. Mexico is in the least favorable position, with 70% of people in this age group having lower secondary education or less, followed by Turkey (56%), Portugal (47%), Spain (32%), Iceland (29%), Italy (25%), the Netherlands (21%) and Luxembourg (20%).

The statistics in Education at a Glance provide a basis for policy debate and decisions in the world's most developed countries. This year, the report highlights factors affecting the future supply of qualified people and the relationship between educational attainment and employment and earnings. 

In general, people with tertiary qualifications command significantly higher salaries than those with only secondary education. In the U.S., earnings for tertiary graduates are 86% higher on average than those for people with only secondary education, and in Hungary they are more than double. At the other end of the scale, the difference is smallest in Denmark, where graduates earn on average 25% more than non-graduates, and Spain, where they earn 29% more...

Improved education also contributes to a country's overall prosperity, helping to raise labor productivity and technological progress and thereby boosting economic growth. The long-run impact in the OECD area of one additional year of education is estimated to increase economic output by between 3% and 6%. 

Tertiary education is rapidly becoming an international domain. In 2002, 1.9 million students were enrolled in the OECD area outside their country of origin, with nearly three quarters of them choosing Australia, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States as their destination. On average, foreign enrolment increased by 34% between 1998 and 2002, and the share of foreign students from throughout the world as a percentage of all students increased in the Czech Republic, Iceland, Korea, New Zealand and Sweden by 60% or more. In contrast, in Austria, Ireland, Switzerland and the United States, increases in the share of foreign enrolment ranged between only 8% and 13%...

Significant progress has also been achieved in reducing the gender gap in educational qualifications. Younger women today are far more likely to have completed a tertiary qualification than women 30 years ago: in 19 of the 30 OECD countries, more than twice as many women aged 25 to 34 have completed tertiary education than women aged 55 to 64. In 21 of 27 OECD countries with comparable data, the number of women graduating from university-level programs is equal to or exceeds that of men. Last but not least, 15-year-old girls tend to show much higher expectations for their careers than boys of the same age.

What has remained broadly unchanged, though, is that women still earn less on average than men in all OECD countries, whatever their level of education. On average, women without upper secondary education obtain 60% of the earnings of men with the same level of education. Women with upper secondary and tertiary qualifications average 65% of equivalent male earnings.

In mathematics and computer science, gender differences in tertiary qualifications remain persistently high: the proportion of women among university graduates in mathematics and computer science is only 30%, on average, among OECD countries. In Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, the Slovak Republic and Switzerland, it is only between 9%and 25%.

Further information on Education at a Glance 2004 can be found at http://www.oecd.org/edu/eag2004  as well as country chapters on France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

COMET is sponsored in part by a grant from the California Mathematics Project.