Testimony to Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the United States Senate in Regard to 1983 Authorization for the Science Education Component of the National Science Foundation.

Overview & Synopsis

This testimony, supported by data from several national surveys, was presented by Sarah E. Klein (president of the National Science Teachers Association) regarding the elimination of science education from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Issues and topics addressed include: (1) statement of the crisis in science/mathematics education, focusing on science/mathematics teacher shortage, decline in numbers of individuals prepared to teach science/mathematics, and employment of unqualified science/mathematics teachers; (2) quality of science/mathematics education; (3) prior NSF support of science/engineering education; (4) NSF curriculum development projects and their effectiveness; (5) comparisons of U.S. and U.S.S.R. science/mathematics education; (6) critical problems at the pre-college level; (7) NSF science/engineering programs; (8) NSF 1982 budget for science/engineering education; (9) Special Commission of Science/Engineering Education; (10) a suggested NSF program for 1983, addressing such problems as teacher shortages and in-service programs; (11) public support for science education (ranked ahead of national defense); and (12) a suggestion that science education programs could be financed by holding the proposed total research budget to 2% rather than 8.7%. (JN)