If the United States is going to be competitive in the global economy, business leaders must step up and play a more forceful role in shaping the way science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is designed and delivered, according to a new U.S. Chamber report.

The report, The Case for Being Bold: A New Agenda for Business in Improving STEM Education, outlines the essential role business plays in the success of STEM education, which is crucial to U.S. students’ preparation for the workforce and ensuring American economic health for future generations.

“It is clear that if we are to re-ignite the fires of innovation, we, the business community, must be innovative,” said Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education and current president of the U.S. Chamber’s Forum for Policy Innovation. Spellings spoke at a national summit of business and education leaders hosted by the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW). “Instead of continually reinventing the wheel, we must re-imagine our schools, revise how we recruit and train our teachers, and rethink the stale strategies that have stagnated academic achievement. If we do not dare to be bolder in STEM education, we risk losing even more ground globally,” Spellings said.

Spellings was joined at the summit by Joel Klein, former New York City Schools Chancellor and current NewsCorp executive vice president; Michele Cahill, vice president of National Programs at the Carnegie Corporation; and Frederick M. Hess, director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and co-author of the Chamber’s report.

The Case for Being Bold, commissioned by the U.S. Chamber’s National Chamber Foundation and authored by AEI, calls on the American business community to use its credibility, political heft, and its ultimate role as the employer of America’s STEM talent to apply innovative and fresh thinking to areas of protracted debate, such as academic standards, human capital, and new school models. The Case for Being Bold outlines recommended areas of entry and action for businesses, with an emphasis on three key areas:

• Taking full advantage of strengthened and streamlined academic standards.
• Rethinking how teachers are hired, deployed, and prepared.
• Promoting new models of schooling that can facilitate STEM learning.

“While policymakers, educators, and business leaders have demonstrated an admirable concern for STEM education, current efforts on this front too often fail to acknowledge how severely most proposals are constrained by outdated, 19th century models of schooling and teaching.  In The Case for Being Bold, we suggest some of the ways in which reformers might harness new tools, talent, and technologies to push transformative improvement,” said Frederick M. Hess.

The call to action comes at a critical time. The U.S. Department of Education recently unveiled the results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) for science. The report shows that only 34% of fourth-graders, 30% of eighth-graders, and 21% of twelfth-graders were shown to be proficient in science. This comes shortly after the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed American students continuing to lag behind their international peers. For a nation that relies heavily upon technology and innovation for its economic strength, these reports underscore America's vulnerable standing as a world economic leader.

For more information on action items, as well as a summary of the report, visit www.uschamber.com/icw.