This paper argues for the integration of technology into a middle school math and science curriculum in order to raise student achievement beyond state standards. Drawing on an American Institutes for Research study showing that U.S. middle schoolers consistently rank below international peers in math and science, the paper proposes three reforms: upgrading the school's technological infrastructure, funding field trips to science-related sites, and hiring a dedicated technology teacher. The paper also provides a profile of the school in question, describing its demographics, course offerings, and current performance metrics on California Standardized Tests.
Although the school in question is a high-performing middle school overall — with eight of every ten students (80.4%) deemed proficient in math according to the California Standardized Test — it must set a higher bar for success in math and science performance. America still lags behind the rest of the industrialized world in student math and science scores. The American Institutes for Research (AIR), with U.S. Department of Education funding, conducted a study of middle-school-age students in Australia, Belgium, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, and the Russian Federation. U.S. students consistently performed below average, ranking 8th or 9th out of all twelve nations at all three grade levels tested (McQuinland & Connolly 2005).
If this school is to truly prepare students to face the future, it needs to look beyond merely fulfilling California state expectations and instead seek to exceed them. One way to do so is to improve the math and science curriculum and to excite students about education through the use of technology. Students who dislike math and science often complain that these subjects are dull and fail to engage their attention; however, they may be highly technologically literate in other areas of their lives. In fact, one common teacher complaint is that students know more about how to use computers, cell phones, and other forms of new technology than the teachers themselves do.
It is a paradox that technologically literate students cannot get excited about the school subjects that make ubiquitous "real world" technology — such as cell phones and computers — possible. Improving the school's technological infrastructure will better enable students to see the relevance of what they study in natural science and math classes to their daily lives. Integrating technology into the curriculum also facilitates cross-disciplinary work between the math and science departments. Rather than studying math and science as abstractions, students can learn to fuse classroom knowledge with their lived experience of technology.
Examining changes in rate and volume under real-world conditions and testing hypotheses by measuring data are among the ways the scientific method can be applied in a technology-rich classroom. However, the school's current technological facilities must be expanded if students are to gain such critical hands-on, scientific problem-solving skills.
"Three reforms: infrastructure, field trips, tech teacher"
"Demographics, course offerings, and test score data"
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