President
Creates National Math Panel Under American Competitiveness InitiativeIn
his State of the Union address earlier this year, President Bush announced his
intention to introduce a strategy to keep the United States among the top innovators
in the world. The American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) commits $136 billion
over 10 years to "increase investments in research and development (R&D),
strengthen education, and encourage entrepreneurship and innovation." On
April 18, 2006 President Bush signed an executive order creating the National
Math Panel. As part of the ACI, the panel will bring together math, learning and
education experts to determine how math teaching can be improved in the nation's
schools. The panel has yet to be named but will study the issue over the
next eight months and make recommendations that will completed by Jan 2007 and
implemented in "Math Now" for elementary and middle school students. Math
Now could be another opportunity for supplemental publishers to demonstrate how
important their products are to increasing the basic skills capacity of students
in the public education system. Charlene Gaynor, Chief Executive Officer of AEP,
is being considered for a position on the panel, and would bring her expertise
about supplemental materials into the dialogue. The initiative will be similar
to Reading First, and is accompanied by a $250 million budget recommendation. |