[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 148 (Friday, November 15, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2050-E2053]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         THE LAND OF THE PLENTY

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CONSTANCE A. MORELLA

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 14, 2002

  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, those of you who were with us last evening 
recall that I mentioned that this month is the two-year anniversary of 
the report that came out called ``The Land of Plenty.'' This was a 
report of the Congressional Commission on Advancement of Women, 
Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science Engineering and 
Technology Development. It is legislation that I introduced a number of 
years ago, and like so much of what we know, you have to be tenacious 
and diligent and patient and persevere. The legislation established a 
commission that looked comprehensively at the challenge of under-
representation in America's science and engineering workforce and the 
educational pathway that feeds into it. The commission called for the 
establishment of a public/private partnership to take America into 
acting to redress the stunning imbalance in America's technical talent 
pool. In their report to Congress, BEST presented their findings on 
September 26, 2002 at 8:15 a.m. in the Cannon Caucus Room, 345 Cannon 
House Office Building, Washington, D.C., Representatives Connie Morella 
and Eddie Bernice Johnson, BEST National Leadership Council Co-Chairs, 
presiding. (Following are edited comments. The full testimony is 
available at www.bestworkforce.org.)

                Building Engineering and Science Talent


        Blue Ribbon Panels, Interim Progress Report: to Congress

                           September 26, 2002

       Present: Constance A. Morella, (R-MD) National Leadership 
     Council Co-Chair; Eddie Bernice Johnson, (D-TX) National 
     Leadership Council Co-Chair, Allan Alson, superintendent, 
     Evanston Township High School; Dan Arvizu, senior vice 
     president, CH2M Hill; Earnestine R. Baker, Meyerhoff Program 
     UMBC; Alfred Berkeley, vice chair, NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc.; 
     Rita Colwell, director, National Science Foundation; Cinda-
     Sue Davis, director, WISE, University of Michigan; Marye Anne 
     Fox, chancellor, North Carolina State University; Eugene 
     Garcia, professor, Arizona State University; Shirley Malcom, 
     head, Education Directorate, American Association for the 
     Advancement of Science; Willie Pearson, Jr., professor, 
     Georgia Institute of Technology; Anne Petersen, senior 
     program director, W.K. Kellogg Foundation; Paula Rayman, 
     professor, University of Massachusetts; Claibourne Smith, 
     president, Delaware Foundation for Science and Math 
     Education; Richard Tapia, professor, Rice University, Deborah 
     Wince-Smith, president, Council on Competitiveness; also 
     present, John Yochelson, BEST, testimony into Record: Shirley 
     Ann Jackson, president, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.


                              Proceedings

       Morella: Women, African-Americans, Hispanics, Native 
     Americans, persons with disabilities make up two-thirds of 
     our workforce but they hold only one-fourth of the jobs in 
     science, engineering, and technology. We perceive this really 
     as a vulnerability that threatens the living standards of all

[[Page E2051]]

     Americans. BEST is the partnership recommended by the 
     congressional commission. Since incorporating one year ago, 
     BEST has assembled an extraordinary array of talent, talent 
     to assess what's working across the whole continuum of 
     workforce development, pre K-12, higher education in the 
     workforce. These panels will report their findings and 
     recommendations next spring. The benchmarks they identify and 
     the insights they develop into what works, why it works, 
     under what conditions it works, is going to be of very great 
     interest to Congress and to the nation. BEST's national 
     assessment will provide a foundation for action both at the 
     national level as well as in communities across the country. 
     Now the purpose of todays progress report is to let 
     policymakers know how the work of BEST is going; and first, 
     we're going to get a perspective on the framing of a national 
     action agenda to meet the challenge of under-representations, 
     and then we're going to hear from leaders involved in BEST's 
     assessments of the workplace, higher education and pre K-12. 
     The progress report will wrap up with a discussion of BEST's 
     plans to spur action in the field through community 
     engagement. I have the honor of chairing this segment and 
     Eddie Bernice Johnson will lead the workforce discussion and 
     then I'll return to moderate the other segments.


  Testimony of Shirley Ann Jackson, president, Rensselaer Polytechnic 
    Institute as read in her absence by Anne Petersen, senior vice 
                   president, The Kellogg Foundation

       Petersen: Thank you. It's a great privilege this morning to 
     be stepping in for Dr. Shirley Ann Jackson. When Dr. Jackson 
     was chair of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, she 
     instituted policies for that agency that were based on the 
     assessment of risk to the nation's nuclear power plants and 
     vulnerability to that risk. The process is termed 
     probabilistic risk assessment. Looking squarely at the 
     vulnerability to risk determines clearly what action must be 
     taken to reduce the risk of a particular threat. This is what 
     BEST is doing. The work that BEST has done this past year has 
     revealed that the United States faces serious risk of losing 
     its economic preeminence, security, and its well-being as a 
     nation without peer. That risk is embedded in the fact that 
     while there is a growing need for scientists, engineers and 
     other technologically skilled workers, the United States is 
     simply not producing enough of them. That leaves the United 
     States reliant upon scientists and engineers from other 
     nations, a situation that bears its own inherent risk and 
     curtailments as we know. Most of the numbers are included in 
     the BEST paper, ``The Quiet Crisis'' which we present to you 
     today, and I understand you have the series of charts as well 
     * * *


    Testimony of Rita Colwell, director, National Science Foundation

       Colwell: Thank you. It is an honor to be part of todays 
     panel on building the U.S. science, engineering and 
     technology workforce by fully developing the nation's diverse 
     human resources. The United States has become increasingly 
     diverse in recent decades and will move steadily in the 
     direction of greater diversity in the future. The Bureau of 
     Labor Statistics projects, for the decade 1998--2008, that 
     the general labor force growth rates of minorities will more 
     than triple the overall growth rate. But, we're not making 
     comparable progress in changing the composition of the 
     science and engineering workforce. It looks the same as it 
     has for generations. We need the talent of every worker in 
     order to keep our nation competitive and prosperous now and 
     in the future. And in the post-9/11 world, we need to also 
     focus more of our talent on homeland security. We live in a 
     unique time in which every citizen must ``count'' for 
     opportunities and must be ``counted'' for contributions to 
     our society's well being. The well being of individuals and 
     of the nation will depend on knowledge and skills in science, 
     engineering& and technology. How well we prepare our human 
     resource in these areas will determine how well we are 
     prepared as a nation in this new century * * *


 Testimony of Alfred Berkeley, vice-chairman, NASDAQ Stock Market, Inc.

       Mr. Berkeley: Thank you, Chair Morella. I thank you for 
     your persistence. I think persistence is a valuable, valuable 
     attribute. We will not win this problem without staying 
     focused and persistent. You might ask what does the stock 
     market have to do with the education business? I will tell 
     you: a constant theme of my conversations with the chief 
     executive officers of the largest technology companies in the 
     county) both in information technology and biotech, is where 
     are they going to get enough technically trained workers and 
     that handful of brilliant scientists that make the difference 
     in breakthroughs? I think that this audience should know that 
     the technology community has been shaken to its foundation by 
     the loss of U.S. supremacy in supercomputing. Japan now has 
     supercomputers 30 times more powerful than ours having 
     followed a technology path that we abandoned about ten years 
     ago * * * My goal this morning was to affirm to you that the 
     business community is firmly interested in this endeavor and 
     that we can bring substantial resources to bear on research-
     based solutions that are working and are proven to work * * *


   Testimony of Willie Pearson, Jr., Georgia Institute of Technology

       Pearson: Now I will briefly discuss the objectives of the 
     higher education panel. First, we wanted to have a 
     comprehensive examination of the challenge of increasing both 
     the quantity and quality of university graduates from under-
     represented groups in science, engineering and technology. 
     Our second goal was to identify and critically analyze 
     exemplars whose design principles merit adaptation and 
     replication across the country. The third was to further 
     develop policy recommendations discussed in ``The Quiet 
     Crisis'' paper. Because higher education provides a strategic 
     bridge between pre K-12 and the workplace, the panel has 
     focused on measurable outcomes reinforced by the earlier 
     discussions. As you can see, at each segment beyond the high 
     school level the science and engineering talent gets smaller 
     and smaller for the whole population in particular but 
     especially for African Americans, Hispanics, and Native 
     Americans * * *


     Testimony of Marye Anne Fox, chancellor, North Carolina State 
                               University

       Fox: You know it's been over 50 years in which there's been 
     an explicit compact between the research universities and the 
     government of the United States that research universities 
     would provide leadership in developing a workforce that is 
     appropriate for the economic growth of this nation. That is 
     research universities have pledge to create knowledge, to 
     provide innovative leaders for developing the frontiers of 
     science, for leading economic recovery and for providing a 
     workforce that can sustain and create jobs and wealth for the 
     United States. But over those 50 years, we've not had full 
     participation as we've heard in the earlier discussions. If 
     we go to K-12 to look at the roots for this difference in 
     participation level, we're well aware of the digital divide 
     which is a challenge. But to think of the digital divide as 
     something that is related only to computer availability 
     minimizes the real problem * * *


         Testimony of Richard Tapia, professor, Rice University

       Tapia: Thank you. My topic is university program 
     leadership, producing women and under-represented minorities 
     in science and engineering programs at research universities. 
     I'll start with point one, everything i.e. success or failure 
     depends on leadership, strong, forceful, respected, effective 
     leadership. The second point, administration from top to 
     bottom must support the activity. This is absolutely 
     necessary to promote buy-in at the faculty level. If the 
     administration doesn't support, then the faculty has a way 
     out, extremely important to have the administration support 
     but they don't do the activity, they support it. Success in 
     promoting underrepresented minorities and women in science, 
     engineering and mathematics, requires a champion. The 
     champion must be a respected member of the faculty. The 
     champion will serve as an advocate. We can't continue to have 
     a two-tier or fragment our system. Minority-serving 
     institutions do good jobs. Ph.D. producing at minority-
     serving institutions will not produce the scientific leaders 
     of the community or the professional organizations. The 
     outreach activity is not rewarded at research universities. 
     Often this activity will jeopardize the university career of 
     a young faculty member * * *


     Testimony of Cinda-Sue Davis, director, Women in Science and 
                  Engineering, University of Michigan

       Davis: Good morning. The University of Michigan Women in 
     Science and Engineering Residence Program, called the WISE-
     RP, is a living-learning community for 120 first year women 
     and 33 sophomore or junior level women interested in science, 
     mathematics, and engineering. The primary purpose of the 
     WISE-RP is to provide academic and personal support to 
     undergraduate women, including historically underrepresented 
     minority women, by providing an academically and socially 
     supportive community. WISE-RP provides contiguous living 
     arrangements in a mid-size coed residence hall of 500 
     students * * *


     Testimony of Earnestine Baker, Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, 
                University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus

       Baker: The Meyerhoff Scholarship Program is designed to 
     address the particular needs of African American students in 
     science, mathematics, and engineering. Key components of the 
     Program include: an in-depth screening process that seeks 
     students genuinely committed to a postgraduate research-based 
     degree and career; a comprehensive four-year scholarship 
     package; a mandatory academic Summer Bridge program for 
     incoming freshmen; study groups; community living and regular 
     ``Meyerhoff Family'' Meetings; personalized advising and 
     counseling; tutoring summer research internships with 
     companies, federal agencies, and other research universities; 
     mentoring; faculty involvement; administrative involvement; 
     family involvement; community service; and extensive program 
     evaluation. Eighty-eight percent of participants are pursuing 
     post-graduate degrees primarily doctorates in science, 
     mathematics, and engineering or medical/ doctorate degrees, 
     at institutions ranging from Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, 
     Yale, Duke, Johns Hopkins and Oxford * * *


       Testimony of Dan Arvizu, senior vice president, CH2M Hill

       Arvizu: It is established we have a serious problem. The 
     questions before us are, what

[[Page E2052]]

     can be done about it? and, who should do it? Our Panel's work 
     addresses these questions from the perspective of the 
     workplace. Let me start by stating the two core objectives of 
     the Panel. Number one, we are to identify and distill the 
     success factors and best practices that create a more 
     inclusive workplace spanning the private sector, including 
     industry and academe, as well as, government. This 
     distillation will form the foundational asset base that can 
     be accessed by BEST's proposed test-bed community programs as 
     they get underway. Number two, we are to develop an action 
     agenda that moves the country forward toward the adoption of 
     these best practices. Although the work of the panel is not 
     yet complete, I can report on some of our initial findings on 
     success factors and provide some of our early thinking as we 
     move into the recommendations phase of our work. First, and 
     perhaps most important, is what we will call 
     ``transformational'' leadership. Leaders who believe in and 
     value diversity as a business imperative invest time and 
     effort to change the future of their organizations. They 
     drive this change deep into the culture and management of the 
     organization and do not simple espouse it only in the top 
     layer of management. Second, a commitment to skills 
     development that translates diversity into enhanced 
     performance is also an important success factor. Third, the 
     development of enabling programs and policies to encourage 
     and support a diverse workplace is extremely important * * *


   Testimony of Paula Rayman, professor, University of Massachusetts

       Rayman: To build upon the rationale for diversity presented 
     by my honored colleagues Dan Arvizu, and Dr. Shirley Jackson 
     I will address the crisis we are facing in our nation's 
     science and technology workplaces. We face a work world in 
     the midst of an enormous change. Nothing is the same as it 
     was 50 years ago or even 20 years ago. And more dramatic 
     changes are anticipated over the coming decades. We face a 
     crisis on three dimensions: Where will the new science jobs 
     be? Who will fill the jobs? How the work will get done or, 
     what is the changing nature of work? It is important to note 
     that while we compete for science and technology workers 
     within the context of a global economy, the diversity of our 
     own nation's labor force provides a comparative advantage. 
     Diversity is a key building block of economic competitiveness 
     and scientific discovery and innovation. In addition to the 
     change in skill sets, and demographics, the nature of work 
     itself is undergoing significant transformation brought about 
     by the changing business climate and technological advances. 
     These changes include: companies organized so labor is a 
     variable, not a fixed cost; a workforce built on the premise 
     of teams that can be easily assembled and disassembled; a 
     nimble workforce whereby workers hopscotch from job to job, 
     even career to career, carrying their set of skills and 
     abilities on their backs and desperately needing new policies 
     in portability in health insurance, pension plans and other 
     benefits * * *


   Testimony of Claibourne Smith, president, Delaware Foundation for 
                       Science and Math Education

       Smith: I believe business/industry/government and the great 
     educational institutions of this country must take the lead 
     in defining the strategies necessary to maintain our 
     leadership position in the world. From the intense 
     discussions of our workforce panel, we are entertaining a 
     two-pronged agenda to: Drive change within organizations and 
     to drive change externally among industry, academe, and 
     government as employers to promote a diverse workforce. Let's 
     look at an example that comes to mind which illustrates an 
     approach utilized by my former colleagues at duPont. We 
     established a set of principles that are still effective in 
     increasing our company's diversity internally. These 
     principles are: (1) Leadership must come from the top 
     echelons of the organization. Managers must ``walk the 
     talk.'' An institution must have highly visible, fully 
     involved, visionary leaders in order to make valuing 
     diversity efforts a success. (2) Accountability for personal 
     and organizational behavior must exist. A system must be in 
     place to motivate behavior change and that means diversity 
     performance must be linked to compensation and advancement. 
     (3) Valuing diversity must be perceived as a critical part to 
     the success of the organization i.e., a business imperative. 
     (4) Education around this issue must not only raise 
     awareness, but more importantly, develop skills needed to 
     work in and manage a multicultural organization. (5) Finally, 
     effective mentoring programs for women and underrepresented 
     minorities must be developed and implemented * * *


   Testimony of Shirley Malcom, head, Education Directorate American 
               Association for the Advancement of Science

       Malcom: When President Bush and the nation's governors met 
     in Charlottesville in 1989, they established ambitious 
     national education goals. These goals were affirmed and 
     expanded upon by the Congress of the United States. The goals 
     included that we would raise achievement levels in all 
     academic fields and, even more ambitiously, that we would be 
     first in the world in mathematics and science achievement by 
     the year 2000. When in 1995, the results were announced from 
     the Third International Mathematics and Science Study 
     (TLMSS), there was good news and bad news about science and 
     mathematics achievement of U.S. students when compared with 
     the performance of students from other countries in the 
     world. The results of TIMSS showed U.S. fourth grade students 
     comparing quite favorably in their performance on tests of 
     science, both scoring far above average and among the top 
     tier of countries. Performance by fourth graders in 
     mathematics was about at the average compared with other 
     countries involved in TIMSS. When fourth grade students were 
     tested in eighth grade in 1999, performance had fallen to the 
     average levels in science and slipped in mathematics as well. 
     The performance of 12th graders in science and mathematics 
     was near the bottom. This underperformance by U.S. students 
     was true even for our brightest and best performing students, 
     such as those taking advanced placement courses in physics. 
     The current structures provide neither equal chances nor a 
     level playing field, and it is these circumstances that we 
     must remedy if we are to maximally utilize the talents of all 
     of our young people. These must include: Vigorous support for 
     systemic reform efforts to improve the quality of the 
     curriculum, teaching and support within our schools, with 
     assurance that opportunities for study of science and 
     mathematics will be extended to all students; specific 
     interventions that allow students to explore STEM fields, 
     such as through summer camps, research apprenticeships, after 
     school science clubs, museum activities and media-reinforced 
     learning opportunities; outreach to parents and communities 
     to help them organize activities at home and in the community 
     to support science, technology, engineering, and mathematics 
     aspirations, to build demand for school reform, and to 
     increase community-based opportunities for learning beyond 
     school * * *


    Testimony of Eugene Garcia, professor, Arizona State University

       Garcia: Clearly, in this endeavor, we know the pathway to 
     science and technology of the future begins in the Pre K-12 
     sector, if not earlier. So our efforts at BEST are to look 
     very carefully at the beginning pathway or the beginning 
     steps into science, technology and mathematics. Our students 
     depend heavily on the public school system and other 
     alternatives to move forward to those futures that we believe 
     should be available to all children in this country. BEST has 
     a particular way in which we are striving to open the doors 
     to the world of science, technology and mathematics for all 
     children. First, the membership of BEST feels that we need to 
     understand what is now working for students in this arena--
     particularly with our target populations in mind. BEST is 
     attending to the strict notion that we need to understand 
     empirically ``what works''. We need to have good research-
     based information, solid evidence, and clear knowledge about 
     which program make a difference for whom, how they make a 
     difference, and what are the actual results. The reason we 
     are so attached to this notion of having solid evidence for 
     what works is that if anyone needs to move forward and invest 
     resources, whether they be in the public or in the private 
     sector, we must be able to inform them as to whether their 
     investments will pay off. It is only fair to those 
     individuals who implement programs or systemic efforts to 
     change systems in response to this need, to assure them that 
     all children will be served by their interventions and/or 
     changes. Thus, we need the absolute superior evidence. 
     Therefore, BEST, in lending the text to the context that 
     Shirley has presented, needs to understand in this area of 
     urgency, what BEST programs, and what BEST systemic changes 
     really do work * * *


Testimony of Allan Alson, superintendent, Evanston Township High School

       Alson: I am in my eleventh year as superintendent of 
     Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois. This 
     large comprehensive high school with a national reputation 
     for excellence has 3200 students and is quite diverse--
     racially, socioeconomically and linguistically. Student 
     achievement, despite impressive gains, continues to reveal 
     racial and class achievement disparities. Yet, we have made 
     significant strides, for example, in boosting female and 
     minority enrollment in Calculus and Advanced Placement 
     Science courses. A little over three years ago I founded an 
     organization known as the Minority Student Achievement 
     Network. We are 15 urban-suburban districts devoted to 
     discovering, developing and implementing strategies to 
     eliminate the racial achievement gap. Our strategies include 
     conferences where we learn directly from students and 
     teachers, and research where teachers are directly engaged in 
     studies with university professors. My professional 
     experience has revealed the extensive gap in education 
     between research and practice. Quite frankly, it is the rare 
     exception when districts or schools are able to successfully 
     bridge that gap. Practitioners generally receive very little 
     training in the interpretation or use of research findings. 
     In fact, research methodology that meets the highest 
     standards of reliability and validity are quite often written 
     in language that is unfamiliar to the teacher or 
     administrator. Our worlds usually do not overlap sufficiently 
     for us to make timely use of significant findings. Simply 
     put, while it would be far preferable to examine our practice 
     from the vantage of current research, the barriers of time, 
     language and politics often interfere * * *

[[Page E2053]]

  Testimony of Anne Petersen, senior vice president, Kellog Foundation

       Petersen: Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you 
     on a topic about which I am most passionate--not only because 
     I am a scientist but also because I have seen individuals, 
     families and communities transformed by opportunity that for 
     some, has been unavailable. The opportunity to gain an 
     education and pursue a career in engineering or the sciences 
     is still precious in our society. Today, more than ever, we 
     must support the interests in science and technology for all 
     with talent and energy, and especially those who have been 
     underrepresented. I'm here today as a scientist who is senior 
     vice president for programs of the W.K Kellogg Foundation. In 
     this role I've witnessed the kind of creative and energetic 
     work that can open doors of opportunity for all--girls and 
     boys, African Americans, Hispanics, and Native Americans, and 
     those who are physically challenged. Engagement--real 
     engagement--in which institutions of higher education and 
     communities form lasting relationships that influence, shape, 
     and promote success in both spheres is rare. More often we 
     see evidence of unilateral outreach from colleges and 
     universities rather than partnerships based on true mutual 
     benefit mutual respect, and mutual accountability * * *


Testimony of Deborah Wince-Smith, president, Council on Competitiveness

       Wince-Smith: In 1986 the United States was facing one of 
     its most dire economic challenges since the end of World War 
     II: the country slid from being the world's largest creditor 
     to its largest debtor; its position as a global leader in 
     technology and innovation was declining and American 
     industries were losing market share to international 
     competitors. We know that long-term U.S. productivity growth 
     and a subsequent rising standard of living depends on our 
     ability to increase U.S. innovative capacity. This top tier 
     policy issue was the focus of two national innovation summits 
     hosted by Council that convened the nation's top business, 
     government, academic and labor leaders. A key impediment to 
     increasing innovation is our workforce, which comes as no 
     surprise to anyone in this room. Yet, even as demand for 
     science and engineering talent grows, the number of science 
     and technology degrees at the undergraduate and graduate 
     degrees has remained flat or declined in every field outside 
     the life sciences. Boosting the national talent pool in 
     science and engineering requires that the S&E workforce 
     mirror the population at large; we must be able to engage 
     more women and minorities in math and science to sustain our 
     innovation economy. The Council has acted on its commitment 
     to raise the standard of living by initiating programs that 
     encourage excellence in math and science and diversity in the 
     science and technology pipelines--namely getsmarter.org and 
     BEST * * *

     

                          ____________________