World Changing Influence for Science

Since the launch of Sputnik in the 1950s, there has been a strong support from the government to help U.S. students stay competitive in math and science. But we see in recent studies that the U.S. is falling behind in the world as the number of engineers’ decreases. In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act was meant to put accountability in schools to ensure students to “achieve proficiency” in reading and math by 2014. It left each state to define what proficiency means. As a result, the law gives the false impression of creating a national accountability system. Texas has set our proficiency standards low, when the Texas’ TAKS passing score is relatively lower compared to other states’. This means that the federal system in one state could give a stamp of approval to a school, when it is considered a failure in another.
In the quest for higher education, we see how one individual makes a huge influence to improve science and engineering. The article Gift from W.A. ‘Tex’ Moncrief Jr. will underwrite science and engineering research talks about how the University of Texas will benefit from Moncrief’s enormous act of generosity.