Human Services News

From Public Agenda:

A new research report from the opinion research and citizen engagement organization Public Agenda concludes that Kansas and Missouri parents and students didn't get the memo.

"Important, But Not for Me: Parents and Students in Kansas and Missouri Talk About Math, Science and Technology Education" details parents' and students' current thinking about MST education and their satisfaction with the existing curriculum which most experts see as vastly below world-class standards.

According to the study, just 25 percent of Kansas/Missouri parents think their children should be studying more math and science; 70 percent think things "are fine as they are now."

The report also explains why parents and students are so complacent in this area and what kinds of changes might be helpful in building more interest in and support for more rigorous MST courses.

"A crucial part of our ten year initiative to improve MST throughout the Kansas City area is to better understand how parents and students view MST careers, the importance of these subjects in their lives, and the value they place on these subjects in the school curriculum," said Dennis Cheek, Vice President of Education at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

The findings are based on twelve focus groups with parents, teachers and students in the Kansas City region, fifteen expert interviews with local business, education and community leaders and telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,472 parents of children grade 6-12 in public school in Kansas and Missouri and 1,295 public school students in grades 6 through 12.

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