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          A professor of civil engineering at a well known of university recently shared with me that the number of students entering the college of civil engineering is substantially less than it has been in the last eight to ten years. My friend, knowing I was a middle level educator, was seeking answers to this disturbing trend.

This question is one that can be posed to all public and private sector educators in a manner similar to what students may find in their state’s assessment instrument, within the Yearly Adequate Progress of the No Child Left Behind Legislation or within the framework of a school sanctioned standardized assessment. Similarly this question may be formatted in a manner akin to what might be found in the PRAXIS assessment that teachers in some states are required to take.

To bring a sense of reality to this query, the following will not only identify the concern but will offer multiple choices as to how to best address it.

             The number of students enrolling in the college of civil engineering at a state university of high standing is dropping significantly each year. In order to reverse this trend and to have well trained civil engineers the following must take place.

 

a. Students who are talented in mathematics need to be identified at the middle level and their potential cultivated and directed through their middle and high school experiences.

b. Teacher education programs at the university or college level need to be refined in order to send the best teachers into the field. These teachers will be able to identify and mentor those students who are talented in mathematics and as well as other subjects.

c. Graduate schools at universities need to know why students are not enrolling in their programs, must communicate with the faculties of different colleges within the university and work collaboratively to design programs that nurture human potential.

d. All of the above.

e. None of the above.

 

Clearly the correct answer is d. However this answer suggests that three educational entities, public and private schools, colleges and universities involved in teacher education and graduate schools would need to communicate with each

other and address this issue in a collaborative manner. The end result of this process could be a well-defined and orchestrated journey that identifies middle level students who are talented in mathematics who at the conclusion of their high school experience enter the college world of civil engineering. In order to accomplish this task, bridges from the middle level experience through high school, from high school to college would need to be built that would enable the students to enter the realm of civil engineering.

Bringing three educational strands together to form a well-defined system that would under-gird the process described is fraught with issues related to each organization, their respective goals and mission statements. While not an impossible task, it would require a commitment on behalf of each organization to design and construct a model that could be replicated by other educational enterprises who are similarly committed to refining mathematics education and increasing the number of students entering the world of engineering. The process is not unlike that which is involved in the design and construction of projects that fall within the scope of civil engineering.

As is the case in most projects that require multiple levels of planning and design, the logical place to begin the design for a middle school through college structure would be at the foundation level or the middle school.

 

a. Students who are talented in mathematics need to be identified at the middle level and their potential cultivated and directed through middle school and through high school. 

 

Regardless of the grade configuration (6-8, 5-8, 6-9) of the middle school a student is entering in the fall, the math and reading scores of students, as measured on standardized tests, arrive at the school before they do. One of the most pressing responsibilities of guidance counselors and administrators is to group students in math and reading classes using the information they have received from the elementary schools. This data is one of the keys to identifying talented students in math and reading and is used for placing the students in appropriate classes. More middle schools are grouping students heterogeneously than homogenously than has been the past practice but the placement of students homogenously for mathematics has remained a middle level practice for decades. This practice, when combined with sufficient flexibility to accommodate the needs of students and multiple levels of instruction affords students a wider range of mathematical experiences.