News

Engineering Education Act to be Introduced in 112th Congress

April 13, 2011

Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Olympia Snowe and Representative Paul Tonko are once again taking the lead in introducing the Engineering Education (E2) for Innovation Act to Congress. The Act would authorize the Secretary of Education to competitively award planning and implementing grants for educational agencies to invest in programs and activities to integrate engineering education into K-12 classrooms and to fund research and evaluation programs of such efforts. States could use the funds for the following activities:

--Implementing challenging academic content standards, achievement standards, and curricula frameworks that include engineering;

--Developing new or obtaining effective curricula in engineering education;

--Designing and implementing engineering education assessment items and tools;

--Developing or improving elementary and secondary teacher pre-service, induction, and professional development engineering and technology education programs, including those that lead to a certificate or other credential in engineering or technology education;

--Recruiting qualified teachers to provide engineering education for high-need local educational agencies and high-need schools;

--Establishing distance learning modules for teachers or students in engineering education;

--Creating online engineering education tools that are widely accessible;

--Investing in after school engineering education programs.

More than 100 organizations supported the bill, when it was introduced in the last Congress, including Intel, IBM, Bechtel Power, and Lockheed Martin.

If you would like to help support the enactment of this legislation, please contact Patti Curtis, curtisp@mos.org.