The National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET) held its first critical issues forum in December in Washington, D.C. to address the innovations in technology that can inspire the nation's K-12 students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Forum speaker Susan Traiman of the Business Roundtable, a national business coalition, discussed aspects of the Roundtable's report, "Tapping America's Potential: The Education for Innovation Initiative." The coalition has set a goal to double the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates with bachelor's degrees by 2015.

Also speaking at the Forum were Jason Kamras, the current National Teacher of the Year and a math teacher from the District of Columbia, Nancy Carey of the Maryland Department of Education and Laurie Ruberg of the Center for Educational Technologies (home of the NASA Classroom of the Future).

The speakers addressed the issues and challenges schools face in math and science instruction, pockets of teaching excellence through classroom technology integration that are showing progress and actions that those in the policy and political arena can take to become change agents.

The "Tapping America's Potential" report is available online in pdf format HERE.

Source: The National Coalition for Technology in Education and Training (NCTET), http://www.nctet.org/.