Reaching the Pinnacle

对于美国在科学和工程领域的领导地位来说，没有什么比培养熟练的技术劳动力更重要的了。作为一个国家，我们没有吸引我们国家维持领导地位所需的理工科学生。我们也没有成功地利用我们所有的国内资源，特别是代表性不足的少数民族和妇女。潜在的科学和工程专业学生将越来越多地反映出美国劳动力和社会的日益多样化。2002年5月22日，美国国家科学委员会主席沃伦·华盛顿在商业、科学和运输委员会以及科学、技术和空间小组委员会的发言中这样警告说。 RASEM 2将于2006年10月完成其第五年的供资，并正在寻求另一个五年，以逐步实现制度化。RASEM 2在为STEM教育中的残疾学生服务建立“最佳做法”方面排名倒数第二。首要的努力是指导方案，RASEM 2以促进成功的方式支持了数百名残疾大学生。我们的40位导师已经毕业，并在STEM或研究生院就业。我们的两位导师已获得博士学位。现在是知名大学的教授。指导和导师项目通过创造性的动手数学，科学和工程活动进一步扩展到数百名K-12残疾学生。 RASEM 2的教师外展项目同样触及了数千人的生活。我们的RASSI暑期课程为残疾学生带来了当代的经验，在这段关键的时间里，当学生决定最有可能的职业道路时，中学。合作项目允许我们的伙伴机构选择发展他们的持续努力，以帮助残疾学生取得成功，或者利用他们的特殊专业知识，并将其应用于残疾学生。到达顶峰是终极的。它巩固和颂扬我们的成就，供全世界消费和使用。 追求的模式，优化高中残疾学生转化为大学生的残疾学生参加干职业轨道建议我们的研究方法。特殊教育学生和有特殊需要的学生必须制定一个过渡计划，早在高中一年级开始。各大学从残疾学生办公室派出代表参与这一进程的情况并不罕见。 这种参与并没有以任何重要的方式解决STEM问题，也没有提供指导学生实现这一目标的策略。RASEM2 达到顶峰建议有STEM专业人士指导的过程中，在过渡计划中划定适当的支持，作为学生通过高中的进展。与能力相同但机会不同的学生进行比较，将表明支助的有效性。不同程度的干预将揭示实现目标潜力最大的战略。 RASEM 2达到顶峰提出的活动将对一个国家产生重大影响，这个国家必须不遗余力地追求STEM教育和成就的主导地位。残疾学生，通过RAD的努力，将有助于引领返回卓越的道路。

For U.S. leadership in science and engineering, there is no more important issue than the development of a skilled technical workforce. As a Nation, we are not attracting the numbers of science and engineering students our Nation needs to sustain its leadership. Nor are we successfully tapping all our domestic resources, especially under-represented minorities and women. The pool of potential science and engineering students will increasingly reflect the growing diversity in the American workforce and society. So warned Warren Washington, Chairman of the National Science Board in his statement to the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space on May 22, 2002. RASEM2 will complete its 5th year of funding in October of 2006 and is seeking another 5 years as a progression towards institutionalization. RASEM2 is penultimate in the establishment of "best practices" in service to students with disabilities in STEM education. Premier to its efforts is the Mentoring program, whereby RASEM2 has supported hundreds of college students with disabilities in a manner that promotes success. Forty of our mentors have graduated and moved on to employment in STEM or graduate school. Two of our Mentors have obtained their Ph.D. and are now professors at established universities. Mentoring and mentor projects have further outreached to hundreds more K-12 students with disabilities through creative hands-on math, science, and engineering activities. RASEM2's Teacher Outreach Projects have similarly touched thousands more lives. Our RASSI Summer Institutes bring contemporary experiences to students with disabilities during that critical time middle school when students decide on the most likely career path. Partner projects allow our fellow institutions the option of evolving their ongoing efforts toward student success to include students with disabilities or to tap into their particular expertise and apply it to students with disabilities. Reaching the Pinnacle is the ultimate. It solidifies and extols our achievements for consumption and use by the world at large. The pursuit of models that optimize the transformation high school students with disabilities into college students with disabilities enrolled in STEM career tracks suggested our research approach. Special education students and students with special needs must develop a transition plan starting as early as their freshmen year in high school. It is not unusual for universities to send representatives from the offices for students with disabilities to participate in the process. This involvement does not address STEM in any significant way or offer strategies that will direct the student toward this end. RASEM2 Reaching the Pinnacle proposes to have STEM professionals guide the process with appropriate support delineated in the transition plan as the student progresses through high school. Comparisons to students with equal capabilities, but not the same opportunity, will indicate the effectiveness of the support. Differing levels of intervention will reveal the strategy with the highest potential for achieving the goal. RASEM2 Reaching the Pinnacle proposes activities that will have significant impacts on a nation that must leave no stone unturned in its quest for dominance in STEM education and achievement. Students with disabilities, through the efforts of the RADs, will help lead the way back to preeminence.