Some critics contend that the initiative--an effort to foster widespread, comprehensive change in the way mathematics and science are taught in United States elementary and secondary public schools--is being hampered. The problem, they say, stems from Congress, which has not allocated enough money to elicit the type of voluminous changes NSF says are needed.
However, in many cases, states with resourceful administrators are succeeding in making the most of the limited amount of cash, says Janice Earle, NSF program director for SSI.
The SSI program was created, in the words of Luther Williams, NSF's assistant director for education and human resources, to be a "comprehensive and systemic effort designed to enable fundamental reform of science and mathematics education" (see accompanying story).
n 1985, Congress requested that a $1.6 million study be conducted by SRI International, an independent research firm in Palo Alto, Calif., to determine how the National Science Foundation ...
