U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige today convened a mathematics summit at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C., to discuss ways to improve student achievement and instruction, further engage the public, develop a research base, and enhance teacher knowledge.

"Improving mathematics and science education is essential to upgrading America's students' status internationally and maintaining our role as leaders in technology and engineering," Paige said. "This summit is the first step in our five-year mathematics and science initiative, which will help develop the next generation of scientists and engineers who help America stay strong and keep our country safe."

Secretary Paige's mathematics and science initiative is being developed and implemented by the department, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health, and NASA, as well as other federal agencies involved in education and workforce development. The three major goals of the initiative are to:

• Conduct a broad-based public engagement campaign that draws attention to the need for better mathematics and science education;

• Initiate a major campaign to recruit, prepare, train, and retrain teachers with strong backgrounds in mathematics and science; and

• Develop a major academic research base to improve our knowledge of what boosts student learning in mathematics and science.

Participants in the meeting included representatives from business, academia, and the federal government. More than 100 attendees from the mathematics and science community, foundations, and professional organizations, were also expected.

In addition to Paige, participants included President Bush's Science Advisor John H. Marburger, III; Grover "Russ" Whitehurst, director, Institute of Education Sciences; Rita Colwell, director, NSF; U.S. Rep. Vern Ehlers, R-Mich.; Tom Loveless, Brookings Institution; Bill Schmidt, Michigan State University; Craig Barrett, Intel Corporation; NASA Deputy Administrator Frederick Gregory; Alejandro Adem, University of Wisconsin; and Deborah Ball, University of Michigan.

Presentations and papers from the summit are available on the new Mathematics & Science Initiative website: http://www.ed.gov/inits/mathscience/. An archive of summit proceedings will be available in a few days.