Education is held to the same high standards as scientific research. Scientists and engineers already at the our center are offered pathways for growth through visiting classrooms and involvement with ongoing projects. Where expertise is more limited, such as in curriculum development and educational research, national searches are carried out to add to the permanent staff. Sabbaticals are offered for exemplary classroom teachers and scientists from other institutions. Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows seek us out for research opportunities.
Seminars draw both teachers and scientists from the local area.
I believe that partnerships can draw together teachers and scientists, but succeed only to the extent that scientists can maintain their rigorous standards for careful research and educators are respected for their skills and knowledge. Educational experiments must be evaluated and successes replicated. Concerning the proposed legislation, integration of partnership activities into existing national professional and research societies will provide a venue for comparison and evaluation. It will be productive to fund some partnership projects that are national in scope. With past initiatives as a model, conducting research studies that compare a wide variety of partnerships for impact, will help to shape the program and generate the highest possible leverage.