Growing Opportunity (2011)

In 2011, The Opportunity Equation initiative, a partnership between Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Institute for Advanced Study, released Growing Opportunity, a two-update update on the 2009 report entitled The Opportunity Equation. The Opportunity Equation has served as a call to action, a unifying framework, and a mission statement. It has inspired a wide range of specific actions and has lent momentum and credibility to a growing movement. Our nation has not yet achieved the goal of excellent, equitable STEM education for all students, but we are measurably closer than we were two years ago. This brief update covers some of the major developments in each of the four areas emphasized in The Opportunity Equation report: equity and excellence; standards and assessments, teaching and leadership, and school and system design. It concludes by looking back at the Commission’s original recommendations, noting signs of change, and highlighting questions and priorities for the future.

The Opportunity Equation (2009)

In 2009, the Carnegie Corporation of New York-Institute for Advanced Study Commission on Mathematics and Science Education released a report, The Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy. The report states that excellent mathematics and science learning for all American students will be possible only if we “do school differently” in ways that raise expectations and place math and science more squarely at the center of the educational enterprise. The world has shifted dramatically – and an equally dramatic shift is needed in educational expectations and the design of schooling to provide our students with the STEM knowledge and skills that are crucial to virtually every endeavor of individual and community life. Endorsed by over 65 organizations, the report provides the strategies to help make these changes through key recommendations for stakeholders including the federal government, governors and states, school districts, nonprofit organizations, colleges and universities, businesses, unions, philanthropy, and other stakeholders.