Cal TAC will hold a symposium on strengthening student assessments in math and science on October 21, 2010 at the Sacramento Convention Center. The day's conversation will focus on high quality formative and summative assessments as the base upon which teaching and learning rest. As student assessments are garnering much attention right now in policy circles and among educators and the press corps Cal TAC hopes the symposium will encourage discussion from leaders who are respected by both the education and policy communities. The results of this meeting are intended to be a first step in an ongoing process to inform policy.

The STEM workforce is one on which the state - and the nation - will depend for innovation and economic prosperity. Unfortunately, as keynote speaker Bruce Alberts noted, decades of warnings about the erosion of quality science and math education have gone unheeded, both nationally and in California.

CCST Board Member Bruce Alberts, Editor in Chief of the journal Science and former President of the National Academy of Sciences, provided the keynote address at the Cal TAC Symposium, "Creating a Well-Prepared STEM Workforce: How do we Get There from Here?" on February 2 in Sacramento. The symposium addressed the challenge of ensuring that students, through their preparation in the public schools system, be employment ready in the STEM disciplines from the perspective of business and industry.