Ralph Hall: “I rise in support of H.R. 100, the National Science Education Act. It is a bill reported by the Committee on Science…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 100, the National Science Education Act. It is a bill reported by the Committee on Science; and as we have spoken of the previous bill, it is a bipartisan bill. It is complementary to H.R. 1858, the Committee on Science's comprehensive science education legislation. The principal provision of the bill addresses the important issue of training and supporting the activities of highly qualified science and math teachers, so-called ``master teachers.'' The words ``master teachers'' will be heard several times during this hearing; several times, I am sure, as it goes to conference; and several times when it is presented to the President for his signature. The master teacher provision is consistent with the approach taken by the master teacher language in H.R. 1693, an education bill I introduced earlier this year. Over the past 3 years, the Committee on Science has held a series of hearings on how to improve K through 12 science and math education. A strong message that has emerged from this series of hearings is that there is no silver bullet that will improve student learning in these subjects. But what is also clear is the critical importance of having teachers who have achieved mastery of their subject matter and who have acquired the teaching skills to effectively implement a hands-on standards-based curriculum.”