AAS Reviews Education Strategy

When news got out this past May that the American Astronomical Society was closing its Chicago education office, Bruce Partridge, chair of the AAS's astronomy education board (AEB), was deluged with e-mails from upset members. The numbers started dropping off, he says, after the AAS council and the AEB made it clear that funding for education programs would not be cut, but simply moved to the society's Washington, DC, headquarters.

The traditionally research-oriented AAS first hired people to focus on education in 1996. The decision to close the office after four years followed a review calling for a substantial rethinking of the society's education strategy. "A lot of our education effort is new," says Partridge, "and we're feeling our way." In Washington, DC, the new director of educational activities will have more opportunity to collaborate with other societies. That is important, says AAS executive officer Bob Milkey, for a small society to amplify its educational effect.

Doug Duncan, the education coordinator who lost his job with the office's end-of-year move, says, "One of the Chicago office's highest priorities has been to base [teaching] recommendations on solid research about what works and what does not." Duncan worries that the focus on education research--which is important for education sessions at AAS meetings, support of introductory college astronomy teaching, and development of a Web database with resource materials for teachers--will lose momentum once it is separated from an academic education research group.

But the AAS council plans to refocus its education effort, and is looking at how to juggle the office's responsibilities, which range from answering third graders' queries to implementing national K-12 standards. The council also hopes for more outside funding--the AAS has only netted $60,000 in education grants since the Chicago office opened. The aim now, Partridge says, is to "maximize the bang for the buck."