Video:Research on STEM Education (April 2009)

David Drew

Joseph B. Platt Chair and Professor of Education

Ph.D., Harvard University
M.A., Harvard University
B.A, Syracuse University

David E. Drew holds the Joseph B. Platt Chair. His principal appointment is in the School of Educational Studies, where his teaching focuses on quantitative research methods, statistical analysis, and model building. He also has cross-appointments in Management, Psychology, and Mathematics. For ten years Mr. Drew served as dean of the School of Educational Studies.

Prior to joining the CGU faculty, he held senior research positions at the Rand Corporation, the National Research Council, and the American Council on Education. Earlier he held a research faculty position at Harvard University, from which he received his PhD, and served as head applications programmer at the Harvard Computing Center.

He is the author of more than 150 publications, including 9 books, about a) the improvement of mathematics and science instruction at all levels of education, b) the development and evaluation of effective undergraduate programs, c) building strong university research programs, and d) health education.

These publications include, for example, a book reporting an evaluation he directed of a billion dollar National Science Foundation program, a Rand report for the White House about Federal funding of biomedical research, and a book about how to increase research productivity in the nation’s universities.

Recently the National University of Singapore celebrated its 100 year anniversary and hosted an international conference about education and globalization. Mr. Drew was invited to give the keynote speech.

In the past few years, he has been a consultant or advisor to the senior leadership of:

• The College Board
• The Los Angeles Police Department
• The Tibetan Buddhists exiled in India (pro bono)
• Patagonia, an international clothing company

Current Projects

Mr. Drew's research interests focus on the improvement of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and research. His new book about reforming STEM education is in production at Johns Hopkins University Press and will be published next summer. He also conducts research and writes about higher education, and, to a lesser degree, about technology and about health/health education.

His current projects are listed below:

Closing the STEM achievement gap--

Advising and evaluating two NSF-funded institutional collaborations designed to dramatically increase the number of minority STEM bachelor's degrees...about a dozen colleges and universitites in Louisiana and another dozen in Houston...

STEM curriculum reform--

1. evaluating an innovative, accelerated, interdisciplinary science course at the Joint Sciences Department of the Claremont Colleges...
2. evaluating a curriculum reform initiative at Texas Southern University, a historically Black institution..
3. designing an evaluation of a creative mathematics curriculum, which is based entirely on problem sets, at the Vistamar School...

Preparation of Excellent STEM Teachers

1. Served on the steering committee of Math for America Los Angeles
2. Served as PI on several Noyce grants to fund fellowships for our teacher interns (virtually all funding goes directly to the students)
3. Evaluator for a Noyce project to recruit and prepare outstanding middle school STEM teachers.
4. Will serve as evaluator of an initiative in which CGU will provide mathematics teachers with a deep knowledge of the subject.

Statistics and the teaching of statistics

1. Writing a book based on his reflections about how to teach statistics effectively, including to students who fear mathematics.
2. Preparing a grant proposal about how social forces in professions and disciplines at times push researchers to select the wrong statistical techniques.

Buddhist college

Ten years ago, he served as lead academic planner in the launching of a new four year college in Nevada...presently he is advising the Tibetan Buddhists in India, who are launching the Dalai Lama Institute of Higher Education...

Health/Health Education

Working with Samir Chatterjee (School of Information Systems and Technology) preparing proposals and conducting research about how empowering techology can improve health and health education, e.g., can assist veterans who struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome

• Email: David.Drew@cgu.edu

• Curriculum Vitae