It's clear that the United States government is using taxpayer money to make sure students are ready to compete in the global economy.
But it's not clear if the money's having any effect.
Amid worries that the United States is losing its competitive edge in math and science fields, 13 federal agencies spent a combined $2.8 billion in 2004 in the hope of increasing student interest in these subjects.
When Education Secretary Margaret Spellings convened the first meeting of a commission to examine the future of higher education last month, she brought attention to the fact that the United States is not producing engineers and scientists at the same rate that it used to.
Eduardo Glandt, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science, said that Penn is also hoping to increase the number of students who go into math and science because of concerns that the country is losing its technological edge.
In 1970, the nation graduated more than 50 percent of the world's science and engineering doctors. By 2010, the United States is expected to produce only 15 percent.
"This is a high priority for us," Department of Education spokeswoman Samara Yudof said. The department is seeking to discover if "institutions of higher education [are] preparing our students to compete in the new global economy."
Penn does not have a specific program dedicated to these objectives, and Glandt said that exactly how much money the University spends on increasing math and science interest is "very hard to quantify."
"Both the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the science departments in the School of Arts and Sciences receive support from the University," Glandt wrote in an e-mail. Funding "comes in a myriad of ways."
Some of the funding comes in the form of grants from federal agencies, such as the National Science Foundation, that have commit-ted funding to interest students in math and science.
A recent Government Accountability Office report came to the conclusion that little is known about the effects of these agencies' spending.
Cornelia Ashby, director of education, workforce and income security issues at the GAO, said that Congress requested that the organization investigate these programs, and the findings show that "there haven't been a whole lot of evaluations."
"I wouldn't say that it's unusual" for there to be so few evaluations, Ashby said. "It's costly. It takes time to do. At the same time, some level of evaluation is needed to see if the money is being" well-spent.
Ashby added that the GAO itself would not perform any evaluations unless specifically asked to do so by Congress.
The NSF, one of the independent federal agencies investigated by the GAO, received $5.5 billion in fiscal year 2005 to promote science. The foundation will have sent $28,299,835 in grants to projects connected to Penn by the end of the year.
"There's a peer-review process [for determining grant recipients], which means that experts from various fields are brought in to review different proposals," NSF spokesman Joshua Chamot said. "We give a lot of grants to Penn."
A key method the University employs to help students realize their potential in math- and science-related fields is the Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships. CURF is a campus organization that administers fellowships for graduate study. It also promotes and sponsors undergraduate research in all academic disciplines.
Art Casciato, the center's director, said that while there is no specific emphasis on sciences over other fields, 55 students who received a portion of the about $250,000 in awards CURF gave this year were involved in the sciences.
Beyond internal awards, the center aims to help students win graduate-study fellowships, and many, if not most, of the Penn students who have won prestigious awards like the Marshall and Rhodes scholarships have been "on the sciences side" in recent years.
"We have such able young scientists here, it's just incredible," Casciato said. "I'd say that the young scientists on campus deserve a yeoman's share of Penn's success in winning international awards each year."
State of science - 13 federal agencies spent $2.8 billion to encourage math and science study in 2004 - In 1970, the U.S. awarded more than 50% of the world's science and engineering doctorates; in 2010 it is expected to account for 15%
