Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education Act of 1990

Excellence in Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education Act of 1990 - Title I: National Goal and Policy for Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education - Declares the 1990s to be the Decade of Excellence in American Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education.

Sets forth objectives to be achieved by the year 2000.

Title II: Scientific and Technical Literacy - Part A: Information Dissemination in Mathematics, Science and Engineering Education - Authorizes the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to award a merit-based, competitive grant or contract to establish a National Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education (Clearinghouse).

Part B: Regional Mathematics, Science and Educational Programs - Authorizes the Secretary to award merit-based competitive grants for regional mathematics, science and education consortia to disseminate and implement exemplary precollege mathematics, science, and technology education instruction materials, teaching methods, and assessment tools.

Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States to conduct programs of Roving Master Teachers in mathematics and science in elementary and middle schools.

Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to State and local educational agencies, or to consortia of such agencies with other organizations, to assist them in planning, but not operating, regional mathematics, science, and technology academies.

Part C: Technology and Learning - Authorizes the Secretary, through the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, to award a grant or contract to a private nonprofit institution or organization to establish and manage a National Center of Technology and Learning to conduct and publish interdisciplinary research on processes by which individuals learn and ways in which advanced technologies can facilitate such processes.

Authorizes the Director of the National Science Foundation (the NSF Director) to award competitive grants to partnerships of State educational agencies, public television, institutions of higher education, and local school districts for projects that demonstrate statewide or multi-state application of innovative telecommunications and computer networking technology that will provide mathematics and science education to underserved areas or areas with a high number or percentage of students below the poverty line. Allows grant funds to be used for purchasing and updating equipment, the development of interactive linkages with several school districts, teacher training, or other projects.

Part D: Informal Mathematics, Science and Technology Education Programs - Authorizes the NSF Director to make competitive grants, with special consideration for programs designed primarily for elementary school-aged children, to museums, planetariums, libraries, zoos, and other science-technology centers to: (1) develop more effective, hands-on, interactive mathematics, science, and technology programs and activities; (2) make such programs and activities widely available throughout the surrounding community, with special attention to needs of female and minority children and poor areas; and (3) report on such programs and activities to the Clearinghouse for subsequent dissemination through the Regional Consortia.

Part E: Grants to Local Educational Agencies for Systemic Reform - Authorizes the NSF Director to make grants to local educational agencies (LEAs) for projects implementing system-wide improvement in elementary and secondary school mathematics and science education. Sets forth required improvement components of such projects. Gives priority to school districts whose improvement plans strongly emphasize increasing the academic achievement of females and minority students.

Part F: Technical Amendment - Amends the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 to include funds for scientific or engineering education among those which may be made available for transfer to the NSF from other Federal agencies.

Title III: Education of Scientists and Engineers - Part A: Undergraduate Programs - Subpart 1: Instruction Improvement - Authorizes the NSF Director to make grants to colleges and universities to establish centers of excellence to strengthen as necessary their departments of mathematics, science, or engineering. Gives priority to institutions that educate a large number of women and minorities.

Authorizes the NSF Director to make awards to students in baccalaureate degree programs in science, mathematics, or engineering who commit themselves to teach elementary or secondary science or mathematics.

Subpart 2: National Science Scholars Program - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to establish the National Science Scholars Program to recognize student excellence and achievement in the physical, life, and computer sciences, mathematics, and engineering. Makes such program a joint effort by the Department of Education and the NSF.

Provides for annual award of such merit-based scholarships to one male and one female from each congressional district and from specified U.S. territories. Provides for notification of secondary schools, criteria and procedures for nomination and selection, and appointment of a National Science Scholars Program Board to recommend academic achievement criteria. Allows a scholarship award amount, per student, of up to $5,000 per year for up to four years.

Requires that scholarship recipients, to the extent they are otherwise qualified, be given priority consideration for federally financed summer employment in research and development centers.

Authorizes appropriations for FY 1991 through 1993 to carry out the National Science Scholars Program.

Part B: Graduate Fellowships and Traineeships - Authorizes the NSF Director to increase the number of graduate fellowships awarded by the NSF, so that, in FY 1993 and thereafter, at least 1,200 such fellowships are awarded annually. Requires the NSF Director to ensure that a substantially increasing number of such fellowships be awarded to women and minorities in FY 1991 and each succeeding fiscal year through FY 2000. Amends the National Science Foundation Act of 1950 to include lawfully admitted permanent resident aliens among those eligible for such fellowships.

Authorizes the NSF Director to award grants to higher education institutions for graduate traineeship programs to encourage promising students, especialy women and minorities, to continue their education and research in mathematics, science, and engineering. Gives special consideration to: (1) institutions that have historically had relatively few NSF fellowship recipients; and (2) academic disciplines with the greatest shortages of scientists and engineers.

Title IV: Women and Minorities in Mathematics, Science and Engineering - Authorizes the NSF Director to make distinguished visiting professor grants to higher education institutions for awards to women and minority faculty members in mathematics, science, or engineering to serve as visiting professors at academic institutions which do not have sufficient resources to attract and retain faculty members of such stature permanently.

Authorizes the NSF Director to award grants to higher education institutions, other than research universities, for recruiting and retaining women and minority faculty members in mathematics, science, and engineering, and for equipment and facilities for such members' research activities.

Authorizes the NSF Director to award grants to higher education institutions to establish or maintain alliances, partnerships, or other cooperative arrangements between those institutions with predominately minority enrollments and those with high quality research programs in mathematics, science, or engineering.

Title V: Federal Laboratory Education Partnerships - Requires each Federal "mission agency" to identify each area of scientific academic study critical to its mission and establish or designate: (1) an education office, within the agency; and (2) certain programs to assist graduate, undergraduate, secondary, and elementary education in critical academic areas, and train agency employees in such areas. Defines Federal "mission agency" as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, or any of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Energy, Health and Human Services, Labor, or Transportation.

Requires each Federal laboratory director to enter into education partnership agreements with elementary and secondary schools and higher education institutions to promote and enhance scientific academic study at all educational levels. Requires mission agency education officials to review such agreements and provide model agreements. Requires each Federal laboratory director to make every effort to reach education partnership agreements with historically black colleges and universities and other higher education institutions that serve Hispanic and other minority populations. Allows agency or contractor personnel to participate in programs under such agreements.

Authorizes each mission agency and Federal laboratory, in carrying out this title, to conduct or fund educational activities at an agency site, contractor site, or any other appropriate location.

Requires each mission agency to report within one year to the Congress and the President on its actions to carry out this title.

Title VI: General Provisions and Authorization of Appropriations - Part A: Evaluation Programs - Directs the Secretary of Education and the NSF Director to evaluate and report to the Congress on their respective programs, activities, and responsibilities under this Act.

Part B: Definitions - Sets forth definitions of terms used in this Act.

Part C: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1991 through 1995, to carry out various programs under this Act.

Part D: Effective Date - Sets forth the effective date for the provisions of this Act.