Are We Making Progress in STEM?
Most teachers know that the United States ranks in the bottom half of developed countries for STEM education. Pew Research ranks the United States as the 27th country internationally in science education and 35th for math education.
The recent 2016 U.S. News/Raytheon STEM Index report shows that the number of STEM degrees in the United States have increased since 2015 by 6%. However, the holders of those STEM degrees are foreign students. Foreign student STEM degrees increased by 35% year over year.
Perhaps even more of a mixed bag, white male students saw an increase in 15% for STEM degrees year over year while black males decreased by the same amount. Women also showed a slight decline year over year.
Given these results, it would be easy to question the current state of STEM in America. While an increase in overall STEM degrees is good, there is clearly more progress that needs to be made to ensure more diversity and a wider base of STEM-capable U.S. citizens.
Approaches to Improving STEM Graduation
The STEM Education Coalition put together a series of recommendations for the next President of the United States on how to better “raise achievement in the STEM fields for all K-12 students—particularly for girls, low-income students, students of color, and English Language Learners.” Here are some of our favorite points from the recommendations:
- Encourage states to emphasize success in science, alongside reading and mathematics.
- Develop an online guide for educators and students that showcases federal resources available and highlights research on best practices for STEM educators.
- Better prepare STEM teachers with high quality professional development, support, and the necessary resources to effectively teach at all levels.
Encouraging STEM across the United States is a much more complicated process than national policy. Unfortunately, there are no silver bullet answers in spite of the many possible solutions being proffered. The Committee for Economic Development (CEPF) article “How Can We Improve STEM Education” by Monica Herk states, “our evidence base regarding what works in science and math education is surprisingly thin.”
What the CEDP article notes is that it isn’t necessarily a truth that the many experimental approaches to STEM aren’t working. Rather, that there are not enough proof points out there to support any one answer. The article did note one effort that has produced some successes, the National Math + Science Initiative (NMSI) College Readiness Program.
NMSI’s college readiness program has quite a recipe for success, including training, teacher and student support, vertical teaming, open enrollment, and incentives. The first six states to have adopted NMSI’s recommended approach—Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Virginia—have ranked in the top 10 nationally for the percentage increases in passing math, science, and English AP scores since 2008.
Still there is much more work to be done and new answers to be explored if STEM will improve in the United States. What do you think about our attempts to improve STEM performance in schools?