Business, Trade Groups to Strengthen STEM Pipeline

Education Daily, March 16, 2010

A group of business and trade organizations announced a partnership Friday to double the number of U.S. bachelor degree graduates in sci¬ence, technology, engineering and mathematics to 400,000 by 2020.

The Business and Industry STEM Education Coalition, which represents more than 20 million employees, aims to strengthen America’s high-technology workforce pipeline through a series of public-private partnerships. President Obama, as part of his Educate to Innovate campaign, has called for a similar “all-hands-on-deck” approach to addressing the inequalities of STEM education to ensure that all students, particularly minorities and young women, are prepared to compete globally.

Research has shown that U.S. K-12 students, internationally, rank near the middle in math and science literacy. Meanwhile, an increasing number of science and engineering degrees in the U.S. are being awarded to foreign-born students rather than Americans, according to a recent National Science Board report.

“I fear that our nation, for some decades now, has basically given up on providing world-class education to primary and secondary students and now it’s tearing into the core of our great higher education institution,” said Charles Vest, president of the National Academy of Engineer¬ing. “The time really has come to slay the dragon of complacency. There is little slack left; other nations are not biding their time.”

Concrete progress

The Obama administration began taking action in the STEM education arena last April when Obama addressed the National Academy of Sciences and pledged to engage in a public awareness and outreach campaign to encourage students to consider STEM careers.

Applications for the $4 billion Race to the Top Fund are given competitive preference to states that place STEM at the center of their education reform efforts. While not specific to STEM, Obama has boasted an initiative to propel America ahead in becoming the leading nation with the highest proportion of college graduates by 2020.

White House Office of Science and Technol¬ogy Policy Deputy Director Tom Kalil opened the door to coalition members for further discus¬sion on ways in which the administration could partner with the group in order to “make some concrete progress” on STEM education reform.

While stakeholders say federal leadership is key to systemic change in STEM education and improving scientific literacy among America’s youth, a growing theme that seems to be gaining momentum is that “real change” requires collec¬tive participation of diverse groups, including lo¬cal and state government, philanthropists, scien¬tists, engineers, educators, and the private sector.

With advice from the departments of Educa¬tion, Defense, Homeland Security, and Labor, the coalition aims to help sustain the nation’s economic competitiveness by developing new jobs and employment specialties, and promoting best practices, said Richard Stephens, a Boeing Co. official who oversees the coalition.

In addition, the group hopes to improve pub¬lic perception of STEM fields while remaining committed to a set of priorities to bring proven, project-based learning opportunities to scale; recruit and retain effective STEM teachers; and identify and nurture the interests of students with an aptitude for STEM.