A relatively new organization, known as Change the Equation, has issued it’s own report on the state of STEM education in the US. Known as Change the Equation, the organization is composed of 110 of the country’s largest science and technology based corporations.
From the Change the Equation website (http://www.changetheequation.org):
Five visionary leaders — former Intel CEO Craig Barrett, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez, and Sally Ride Science CEO Sally Ride — joined forces with Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to form Change the Equation.
Change the Equation is a non-profit, non-partisan CEO-led initiative to solve America’s innovation problem. It answers the call of President Obama’s Educate to Innovate Campaign to move the U.S. to the top of the pack in science and math education over the next decade. We aim to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for every child, with a particular focus on girls and students of color, who have long been underrepresented in STEM fields
Through its network of more than 110 CEOs, Change the Equation pledges to create widespread literacy in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) as an investment in our nation that empowers us all.
Change the Equation works towards three critical goals:
- Great Teaching. Improve STEM teaching at all grade levels, with a larger and more diverse cadre of highly capable and inspirational STEM teachers.
- Inspired Learners. Inspire student appreciation and excitement for STEM programs and careers to increase success and achievement in school and opportunities for a collegiate education, especially among females and students of color.
- A Committed Nation. Achieve a sustained commitment to improving STEM education from business leaders, government officials, STEM educators and other stakeholders through innovation, communication, collaboration and data-based decision making.
Change the Equation aligns corporate efforts in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education to ensure that they add up to real, measurable growth in the achievement and STEM fluency of our nation’s young people.
In our first year, Change the Equation will:
- Work with our member companies to begin spreading a small number of programs that work to 100 sites across the country where student performance is low and corporate philanthropy is limited.
- Create a scorecard that can assess the condition of STEM education in all 50 states. This first scorecard will provide a baseline from which to measure states’ progress in coming years.
- Identify and broadly share principles for effective business involvement in STEM education.
- Help our member companies judge and improve the effectiveness of their own programs through robust self-evaluation tools.
- Be a leading advocate for STEM education in the United States.
Earlier this month CEO members of Change the Equation sent letters to the nation’s governors that called for higher proficiency standards in science and mathematics, and also sent state-specific reports that assessed the condition of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in each state.
The Major Findings of the reports indicate:
Most States Set A Low Bar for Success.
Across the nation, only 38 percent of U.S. 4th graders were proficient or advanced in math in 2009. Yet states, on average, reported proficiency rates that were a full 37 percentage points higher. A handful of states have broken ranks by setting truly high expectations in their state tests. In Massachusetts, for example, fewer students were proficient on the state test than on NAEP.
Change Is Possible: The Nation Has Made Real Progress in 4th and 8th Grade Math.
NAEP “scale scores,” which give states a way to track trends in student performance, have risen in math over the past 15 years.
- Scores in 4th grade math rose 16 points between 1996 and 2009. Gains among Black and Hispanic students were larger over the same period: 23 and 22 points, respectively.
- Some states or jurisdictions saw bigger gains than others. For example, Hispanic 4th graders gained 38 points in Delaware, Hispanic 8th graders gained 39 points in the District of Columbia, and White 8th graders gained 21 points in Massachusetts.
Similar data are not available in science, because the NAEP science tests were revised in 2009, making comparisons with prior years impossible.
Achievement Gaps Remain Large and Widespread.
In math, gaps separating White students from their Black and Hispanic peers narrowed substantially between 1973 and 1990. But they have barely budged since then, and some states with the highest overall achievement in math and science also have the widest gaps. Massachusetts, for example, has the highest overall percentage of 4th graders proficient in science: 46 percent. But this figure masks enormous gaps. While 53 percent of White students are proficient, only 15 percent of Hispanic students and 12 percent of Black students are. States need to ensure that their policies target the diverse learning needs of all students, especially those who face the biggest hurdles, without diluting expectations.
For Most Students, College Is More Dream than Reality.
While the U.S. faces a shortage of 3 million college-educated workers by 2018, relatively low percentages of students attend and graduate from college:
- Nationwide, only 10 percent of the class of 2010 took an AP test in math, and 10 percent took an AP test in science. Students who take and pass an AP test are significantly more likely to graduate from college than academically similar students who do not take a test.
- Although 94 percent of high school students say they plan to attend a two- or four-year college, only 36 percent of all 18- to 24-year-olds are actually enrolled in a post-secondary institution.
- Students who begin college programs often do not finish. Nationally, only 28 percent of students who begin an associate’s degree program receive a certificate or associate’s degree within three years. Only 56 percent of students who enroll in bachelor’s degree programs receive a degree within six years.
- College graduation rates vary widely from one state to the next. For example, the six-year graduation rate for bachelor’s candidates ranges from 22 percent to 69 percent.
Elementary and Middle School Teachers Need a Stronger Grounding in Math.
Math teachers should have a strong academic background in math, yet many U.S. students do not have access to such teachers:
- Only 57 percent of the nation’s 8th graders have teachers with a major or minor in math.
- Most states set passing scores on content licensure tests for elementary teachers well below the mean for all test takers.
About Half of 4th and 8th Graders Say They “Never or Hardly Ever” Write About Science Projects.
All students should carry out and reflect on engaging science projects, yet many U.S. 4th and 8th graders say they hardly ever do:
- Fifty-four percent of the nation’s 4th graders and 47 percent of its 8th graders report that they “never or hardly ever” write reports about science projects. Thirty-nine percent of 8th graders report that they “never or hardly ever” design a science experiment.
- Results vary by state. In some states, as many as 60 percent of 8th graders say they “never or hardly ever” write reports about a science project. In Connecticut, by contrast, 30 percent do.
Download the Change the Equation report on Oklahoma HERE.