High School STEM Gap
Posted on July 10th, 2015 by Mary Lord
Silicon Valley’s high-tech upper echelon isn’t the only place with a gender gap. A National Center for Education Statistics study of 20,000 students who were high school freshmen in 2009 reveals that while boys and girls earn math and science credits at similar rates, young men are far more likely to take engineering and technology classes and to consider pursuing STEM majors in college.
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Tags: Education Policy, high school students, National Center for Education Statistics, report, Research on Learning, STEM majors
Are you the next Jane Foster? Marvel Comics has launched a contest to inspire more girls to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math like the fearless physician in the new Thor movie – and winners get to attend the Hollywood premiere.
For years, politicians, business leaders, and educators have made graduating more engineers and teachers with science and math degrees a national priority. Now, the number of college freshmen interested in majoring in a STEM field is on the rise. However, roughly 40 percent of students planning to major in engineering and science end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree.
What prompts today’s undergraduates to pursue STEM majors rather than business, law, the arts, or other fields of study? Job prospects? Passion? How about you, and what they’re learning in your classroom? According to a new study, college students decide to concentrate in science, technology, engineering, and math in high school or before – and more than half cite “a teacher or class” as their top reason. 
In a keynote speech held Monday at The Brookings Institution in D.C., acting Commerce Secretary Rebecca M. Blank unveiled new research on employment and education of racial and ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields released by her department that morning. The speech was followed by a panel discussion with representatives from academia and industry that touched upon K-12 STEM education.
Attention, STEM majors. The nation needs more middle and high school science teachers — and there are several new initiatives to encourage you to sign up for training. Indiana’s Valparaiso University, for instance, just received a $500,000 federal grant to train science undergraduates as educators. The program will include paid summer internships and student-teaching stints. 
