Five Policy Challenges for STEM Advocates

James Brown, STEM Ed Coalition, April 9, 2013

The Current Policy Environment

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The Federal Budget Outlook

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The Most Important Political Issue in 2012

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STEM = Jobs

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Status of ESEA Reauthorization, Year 1 2 3 4 5 6:

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Will Immigration Reform be Next?

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STEM Education: Perception vs. Reality

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#1: Accountability

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Government vs. Private Sector Investments

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$941 billion

Fed + State + Local

$153 billion

Federal

Spending on Education

$1-5 billion

Private Sector Investments

in STEM Education

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it

• Federal: Under NCLB math and reading required, but not science.

• Waivers have changed the entire game.

• Common Core and NGSS have become “surrogates” for accountability

• How do we define core subjects and priorities?

• How do we define STEM subjects?

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#2: 200+ Federal STEM Programs

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What is the federal role in STEM?

• 200+ federal STEM Programs at 13 different agencies

• ~$3 billion in total

• Need to get most bang for the taxpayer buck

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#3: Recruiting and Retaining Great STEM Educators

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“Teacher Quality” and STEM

• STEM subjects have a rapid rate of change

• STEM professionals make more than STEM teachers

• We don’t have good indicators/systems for teacher effectiveness, which makes incentives difficult

• STEM Master Teachers Corps is a very hot topic

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#4: Building the Right STEM Pipeline

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Total Employment in STEM in 2020Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

* Subtotals do not equal 9.2 million due to rounding.

Source: Jobs data are calculated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment Projections 2010-2020, available at http://www.bls.gov/emp/. STEM is defined here to include non-medical occupations.

Where the STEM Jobs Will BeProjected Annual Growth of Total STEM Job Openings 2010-2020

* STEM is defined here to include non-medical occupations.

Source: Jobs data are calculated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment Projections 2010-2020, available at http://www.bls.gov/emp/.

Where the STEM Jobs Will BeDegrees vs. Jobs Annually

Sources: Degree data are calculated from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Science and Engineering Indicators 2012, available at http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/appendix.htm. Annual jobs data are calculated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Employment Projections 2010-2020, available at http://www.bls.gov/emp/. STEM is defined here to include non-medical degrees and occupations.

Only 40% of students who enter college as STEM majors finish

their degrees

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#5: Recruiting More Champions for STEM

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Q: “Who has been talking to you about STEM issues?”

A: ?????????

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What we ask at the end of every meeting on Capitol Hill

Thank You!

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The STEM Education Coalition

An Alliance of More than 500 Business, Professional, and Education Organizations