Five Policy Challenges
for STEM Advocates
James Brown, STEM Ed Coalition, April 9, 2013
The Current
Policy Environment
2
The Federal Budget Outlook
3
The Most Important Political Issue in 2012
4
STEM = Jobs
5
Status of ESEA Reauthorization, Year 1 2 3 4 5 6:
6
Will Immigration Reform be Next?
7
STEM Education: Perception vs.
Reality
8
#1: Accountability
9
Government vs. Private Sector
Investments
Spending on Education
$941 billion
$153 billion
$1-5 billion
Federal
Fed + State + Local
10
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?
11
#2: 200+ Federal
STEM Programs
12
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
13
#3: Recruiting and
Retaining Great
STEM Educators
14
“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
15
#4: Building the Right
STEM Pipeline
16
Total Employment in STEM in 2020
Science, 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 Be
Projected 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 Be
Degrees 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 nonmedical degrees and occupations.
Only 40% of students
who enter college as
STEM majors finish
their degrees
20
#5: Recruiting More
Champions for STEM
21
What we ask at the end of every meeting on Capitol Hill
Q: “Who has been talking to
you about STEM issues?”
A: ?????????
22
Thank You!
23
The STEM Education Coalition
An Alliance of More than 500
Business, Professional, and Education Organizations