{"id":9548,"date":"2013-10-01T04:00:19","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T08:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/?p=9548"},"modified":"2013-10-01T04:00:19","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T08:00:19","slug":"how-are-we-doing-in-u-s-stem-education-a-timeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esa.org\/esablog\/2013\/10\/01\/how-are-we-doing-in-u-s-stem-education-a-timeline\/","title":{"rendered":"How are we doing in U.S. STEM education? A timeline."},"content":{"rendered":"
What level of education do US S&E workers have? How well do 8th graders score in math and science? How often do parents help their kids with homework?<\/h5>\n

All this and more in a new data collection from the National Science Board.<\/p>\n

\"STEM<\/a>

What level of education do US Science &Engineering workers have?<\/strong> Just one graphic from a new STEM Education and Data Trends Tool,<\/a> assembled by the National Science Board.\u00a0 S&E = science and engineering. S&E occupations are those in biological\/agricultural\/environmental life sciences, physical sciences, computer sciences, mathematics\/statistics, engineering, psychology, and social sciences. Physical sciences = chemistry, physics, astronomy, and earth\/ocean\/atmospheric sciences.<\/p><\/div>\n

The U.S. National Science Board (NSB) released a synopsis of data and trends for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education<\/a> last week. The graphical tool organizes summary charts and data drawn from the 2012 Science and Engineering Indicators<\/em><\/a> report along an educational timeline from pre-K to employment and includes data on state-by-state education funding, career prospects, and student proficiency in STEM subjects.<\/p>\n

Some of the graphics may surprise you \u2014 and generate more questions than they answer. The above example of \u201ceducational attainment of S&E workers,\u201d drawn from 2009 US Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) data reveals that a quarter of the science and engineering labor force have not completed a bachelor\u2019s degree. What types of work are they doing? The Science and Engineering Indicators<\/em> report hints that it may be IT:<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnical issues related to occupational classification may inflate the estimated size of the nonbaccalaureate S&E workforce. Even so, these data indicate that many individuals enter the S&E workforce with marketable technical skills from technical or vocational schools (with or without earned associate\u2019s degrees) or college courses, and many acquire these skills through workforce experience or on-the-job training. In information technology, and to some extent in other occupations, employers frequently use certification exams, not formal degrees, to judge skills.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Liana<\/a>

\u201cThe relationship between science and engineering education and employment in STEM occupations.\u201d Liana Christin Landivar. American Community Surveys Reports<\/em> ACS-23<\/a> (US Census Bureau). September 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

A report on 2011 data<\/a> from the American Community Survey agrees, and adds that engineering technicians often have vocational degrees.<\/p>\n

What specific jobs underlie broad classifications like \u201cbiological\/agricultural\/environmental life sciences<\/a>\u201d in the NSB report? It probably excludes healthcare practitioners (the ACS classifies healthcare as \u201cSTEM-related\u201d) and \u201cpostsecondary teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of related interest: a Georgetown University study<\/a> by Anthony Carnevale and colleagues found that if your terminal degree is a bachelor\u2019s, the most lucrative majors are all in applied STEM fields<\/a>. Primarily engineering. You probably won\u2019t be surprised to learn that ecologists are not in it for the $$. Read the report for additional labor demographic data on gender, race and ethnicity, and percentages of students from each major who go on to obtain graduate degrees (36% from ecology, 56% from biology, 29% form environmental science).<\/p>\n

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