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Jul 14
2011
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Use of the Information Age Education resources continues to grow. For a list of IAE’s six major resources and data about three of them, go to http://iae-pedia.org/Main_Page.
This IAE Bog entry is based on the following article:
Miller, Mary Helen (6/7/2011). US losing its technological edge? No! The Christen Science Monitor. Retrieved 7/13/2011 from http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2011/0607/US-losing-its-technological-edge-No!
Quoting from the article:
Amid some $40 billion in budget cuts in April, Congress decided to preserve a favorite – education programs for science, technology, engineering, and math.
"STEM" programs, as they're called, have rare bipartisan support in a Congress worried about the United States' economic competitiveness. Business groups are pushing for more funding. President Obama has called the crisis "our generation's Sputnik moment."
But what if the crisis isn't real?
The article then goes on to summarize the standard arguments that the US is falling behind and needs to place still more emphasis on STEM education. Also see NSF and NRC (2011).
However, the article then provides some interesting statistics. Using data from a 2008 study, the article indicates:
In fact, data show that the US accounts for 40 percent of the entire world's research and development spending, and it increased that spending more than any other region between 1993 and 2003. Between 1983 and 2007, the percentage of the workforce in science and engineering occupations grew from 2.6 percent to 4.3 percent. The number of graduates in the STEM fields exceeds the number of people who end up working in those fields.
This suggests that the US is doing well in STEM as compared to the rest of the world. It also suggests that about 4.3 percent of the US workforce works in STEM occupations, that this occupation category grew substantially between 1983 and 2007, and that our educational system is producing more than enough graduates to fill these positions.
The figure that I found most interesting was the 4.3%. It suggests that we need an educational system in which about 5% of students are educated to a STEM level so they are qualified for STEM occupations. The article does not indicate what percentage of these STEM occupations require a high school degree, a 2-year college degree, a 4-year college degree, or as till higher level of education.
The STEM areas are certainly important in our current world. However, there are a great many other areas that are also important.
Reference
NSF and NRC (2011). Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Retrieved 7/14/2011 from http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13158.
This is a free 48-page report. Quoting from the report:
The Committee on Highly Successful Schools or Programs for K-12 STEM Education was charged with “outlining criteria for identifying effective STEM schools and programs and identifying which of those criteria could be addressed with available data and research, and those where further work is needed to develop appropriate data sources.”
…
The primary driver of the future economy and concomitant creation of jobs will be innovation, largely derived from advances in science and engineering. . . . 4 percent of the nation’s workforce is composed of scientists and engineers; this group disproportionately creates jobs for the other 96 percent.
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written by davem, July 15, 2011
Here is some more data about STEM jobs. Quoting from the article:
Jobs in science, technology, engineering and math fields pay an average 26% more than other occupations and grew three times faster the past decade, according to a Commerce Department study to be released today.
From 2000 to 2010, STEM jobs grew 7.9% to 7.6 million, three times the rate of other fields, the study by Commerce's Economics and Statistics Administration says.
They're expected to swell 17% from 2008 to 2018, vs. 9.8% for other jobs.
STEM jobs include computer programmers, statisticians, civil and nuclear engineers, chemists and lab technicians, Commerce says. While such jobs have grown more rapidly and paid better for decades, the wage premium has increased to 26% from about 18% in 1994. The earnings disparity between STEM and non-STEM workers is even greater for the less educated. STEM workers with a high school diploma or less earned $24.82 an hour last year, vs. $15.55 for other employees.
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We recognize this in our use of portfolios, volunteer and paid work experience, recommendations, grades, quality of coursework taken, and so on.
It is relatively easy to develop a test in math that provides useful information about what math a person knows and can use effectively in a testing environment. However, I keep wondering why we place so much emphasis on math at the levels of algebra, geometry, and higher. In my opinion, this math content is of little relevance to the great majority of our population.