Change the Equation Blog

We often write that skills in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) can open doors, even in a tough economy. That view has sparked a few messages and comments from jobless or underemployed STEM professionals who, ahem, see things differently. While we understand their frustration, we stand by our point.

Our STEM Vital Signs research shows that, while a STEM background offers no guarantees—nothing does—it sure does improve the odds. In the past three years, jobless people outnumbered new job postings by more than three to one. In the STEM fields, by contrast, job postings outnumbered the jobless by almost two to one.

Does this mean that every person with a STEM background had an easy time? Sadly, no. For example, our research showed that civil engineers faced long odds. Computer programmers did fine, but not nearly as well as computer systems engineers. And if you lived in Michigan, for example, you probably faced a steeper path than in Virginia or Connecticut.

But our findings do mean that young people coming out of school with strong STEM skills have a better chance, probably a much better chance, of a stable and high-paying career. They have more choices.

Even if you take out healthcare jobs, which many other analyses of the STEM workforce leave out of account, people with STEM backgrounds fared much better on average than those without. But then again, why exclude healthcare jobs? Wouldn’t most people want their doctors and nurses to have more than a passing acquaintance with math, chemistry or biology, for example? (Our analysis included only healthcare jobs that require strong STEM skills.)

Have a look at the two maps below. The first shows the prospects for jobless people in all fields. The second shows the prospects for jobless people with a STEM background. Cool colors (the blues) are bad. Warm colors (the red/peaches) are good. Where would you cast your own lot?

(Click on any state to get more data. Move the map to reveal Alaska or Hawaii. Zoom in to get a better view of the smaller states.)

All occupations: ratio of unemployed people to job postings, 2009-2012

STEM occupations: ratio of job postings to unemployed people, 2009-2012

Source: Change the Equation, STEM Help Wanted, 2012. See the study’s methodology.

Want a good look at the future? It may be inside a high school in Brooklyn. 

We've written a few times about different, creative strategies businesses and the education sector are taking to equipping students with the necessary STEM skills, but few are as in-depth as the efforts IBM is making with the Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH), profiled in today's New York Times.

IBM, a CTEq member company, partnered with the NYC Deptartment of Education and the City University of New York, to create the six-year high school. Students leave the program with an associate's degree and the skills to get them an entry-level tech job. Although only in its second year, the program has spawned similar schools across the country, and New York is planning on opening three similar schools in the next two years.  

Early results at the school are promising, and while the program still needs time to develop, it's this type of in-depth innovation -- which takes into accounts the needs of the market and matches it to the needs of students -- that we need to equip students with the skills they need. 

Incidentally, we were a little ahead of the Times on this one: Check out P-TECH principal Rashid Davis and IBM's Grace Suh discussing the program at our May 2012 STEM salon. 

A column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch over the weekend sang a familiar tune for most of us interested in STEM education: study STEM, and you will reap the financial benefits. The author breaks it down in tangible terms, pointing out that career surveys show how much higher your salary is likely to be should you go the science-and-math route. 

The column, however well-intentioned, misses two deeper points: First, many jobs, even if they don't have "STEM" stamped on top of the application, require the kinds of thinking taught in science and math. The psychology student needs to know how to set up an experiment and likely analyze quantitative data -- both STEM skills even if not presented that way. Packaging STEM as an "all or nothing" set of jobs and careers likely won't broaden the pool of interested students greatly, no matter how frequently they're lured by the prospect of a higher salary. After all, as we've written about, few students currently foresee a future in STEM, despite these benefits. 

But secondly, many students, even if they wanted to major in a STEM subject with a clearly defined career path, don't graduate from high school college- or career-ready. What may help is getting kids to the level where they feel ready for higher education and a career in a STEM field. Doing so means strengthening their K-12 education, which is one of the reasons so many states have adopted the Common Core standards. It's also why a recent call in the Atlantic to eliminate AP is short-sighted. 

John Tierney, the author of The Atlantic piece, raises several points, including the money AP brings to the for-profit College Board, the fact that many colleges no longer accept AP tests for credit, and the lack of access that many low-income students have to AP classes; an access barrier that, in a way, strengthens the divide between students from low-income backgrounds and their wealthier peers: Many of them, without the AP clases, start off the college-admission process at a disadvantage.

Instead of throwing in the towel completely on AP classes, though, we could instead focus on ensuring that every secondary school -- especially ones serving students from low-income backgrounds -- have at least one AP science and one AP math course for its students, and the necessary foundational couress so that students can be successful at the rigorous AP level. In the long run, giving students sustained exposure to STEM and making sure that they are ready for higher-level science and math coursework will likely make the pitch to pursue a career in STEM a much easier one to make. 

About one in six Hispanic high school students attends a school that does not even offer physics. Among Black students, it’s one in five. American Indian students? One in three.

Things are even worse in Calculus. Schools that do not offer the subject enroll a third of Hispanic students, more than a third of Black students, and a whopping 44 percent of American Indian students.

Why should we care? These findings from our Vital Signs reports deal a severe blow to our ideals of equal opportunity and economic vitality. If you can’t take classes like physics or calculus in high school, you’ll have a hard time getting on a path to critical (and high-paying) jobs in fields like engineering and technology. Millions of U.S. high school students are in this fix. That adds up to a lot of squandered talent at a time when employers can’t find the engineers and tech workers they need.

These findings emerged from our review of the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a federal government survey of more than 70,000 schools in some 7,000 districts that enroll about 85 percent of the nation’s students. We worked with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to publish the first state-by-state analysis of this massive dataset.

Things might be especially dire for students in your state. The maps below focus on Black students. Note that, in 17 states, at least 20% of Black students don't have access to physics in their schools:

In 39 states, at least 20 percent of Black students lack access to calculus in their schools:

(For detailed state-level results broken down by race and ethnicity, see vitalsigns.changetheequation.org).

So what can states do to address this problem? Raising high school graduation requirements can be part of the solution.

Yet simply mandating that schools offer such courses is not enough. Teachers might not be prepared to teach such courses, and students might not be prepared to take them. Rather, states can promote programs that prepare schools and students alike for advanced math and science classes. One such program is the Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program (APTIP), which brings AP classes into schools that are least likely to offer them and then gives students and staff the support they need to succeed. States like Colorado, Texas and Virginia, which foster APTIP programs, have seen AP participation and passing numbers skyrocket in participating schools.

Even with such programs, this is a tough nut to crack. It takes good policy and persistent support for schools and students. Yet we certainly can't content ourselves with such an uneven playing field.