> home
> About
> Contact Us
> Editorial Info
> IEEE-USA

12.08

U.S. Companies Investing in STEM Education

By Barton Reppert

While Congress prepares a renewed focus on government programs to assist science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, several major American corporations are pumping sizeable amounts of money into schools around the country to provide further support for initiatives to strengthen STEM education.

Companies involved with these efforts include General Electric, Exxon Mobil, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Rockwell Automation, Autodesk and Bayer. They have been responding to STEM education problems and shortcomings which a GE executive characterizes as “incredibly serious.”

“You have a nation whose economy is based on technology innovation and creating the next generation of technological advances,” says Robert Corcoran, president of the GE Foundation. “But you have declining enrollment, declining applications in higher ed, particularly in engineering.” He notes that today, U.S. students rank 25th out of 29 developed nations for preparedness in math and science.

IEEE-USA President-elect Gordon Day comments about the situation with STEM education: “If innovation is to continue to be the principal contributor to American prosperity, we need to find and train more innovators. Providing a strong education in science and math for all of our students is the place to start. Talent is broadly dispersed, and we can develop more innovators by focusing on the middle and lower tiers of our educational system than by feeding the top tier.”

Day adds: “I’m less concerned about how our students compare to those in other countries than I am about how many of our own students don’t have the opportunity for an education that would enable them to join the high tech workforce. One good sign is that large employers are starting to invest in the school systems near where they have concentrations of employees.”

Asked what factors have been contributing to America’s problems in STEM education, Robert Corcoran of the GE Foundation comments: “I think there are two problems. One is that the rest of the world is catching up and passing us by. It’s not that we’re falling behind in and of ourselves. It is that in the developed world, many other countries over the past decade have passed us by in math and science education. Second, however, is that within our own country, we seem to have fewer students, when they graduate from high school, prepared to go on in math and science, or interested in going on. I think that’s where the crux of the problem is for us.”

Corcoran adds: “In most of the top performing countries in the world, they have a common curriculum central throughout the country, and a common set of standards central throughout the country. The United States does not have that. We have a very, very disaggregated system, where today, because of No Child Left Behind, there are 50 state standards on math and science, on what children of that state need to know and be able to do. But those 50 standards are all different. In addition, the curriculum is also very disparate within the states. So you get wide variation. One of the things we’re trying to do in our grants is to focus on these school districts to help to reform and put higher quality math and science into their curriculum that must be consistent and common within the district.”

Tom Luce, CEO of NMSI, observed in a speech last 15 May in Chicago to the Philanthropy Roundtable: “What we have to do is convince the public that math and science is not only about innovation, but it is also about having a skilled work force that can keep those jobs here after the innovative discoveries have been made. Our drug companies today are outsourcing to India the follow-up on the basic research they have done. That is a significant change and it is what I see happening across the world. That’s why I tend to say that we need a Paul Revere moment in this country. We need to understand that our standard of living and our way of life are threatened by the new age in which we live and our inability to educate every child to the standard of the new world economy.”

During his election campaign, President-elect Barack Obama summarized his views on STEM education in responding to written questions developed by an ad hoc group called Science Debate 2008. Obama replied, in part: “All American citizens need high-quality STEM education that inspires them to know more about the world around them, engages them in exploring challenging questions and involves them in high-quality intellectual work. . . . I will work to ensure that all Americans, including those in traditionally underrepresented groups, have the knowledge and skills they need to engage in society, innovate in our world and compete in the global economy.”

On Capitol Hill, STEM education in the upcoming 111th Congress will be a major priority for the House Science and Technology Committee, according to a committee staff member, who says the panel plans to hold hearings to examine federal government programs and to review STEM education activities of agencies under the committee’s jurisdiction.

Asked regarding the views of committee’s chairman, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tennessee) on the situation with STEM education, the staffer quoted Gordon as commenting recently: “The global marketplace grows more competitive each day. American students continue to score below average when tested in math and science. According to the latest OECD Program for International Students Assessment, compared to other developed countries American students ranked 25th out of 30 in math and 21st out of 30 in science. In order for these ranks to improve and America to regain its innovative achievements, we must focus on STEM education from pre-K to senior year to keep our nation on the cutting edge.”

Congressman Gordon added: “In 2007, the America COMPETES Act was signed into law to ensure our nation’s competitive position worldwide by committing to research and improving math and science education. Our nation’s future competitiveness in the global economy depends upon the ability to improve STEM education. COMPETES ensures that not only our nation will produce the world’s leading scientists and engineers but also that all students will have a strong grounding in math and science and are prepared for technical jobs in every sector of the economy.”

The STEM Education Coalition, which includes about 300 member organizations, including IEEE-USA, put considerable effort into advocating passage of the America COMETES Act, and since then has been undertaking a campaign to gain full funding for STEM education programs covered by legislation.

James Brown, co-chair of the coalition, observes: “It is without question that President-elect Obama has made science and technology in general a high-profile issue in his campaign — STEM education in particular. Also, one of the big victories in the last couple of years is getting a bipartisan coalition in Congress to agree on this issue. The Democrats have done a lot in their leadership role, to make this a high-priority issue. But there are no blank checks in Washington right now. The STEM Education Coalition is going to have to fight tooth and nail to make sure that programs like the America COMPETES Act get funded. And the changes in leadership are not going to make it any easier for us to fight for funding, with all the other organizations that are fighting for funding in a tough budget time.”

STEM education programs either fully or partially funded by private companies include:

• DEVELOPING FUTURES IN EDUCATION, developed and funded by the GE Foundation, which has committed nearly $150 million to six U.S. school districts to improve student achievement through a rigorous math and science curriculum, professional development opportunities for teachers and management capacity improvement. The school districts involved are in Atlanta, Georgia.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania.; Jefferson County, Kentucky.; New York City; and Stamford, Connecticut.

• NATIONAL MATH AND SCIENCE INITIATIVE (NMSI), which was formed following a report issued in 2005 by the National Academies entitled, “Rising Above the Gathering Storm.” NMSI was created to implement key recommendations of the report, which called for dramatically improving K-12 math and science education. The lead funder of the initiative is Exxon Mobil Corp., with a commitment of $125 million. Other private donors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

• PROJECT LEAD THE WAY (PLTW), a national not-for-profit educational program intended to give middle- and high-school students the rigorous ground-level education they need to develop strong backgrounds in science and engineering. Since its launch, PLTW has involved about 3,000 schools, training of some 7,000 teachers, and about 250,000 students enrolled in PLTW classes. Corporate supporters include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Intel, Autodesk, and Rockwell Automation.

• MAKING SCIENCE MAKE SENSE (MSMS), supported by Bayer Corp. MSMS is a company-wide initiative that aims to advance science literacy across the United States through hands-on, inquiry-based science learning, employee volunteerism and public education. Currently, 12 Bayer sites around the country operate local MSMS programs, which together represent a national volunteer corps of more than 1,000 employees.

IEEE-USA's STEM Education Efforts

IEEE-USA’s activities pertaining to STEM education involve governmental relations and other staffers at the Washington headquarters, as well as the Pre-College Education Committee, chaired by Rama Shastri, and the Career and Workforce Policy Committee, headed by Ed Perkins.

The Pre-college Education Committee, established in 1984, serves to encourage and facilitate IEEE member participation in voluntary efforts to improve the quality of pre-college math and science education, primarily through IEEE Section-level programs and activities held in cooperation with local school districts that benefit students and teachers. Also, the committee provides links to information and resources for concerned members as well as teachers, counselors, students and parents.

The Career and Workforce Policy Committee (CWPC) formulates policy recommendations on issues impacting the professional careers of IEEE’s U.S. members, among them education and training. Educational issues of special concern include K-12 math and science education, engineering education as well as incentives for continuing education and lifelong learning. It works closely with the STEM Education Coalition to communicate concerns and recommendations on pre-college educational issues to key congressional committees and federal agencies.

A draft position statement on STEM education prepared by the CWPC says, in part: “IEEE-USA believes that a scientifically and technologically literate work force is necessary if the United States is to advance technologically and retain its leadership in scientific research and development. . . Because America’s education system is multi-dimensional, IEEE-USA urges legislators and education officials at the federal, state and local levels to work collaboratively with engineering and scientific societies, businesses, educational institutions and other stakeholders in support of a national goal of scientific and technological literacy for all.”

In the months ahead IEEE-USA, in conjunction with the STEM Education Coalition, aims to press for full funding of the America COMPETES Act, which authorizes target levels of support for federal initiatives including Math and Science Partnership programs overseen by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education.

Barton Reppert is a freelance science and technology writer specializing in S&T policy coverage. He previously worked for 18 years as a reporter and editor with The Associated Press in Washington, New York and Moscow.

Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org.