In the U.S., women are substantially underrepresented in career fields based in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. A 2009 study by the U.S. Department of Commerce found that, while women make up nearly half of the American workforce, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs. The gender disparity is even more glaring in Egypt, where women account for only 26 percent of the overall workforce, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development.
PhD students and graduates produce many of the patent applications and patents that make the U.S. a global leader in technological innovation. This is particularly true of engineering PhDs, who are responsible for the highest number of patents in that field. In recent years, the number of engineering PhDs entering industry careers has increased, while those pursuing academic careers decreased.
Latinos make up the youngest and fastest-growing demographic in the U.S. but remain underrepresented in STEM professions — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. According to the National Council of La Raza, while Latinos make up nearly 20 percent of the American workforce, they account for less than 10 percent of workers in STEM-related fields. Similarly, the U.S. Department of Education reports that while Latinos accounted for 16 percent of the U.S. population in 2010, they earned only 8 percent of all certificates and degrees awarded in STEM fields between 2009 and 2010.
In their Framework for K–12 Science Standards, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine define scientific knowledge as “a particular kind of knowledge with its own sources, justifications, ways of dealing with uncertainties and agreed-on levels of certainty.” Yet traditional school science emphasizes discoveries in their final forms, with little opportunity for students to experience how knowledge is developed — including the importance of uncertainty.
In Malawi, a nation of nearly 20 million in southeast Africa, more than 80,000 students graduate from secondary schools each year with no access to higher education. Multiple impediments are responsible for this lack of opportunity, including systemic societal barriers that confront females and students with disadvantages; the latter including orphans, persons with disabilities and students from rural areas served by an inadequate system of poorly resourced community schools. Similarly, institutions and stakeholders in the economy have significant capacity challenges to overcome.
In 2012 the Arizona Board of Regents provided a grant for the state universities to collaborate in working with partner school districts to provide professional development for teachers on implementation of the new Arizona College and Career Ready Standards in mathematics. When the project concluded, it was clear that principals and assistant principals also needed training to effectively support teachers in implementing the standards.
In recent years, TWI programs — two-way, dual-language immersion — have grown exponentially across the U.S.; some with a mission of equity for language minority students, others with the goal of giving all students an edge in a multilingual, global economy. Language scholars celebrate this expansion, but many worry that programs created under this new logic are failing to meet the needs of language minority students, thereby perpetuating inequities.
Two weeks ago, we graduated 1,500 students and had the good fortune to put together some in-person ceremonies that allowed us to celebrate our graduates. It was wonderful to see our students and faculty together, even if in socially distanced groups of 40 or fewer. It was restorative.
And it reminded me that the world did not stop in 2020–21. We did not stop moving forward with important work.
One that is a step toward a sustainable and diversified education workforce and not just a very expensive band aid.
Even as learners around the country begin to head back to school in person, policymakers and educators are wrapping their minds around the gigantic problem of COVID-induced learning loss.
The pandemic has underscored many longstanding educational inequities we knew about or should have known about. Among the most acute, I think, is the inequity caused by the vast differences in social networks that kids bring to the act of learning.