The Need for STEM

Globalization and technology have greatly improved the standard of living around the world. The United States must maintain a competitive edge in order to stay ahead. Surpassing other nations in mathematics and science achievement is one important step in doing that. However, we are lagging in student performance. According to the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, American highschool students ranked almost last in mathematics and physics! Less than one third of the students performed at the proficient level, and more than one-third of American students scored below the basic level in mathematics and science on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.³



This is unacceptable – that’s why we need STEM. Research shows that the most effective way to improve the educational disparities is to attract, train, and retain high quality teachers. Attracting teachers who are passionate about teaching has become critical to the development of high quality professional development programs. A high quality professional develop program is one that, “provides prospective educators opportunities to deepen their knowledge of the content areas, sharpen their teaching skills, exposes prospective educators to developments in the teaching fields, and increases the teacher’s ability to monitor students’ work so they can provide constructive feedback and appropriately redirect their own teaching.” ⁴ This is where STEM holds an important role – we need STEM in order to attract these teachers!