STEM Education

The United States has long been known as a world leader in scientific and technological innovation and the ICT sector is collectively spearheading educational initiatives focused on improving education in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines.   

We invite you to read about the ongoing educational efforts of the high-tech industry in our recently released education report, Educating the Innovators of Tomorrow: A High-Tech Industry Blueprint.  The online version of this report is a dynamic document that is continually updated to reflect the latest developments in ICT companies’ education initiatives. It also includes links that connect users to related resources.

The Problem
Our nation’s children are falling further and further behind their international peers in almost every area of STEM education.

The Data
The average mathematics scores of American fourth grade students placed our nation’s performance behind that of ten other countries – including Singapore, Japan, the Russian Federation, England, and Latvia.  The most recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study placed the US behind 20 other countries – including Finland, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland, Hungary, Poland, and France – for science literacy, and behind 24 other countries for mathematics literacy.  In fact, U.S. scores in both science and mathematics literacy were below the OECD average.

The Reality
Most American middle-schoolers would rather do chores, eat vegetables, or go to the dentist than do math homework. And while a majority of those same students said that math was important to them a the subject, the fact is that our math and science teachers often are ill-equipped to teach the subjects they are hired to teach. An American high school student has a 70% chance of being taught English by a teacher with an English background, but has only a 40% chance of being taught chemistry by a teacher with a chemistry background. Such a disconnect would not occur in a business environment.

The Need
The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a talent gap of 7 million skilled workers in the United States by 2016. That means 7 million American jobs will be unable to be filled by American workers. That also means we are failing our children. In California alone, the graduation rate dropped 4.7 percentage points to 62.7 percent – the second lowest in the nation.  And out of those who graduate high school, only about half enroll in college.

The Response
It is our job as employers, parents, policymakers, and citizens to identify and implement the best solutions for our children so that they move through their academic and adult careers with confidence and a command of the all-important science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines that will drive the U.S. economy and workforce into the future.