Report to the President Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
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REPORT TO THE PRESIDENT ENGAGE TO EXCEL: PRODUCING ONE MILLION ADDITIONAL COLLEGE GRADUATES WITH DEGREES IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS Executive Office of the President President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology FEBRUARY 2012 About the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is an advisory group of the nation’s leading scientists and engineers, appointed by the President to augment the science and tech nology advice available to him from inside the White House and from cabinet departments and other Federal agencies. PCAST is consulted about and often makes policy recommendations concerning the full range of issues where understandings from the domains of science, technology, and innovation bear potentially on the policy choices before the President. For more information about PCAST, see www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast. The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Co-Chairs John P. Holdren Eric Lander Assistant to the President for President Science and Technology Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT Director, Office of Science and Technology Policy Vice Chairs William Press Maxine Savitz Raymer Professor in Computer Science and Vice President Integrative Biology National Academy of Engineering University of Texas at Austin Members Rosina Bierbaum Shirley Ann Jackson Professor of Natural Resources and President Environmental Policy Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute School of Natural Resources and Environment Richard C. Levin and School of Public Health President University of Michigan Yale University Christine Cassel Chad Mirkin President and CEO Rathmann Professor, Chemistry, Materials American Board of Internal Medicine Science and Engineering, Chemical and Christopher Chyba Biological Engineering and Medicine Professor, Astrophysical Sciences and Director, International Institute for International Affairs Nanotechnology Director, Program on Science and Global Security Northwestern University Princeton University Mario Molina S. James Gates, Jr. Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry John S. Toll Professor of Physics University of California, San Diego Director, Center for String and Particle Theory Professor, Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Maryland, College Park Scripps Institution of Oceanography Director, Mario Molina Center for Energy and Mark Gorenberg Environment, Mexico City Managing Director Hummer Winblad Venture Partners Ernest J. Moniz Eric Schmidt Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics and Executive Chairman Engineering Systems Google, Inc. Director, MIT’s Energy Initiative Daniel Schrag Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology Craig Mundie Professor, Environmental Science and Chief Research and Strategy Officer Engineering Microsoft Corporation Director, Harvard University Center for the Environment Ed Penhoet Harvard University Director, Alta Partners Professor Emeritus, Biochemistry and Public David E. Shaw Health Chief Scientist, D.E. Shaw Research University of California, Berkeley Senior Research Fellow, Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Barbara Schaal Columbia University MaryDell Chilton Distinguished Professor of Biology Ahmed Zewail Washington University, St. Louis Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and Physics Vice President, National Academy of Sciences Director, Physical Biology Center California Institute of Technology Staff Deborah Stine Amber Hartman Scholz Executive Director Assistant Executive Director Danielle Evers AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY WASHINGTON, D.C. 20502 President Barack Obama The White House Washington, D.C. 20502 Dear Mr. President, We are pleased to present you with this report, Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, prepared for you by the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). This report provides a strategy for improving STEM education during the first two years of college that we believe is responsive to both the challenges and the opportunities that this crucial stage in the STEM education pathway presents. In preparing this report, PCAST assembled a Working Group of experts in postsecondary STEM teaching, learningscience research, curriculum development, highereducation administration, faculty training, educational technology, and successful interaction between industry and higher education. The report was strengthened by input from additional experts in postsecondary STEM education, STEM practitioners, professional societies, private companies, educators, and Federal education officials. PCAST found that economic forecasts point to a need for producing, over the next decade, approximately 1 million more college graduates in STEM fields than expected under current assumptions. Fewer than 40% of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree. Merely increasing the retention of STEM majors from 40% to 50% would generate threequarters of the targeted 1 million additional STEM degrees over the next decade. PCAST identified five overarching recommendations that it believes can achieve this goal: (1) catalyze widespread adoption of empirically validated teaching practices; (2) advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory courses with discoverybased research courses; (3) launch a national experiment in postsecondary mathematics education to address the mathematicspreparation gap; (4) encourage partnerships among stakeholders to diversify pathways to STEM careers; and (5) create a Presidential Council on STEM Education with leadership from the academic and business communities to provide strategic leadership for transformative and sustainable change in STEM undergraduate education. Implementing these recommendations will help you achieve one of the key STEM goals you stated in your address to the National Academy of Sciences in April 2009: “American students will move from the middle to the top of the pack in science and math over the next decade. For we know that the nation that outeducates us today—will outcompete us tomorrow.” The members of PCAST are grateful for the opportunity to provide our input on an issue of such critical importance to the Nation’s future. Sincerely, John P. Holdren Eric Lander PCAST CoChair PCAST CoChair Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Executive Report Economic projections point to a need for approximately 1 million more STEM professionals than the U.S. will produce at the current rate over the next decade if the country is to retain its historical preeminence in science and technology. To meet this goal, the United States will need to increase the number of students who receive undergraduate STEM degrees by about 34% annually over current rates. Currently the United States graduates about 300,000 bachelor and associate degrees in STEM fields annually. Fewer than 40% of students who enter college intending to major in a STEM field complete a STEM degree. Increasing the retention of STEM majors from 40% to 50% would, alone, generate three quarters of the targeted 1 million additional STEM degrees over the next decade. Many of those who abandon STEM majors perform well in their introductory courses and would make valuable additions to the STEM workforce. Retaining more students in STEM majors is the lowestcost, fastest policy option to providing the STEM professionals that the nation needs for economic and societal wellbeing, and will not require expanding the number or size of introductory courses, which are constrained by space and resources at many colleges and universities. The reasons students give for abandoning STEM majors point to the retention strategies that are needed. For example, highperforming students frequently cite uninspiring introductory courses as a factor in their choice to switch majors. And lowperforming students with a high interest and aptitude in STEM careers often have difficulty with the math required in introductory STEM courses with little help provided by their universities. Moreover, many students, and particularly members of groups underrepresented in STEM fields, cite an unwelcoming atmosphere from faculty in STEM courses as a reason for their departure. Better teaching methods are needed by university faculty to make courses more inspiring, provide more help to students facing mathematical challenges, and to create an atmosphere of a community of STEM learners. Traditional teaching methods have trained many STEM professionals, including most of the current STEM workforce. But a large and growing body of research indicates that STEM education can be substantially improved through a diversification of teaching methods. These data show that evidencebased teaching methods are more effective in reaching all students—especially the “underrepresented majority”—the women and members of minority groups who now constitute approximately 70% of college students while being underrepresented among students who receive undergraduate STEM degrees (approximately 45%). This underrepresented majority is a large potential source of STEM professionals. ★ 1 ★ ENGAGE TO EXCEL: PRODUCING ONE MILLION ADDITIONAL COLLEGE GRADUATES WITH