New York City High school seniors will be getting ready to enter university. Thousands of pupils will be taking the university entrance exams, and a lot will be taking the ACT exam. Quite a few will be applying for early admission as well.
They will finally graduate in June, but a significant portion of students will find that they are not well prepared for the rigors of college classes. This has been determined by measuring college freshman performance, as their performance is based on what was learned during high school.
US students have been found to be lagging behind their counterparts when it comes to STEM fields such as technology, engineering, math, and science. This is not so good news for this country’s future, as STEM-related professions are quickly growing and well paid in this country. Areas of growth need to be serviced instead of creating an environment where jobs have to be outsourced because the demand far outpaces the supply of qualified labor.
Attempts to bring STEM education have been geared around modifying the what we we teach and the methods used to students in learning environments. But there are limitations for example students learn within seven hours per school day, in 180 days in a school year - that’s really all that is available for classroom learning, typically. Some parents have gone a step further by hiring New York City tutors.
A serious attempt to ready up and coming students in the US for the future economy would require our national leaders to look past the classroom to support programs that use more than just traditional methods to spark students interest for learning in non traditional environments.
Fewer than half of American high school graduates are ready for math on the university level. Even worse, fewer than one third are prepared for science on the college level. US students function below the 27th position level when compared with 33 industrialized countries.
Military families in particular have a more difficult time with science and Math education. On average, the children of families in the service attend anywhere from six to nine different schools, which means a lot of moving. Mind you each school presents a different curriculum for each subject, totally new academic requirements and different rules altogether. Another issue is the duress caused by military deployments which can of course affect academic performance.
These days jobs require some significant level of understanding when it comes to math and science skills. U.S. CEOs, when recently polled, stated that there is an estimated need for 1.6 million new STEM employees by 2019.
There is a silver lining to this increased demand for skills that would require in well paying jobs. As measured in the year 2013, STEM jobs on average paid about $80,000 annually. We’re looking at 1.7 times the current yearly U.S. salary.
An improvement in STEM related education would result in American students being in a position to take these very available jobs and igniting our economy. Economists suggest that an improvement to America's performance in science and math to levels around the average of the 33 other developed nations would bump the US economy up about 1.7 % by 2050.
In order to realize that employment increase, the United States must evaluate not just how STEM is taught but at what point along the educational path.
Throughout an entire school year, including the summer break and weekends, students spend about 80% of their hours outside of the walls of the classroom. These hours can benefit from having a bit of instruction sprinkled about.
There is a sizable amount of research that points to the advantages of the aforementioned. According to research results, after-school programs can create an uptick in student motivation, create serious gains in standardized test performance, and bring a bump in motivation.
Taking a page out of that book, companies like Raytheon in partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America have added to after-school programs in areas with a concentration of military families. The objective in their program is to create a real life understanding of STEM, practically applied to actual problems. Participants will be connected with actual professionals in STEM industry fields - those with practical experience. This level of expertise will allow students to see actual applications of STEM to solve problems. And there is a focus on making these centers staples in the community so that a habit of enjoying learning and seeing its relevance becomes ingrained in students over a prolonged period of time.
The good thing is that there is a rising tide of people and organizations that are not only recognizing the necessity for these efforts.
Along with the organization Girls Who Code, New York city government has partnered with Verizon to initiate WinSTEM, another exemplary after-school program with a focus on providing free computer programming lessons for female students.
Lego robots are a great entry level programming paradigm. In Florida's Miami-Dade County, students in middle school are programming and designing code for Lego robots in after school programs, a result of Florida International University.
Girls Who Code, the program mentioned earlier, has successfully been on a mission to make computer programming understandable and quite interesting for thousands of young female students in high schools across the country.
It is good and encouraging to see these programs, but more remains to be accomplished. It will take a larger, more concerted effort, to revamp STEM education - not just a few well-meaning efforts here and there. Legislators, their advisers, leaders from the corporate world must lend a hand to not only help to provide direction for these initiatives, but also to help deepen the financial pot so that programs can continue without interruption. It is the only way that we will be able to count on getting the needed results in due time.
Education is meant to position current students to occupy needed fields in the future. With the proper support - in particular - supplemental study outside of class, students will be able to achieve the aim of filling tomorrow’s jobs when the time comes.
Our New York City students in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island will benefit tremendously from an increase of more after school programs.
