Every day, it seems — and rightly so — there are new calls to strengthen and diversify the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) pipeline by leaders from across the political spectrum. The education community knows this cause well. As many researchers will tell you, interest in STEM majors and careers by underrepresented students is not the issue. It’s what happens along the way to a STEM degree that poses a problem to the majority of students who start down this path.
According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, of all Black, Native American, and Hispanic students who aspire to a STEM degree in their first college year, just 19 percent, 20 percent and 22 percent, respectively graduate from a STEM department.
There is wide agreement that students who leave STEM will disproportionately do so in the first two college years. Hence, the growth of activities to support students and stem this tide of attrition — chief among them being bridge programs, cohort learning models and intensive advising in the freshman and sophomore years.
Although these solutions have had some success and are supported in the research literature, in reality they often operate at the margins, are supported by non-permanent funds and are deemed by many on campus as “add-ons” for distinct student populations. They are most often attempts to augment or tweak the system by trying to change student behavior, instead of the more obvious need to change the system itself.
This is not to say that we do away with bridge programs and intensive advising — such efforts are important and certainly successful on many campuses. But there is a greater and more permanent need to fundamentally transform teaching in the STEM classroom.
Changing the System to Strengthen STEM Education
If we are to build a great STEM workforce — a clear and articulated national need — then change at the margins is no longer acceptable. Higher education must instead transform itself from the inside out. It is imperative that colleges and universities move beyond what some have called the “culture of attrition” that represents the first two years of STEM coursework.
