The science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degree and career emphasis of the past several years has cast a shadow over the importance of effective reading and writing skills as they pertain to academics and the workplace. College educators and administrators in charge of program development should remain conscientious of students’ need for adept reading and writing skills to comprehend not only STEM concepts but also for increased comprehension in all academic subjects.
To be clear, the importance of STEM education and training is duly noted. According to the National Science Foundation, the number of graduates in STEM-related disciplines has grown between 42 percent and 167 percent in the last 10 years in areas including health-related fields, biological and agricultural sciences, and computer sciences.
But STEM is not a math- and computation-only degree; extensive reading, summarizing, synthesizing and analyzing of text along with effective written expression as it relates to a particular topic are also an integral part of earning a degree, STEM or otherwise.
Data suggest that the gap in reading and writing skills is widespread. According to the National Report Card, 52 percent of high school graduates scored at the basic level in writing while 38 percent scored at the basic level in reading. To further prove this point, developmental reading and writing course enrollments are overflowing on college campuses across the United States, yet many students are allowed to enroll in college-level courses such as psychology, health or history while taking developmental reading and writing courses. These college-level courses require extensive reading (the ability to recognize the words on the page), note-taking (retrieving key pieces of information from the text) and writing (generating essays and research papers based on concepts relevant to the subject matter).
The National Center for Educational Statistics reports that 68 percent of students beginning their education at community colleges are enrolled in at least one developmental course, thereby entering college underprepared to complete the reading and writing assignments associated with college-level classes. Despite this, the emphasis in higher education often remains on “fixing” developmental math, accelerated math courses, summer bridge programs with a math and science focus, or articulation agreements with public schools to teach developmental math courses during the junior and senior years of high school.
These efforts are commendable and should not be abandoned; conversely, little interest and initiative have been expended in making sure these same students can read the textbook or write a coherent paragraph with few grammatical and mechanical errors.
What level of success can students have in STEM education and training (or other disciplines) if they are not able to read and write at a college level? In order to excel, students need to articulate concepts they have learned about in textbooks, course materials and published articles. The application of reading and writing skills is essential to this process.
