Education News ENCOURAGING UNDERGRADUATE STEM STUDENTS TO PURSUE STEM EDUCATION FULL-TIME

摘要

A recent focus of this column has been science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, from K-12 and beyond. In previous columns we have discussed the state of K-12 STEM education in this country and, more recently, whether post-secondary education has adequately prepared its graduates for careers in teaching. It is estimated that only 16 percent of high school students intend to pursue STEM fields in higher education, which is a stark contrast to the predicted 9 million STEM-trained individuals necessary for the workforce in 2018. In 2009, the Obama administration initiated the Educate to Innovate initiative, which sought to add 100,000 new STEM teachers to the workforce over the following 10 years. One significant program that is working toward this goal is the UTeach Program.