By Calvin Mackie, PH.D.

“Daddy, Is everything made in China?” is the question that came from my precious and precocious four year old son. I asked, “Why son?” My 6 year old son jumped in and said, “Daddy, everything is made in China?”

To my amazement, I realized they were having a philosophical disagreement for the ages. I said, “Sons, no, everything is not made in China!” My 6 year old would not be proved wrong as he went over to his toy box and began to remove his toys. One by one, he would hold it up and read loudly, “Made in China!”, another toy, “Made in China!”, again, again and again, until I stopped him. Wow! He painfully made his point to me, although he was wrong. I began to think that his young generation and the present generation may have only myopically known Iraq as an enemy, Russia as a friend and China as the manufacturer leader of the World. America has been and continues to be the innovation leader of the world, although other countries like China and India are aiming for that leadership position. In 2006, The National Academy of Science (NAS) published a report entitled “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” identifying key threats to America’s security, technical leadership and high standard of living that this and previous generations worked so hard to create.” The NAS report listed a number of worrisome indicators:

• The U.S. has become a net importer of high-tech products, (we import more high-tech manufactured goods than we export).
• U.S. 12th graders recently performed below the international average for 21 countries in math and science.
• In 2001 (the most recent year for which data are available), US industry spent more on tort litigation than on research.
• Low-wage employers (e.g., Wal-Mart and McDonald’s) are creating more new jobs than high-wage employers.
• Considerably more than half of undergraduates in China and Japan earn degrees in science and engineering compared to one-third in the U.S.
• In 2004, China graduated 500,000 engineers, India 200,000, and America 70,000.

My son believes that everything is ‘Made in China’ because as a nation we now import more high-tech and low-tech goods, like toys than we export. Like my sons, many of us have allowed our outlook on the future and future opportunity to be blurred by our nation’s recent compromised and challenged state in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). As a country, and especially as African-Americans, we must seek out and focus our efforts in education and career development in the areas of STEM for the future belongs to the people who create it.

Clean, green and alternative energy. Natural disasters. Global warming. Cancer. AIDS. Swine flu. World hunger and water. Oil dependence. Weapons of mass destruction.

Homeland security. Pandemics. Outsourcing.  What are the biggest problems facing America or the world and its future? Ask many people and you may get numerous opinions, but everyone will have to agree that the solutions lie within innovation. Since its founding, America has been a leader in the world in technological innovation creating the next technology transforming the way we communicate, travel, live and interact from the industrial revolution to the knowledge economy. The solution to the problems of the past and those of the future can be found in those innovators studying, developing and performing research in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

Career opportunities for those willing to pursue such are plentiful in STEM. Our government needs new workers in science, technology, engineering and math to provide services for its people, protect the country and its resources. The government on all levels, local, state and federal, needs more productive and efficient operations like the digitization of medical records to paperless government record keeping. The private sector is constantly looking for not only researchers to create the next generation of services, but developers to continue to grow and maintain technologies, systems and products to remain competitive internationally in a flat world.  A recent article in the Boston Globe documented the Pentagon fears of a severe shortage of scientists and engineers at government laboratories; such a shortage could erode the military’s technological edge in developing weapons and other projects in coming years, spawning a hiring boom at military research laboratories and an expansion of scholarships, advertising campaigns, and other ways to recruit a new generation of civilian STEM technologists and researchers.

The gap between supply and demand in science and engineering skills is a nationwide problem that has been brewing for years. A study last year by the National Science Foundation (NSF) found that the number of graduates with science and engineering degrees – at the bachelor’s level or higher – increased by an average rate of 1.5 percent a year from 1980 to 2005. But, the average employment growth for such jobs each year over the same period was 4.2 percent. From 1994 to 2003, degrees awarded for non-STEM disciplines increased by 30 percent in the United States, but STEM degrees increased by only 8 percent. The same period saw an increase of 23 percent in STEM jobs, compared with only 17 percent for non-STEM jobs.

The possibilities are endless for careers in STEM. They range from the analytical (statistician), to creative (video-game designer), to high tech (computer forensics specialist), to research (lab technician and researchers), to environmental (costal restoration, energy, levees, water and pollution), to aviation (Air-traffic controller to airplane designer or mechanic to pilot) to training (teacher, instructor and professor) and to policy (politician, lobbyist and activist) . STEM professionals can work outdoors in the environment, inside in an office, a classroom or in a research lab.

STEM jobs are critically important to growth and competitive success to a wide rage of industries like the some of the obvious ones: advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, chemical engineering, energy, actuarial science and health care all rely on high-level skills and education in the STEM fields in their workforce. Other industries may seem less obvious for their reliance on STEM knowledge and skills, such as construction, retail,transportation, and hospitality. Who ever you are, what ever you like to do and where ever you like to do it, there is a STEM career for you!

As you can see, STEM related fields are many and diverse. About 150 different college majors have been identified by the NSF as STEM majors. If you are planning for your future, you have to look and study to see where the world is going. STEM offers everyone an opportunity for the future even if your major isn’t directly in STEM. People majoring in law, economics, sociology, psychology and even English will be needed to support the new innovations and innovators of the 21st Century. The futurist Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

Simply, we have to realize that in the present Knowledge economy, “The key strategic resource necessary for prosperity has become knowledge itself in the form of educated people and their ideas (Rising Above the Storm).”  We all have to unlearn some of the habits and ideas of the past and learn what will sustain us and our children in the future. In Robert Peck’s best seller, “Road Less Traveled” the first sentence of the book reads: Life is hard! If I had to write that book again for the 21st century worker, especially the college students, the first line would read: Your skills and knowledge are obsolete already! We have to commit to lifelong learning as knowledge and technology is changing at exponential rates. It was the automatic cotton picker that freed and displaced African-Americans from the slave economy of Jim Crow and Cotton. It was technological automation that displaced African-Americans from the industrial auto, steel and chemical plants of the North and East. Presently, the Black middle class is still suffering from technological unemployment which continues to fundamentally alter the sociology of the Black community. Many of the jobs and careers our parents had are forever replaced by machines and automation; therefore, we have to secure a place in the future for ourselves and our children. We must commit to becoming citizens of the world and participating in the Knowledge economy where the currency for membership is STEM related skills and knowledge. I would have hated to be the last person studying how to make, market and sale horse saddles, and horse shoes, when Henry Ford created the Model T automobile!  STEM is the new Model T that will drive you and your children into the 21st Century. There’s a STEM Career for You!   TOC

Related articles on Teachers of Color:

Teachers Wanted for STEM Education Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce

STEM – Corporate-Education Partnerships

Science Teachers Get A Glimpse Into The Classroom And Support For Their Future

STATE OF EMERGENCY: The ominous US Crisis in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Education and Training.

By Calvin Mackie, PhD

Simply, in the 21st century, one of America’s greatest challenges will be educating and training a technical workforce to ensure that we can compete and thrive globally. If we are to compete on the global stage in a ever expanding global economy where Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) are the new intellectual and innovative currencies, we must motivate, inspire and train an entire generations of Americans to become STEM literate in general, and to pursue STEM careers specifically.  We must motivate, inspire, recruit, retain and graduate more American teachers at every level in STEM related academic subjects to produce the workforce of the knowledge and green economy.

As the knowledge economy grows, it is important that we produce more scientists and engineers, invest in research and development infrastructure and increase all American students understanding of science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM).  If we do not do such things, we threaten our economic welfare as well as the security of the country.  For more than half a century, the United States has led the world in scientific discovery and innovation and now that leadership is being challenged by factors at home and abroad. Foreign advances are challenging the United States leadership in innovation and STEM education. The US has been a beacon, drawing the best scientists to its educational institutions, industries and laboratories from around the globe. American educational institutions have always had the advantage of skimming the cream of the crop from nations like China, India and Japan bringing the best minds in the world to study and eventually work in the U.S.  However, in today’s rapidly evolving competitive world, the U.S. can no longer take its supremacy for granted. Nations from Europe to Eastern Asia are on a fast track to pass the United States in scientific excellence and technological innovation. (The Task Force on The Future of American Innovation: Innovation is America’s Heartbeat)

The catastrophic events of 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the collapse of Interstate I-45 in Minnesota demonstrate that we have to educate, develop and train more US born scientist and engineers. As such, many politicians, educators and business leaders are truly concern about the country’s ability to compete in the future. President Bush in his 2005 State of the Union address called for a $136 billion boost in science and education research over the next 10 years. President Bush stated, “We cannot afford to be complacent. In a dynamic world economy, we are seeing new competitors, like China and India.”  Why are President Bush and other leaders concerned? Consider the following:

• In 2005, China graduated 500,000 engineers, India, 200,000 and North America, 70,000. (National Academy of Science Report: Rising Above the Gathering Storm)
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that science and technology jobs will increase by 26 percent, compared to 15 percent for all occupations, from 2002 to 2012. Computer science and mathematics alone are projected to increase by 39 percent.
• According to the National Science Foundation (NSF), more than half of the US PhD degrees awarded in physics, engineering, mathematics and computer science are awarded to Non US citizens. In 2004 alone, 46 percent of master’s degrees and 57 percent of doctoral degrees were awarded to foreign nationals.
• In the US in 2005, less than 5 percent of all undergraduate degrees were awarded to engineers, compared to 8 percent in 1985. The production of engineering degrees by women, African-Americans and Hispanics are declining or flat line at best. (American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), PRISM Magazine, October 2006, pages 27-31)
• According to the National Science Board, the number of 18-24 year olds in the US who receive science degrees has fallen to 17^th in the world, whereas it ranked third three decades ago.
• According to the NSF, the percentage of scientific papers written by Americans has fallen 10 % since 1992.
• The percentage of American papers published in the top physics journal Physical review has fallen from 61% to 29% since 1983. (NY Times 5/3/04 William Broad, “US is Losing Its Dominance in the Sciences”)
• By the year 2050, members of underrepresented minority groups will constitute half of the U.S. college-age population. Such groups share lower rates of high school completion, college attendance, and college completion in comparison to non-Hispanic whites and Asian Americans. (NACME – National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering – “Confronting the “New” American Dilemma”)
• The disparity in the representation of minorities, as well as women, is becoming an increasing problem for the STEM disciplines given the demographic changes occurring in society. African Americans, American Indians, and Latinos constitute 30% of the nation’s undergraduate students, a proportion that is expected to grow to 32% in 2010 and 38% by 2025. Latinos will account for 90% of the growth; they will constitute one-sixth of the nation’s population by 2011. Yet, today, fewer than 12% of baccalaureate engineering graduates in this country are underrepresented minorities. (NACME – New Dilemma)

To remain competitive, there are great challenges and factors to overcome. Those factors include but are not limited to a shortage of scientific mentors, parental pressure on kids to seek more lucrative careers, discrimination against science-bound women and minorities, the prevailing nerd image of scientists and engineers, the lack of science and math preparation for K-12 teachers and the country’s unhealthy and overzealous focus on celebrity and fame. As Thomas L. Friedman noted in his best sellers, “The World is Flat:”, “In China, Bill Gates is a star, a celebrity, students would hang from rafters to get a glimpse of or hear a speech from Bill Gates. In China, Bill Gates is Britney Spears, and in America, Britney Spears, well, is Britney Spears.”

We have to do a better job of informing and preparing our children of the future and what will be needed from them to succeed and thrive in a global community. For example, in 2005, the Raytheon Corporation surveyed 1,000 11 to 13 year olds and discovered that 84% stated that they would rather “clean their room, eat vegetables, go to the dentist or take out the garbage than learn math or science.” In essence, 84 percent of the kids have no interest in preparing themselves to participate in the knowledge global economy. Recently Craig Barrett, the former CEO of Intel, noted that Intel sponsors an international science competition every year and in 2004, it attracted some 50,000 American high school kids. “I was in China 10 days ago,” Mr. Barrett said, “and I asked them how many kids in China participated in the local science fairs that feed into the national fair [and ultimately the Intel finals]. They told me six million kids (The World is Flat:, Thomas L Friedman). Our students and their parents must realize that they are now competing against the World and other nations are doing a better job of preparing their children for a stable future based on a technological economy.

To remain competitive, the US must train and develop an emerging US talent pool that looks very different from years and decades past. Women and minorities are the fasted growing populations in the US and efforts must be made to include these populations in STEM areas. However, we are failing as according to NACME, only 4% of underrepresented minorities graduate high school “engineering eligible.” For example, in 2002, 690,000 minority students graduated from high school, but only about 28,000 had taken the necessary math and science courses to be fully qualified for admission to engineering study. Approximately 17,000 of them enrolled as first-year students in engineering schools out of a total class of 107,000. That same year, 4,136 Latinos, 2,982 African Americans, and 308 American Indians received baccalaureate degrees in engineering out of a total of 60,639 minority graduates, according to data from the Commission on Professionals in Science and Technology (CPST).  Therefore, we need more trained and certified STEM teachers in K-12 who can serve as role models and mentors for women and minority students in the STEM pipeline.

Teachers and Counselors are the gateway to the 21^st Century for our students. If the teachers are not prepared or trained in their respective STEM field, if counselors are unaware or don’t believe STEM is for all students and if the students are not challenged with rigor and high expectations, the students as well as the viability of this country are doomed. Teachers, from preschool through graduate schools must infuse STEM throughout their curriculum including active, hands-on, project-based real world experiential learning. The country cannot move forward leaving most of her people behind. If the country, her leaders and teachers fail to prepare and equip citizens from all population groups to participate and succeed in the present and future knowledge and technology driven economy, we risk undermining our own demise on the world stage, economically and intellectually.

TOC.

Teaching STEM:

Teachers Wanted for STEM Education Preparing Tomorrow’s Workforce

Promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Careers

Science Teachers Get A Glimpse Into The Classroom And Support For Their Future

STEM Corporate-Education Partnerships

As we enter the twenty first century,   the challenge for the United States is to educate  and to train the populations which have often been overlooked and forgotten when it comes to quality education: urban students in public schools.

America’s competitiveness around the world is being challenged and as a nation, we cannot afford to leave anyone behind, especially those students in urban centers across the country. The Education Secretary, Ernie Duncan, has started a new movement to recruit more black males to teach at all levels.

When considering the public education system, regardless of how the numbers are disaggregated, black males are at the bottom.  At less than fifty percent, the national graduation rate for African-American boys is abysmal, and half of the states have graduation rates for these students that fall below the national average. Black male students disengage and drop out early, and are expelled at a much higher rate than white students. Black boys only make up nine percent of public school enrollments, but twenty percent of those enrolled are identified as mentally challenged. Statistics indicate that over half of all black children live in single-parent households, and in most of the households, the parent figure is a woman. Research indicates that children surrounded by these conditions are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit a crime, nine times more likely to drop out of school, and twenty times more likely to end up in prison. This is especially true when it comes to black males.

Secretary Duncan believes that putting more black men in the classroom will help solve some of the problems in the black community, including gang violence, high school dropout rates, and fatherless homes. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, black men comprise merely two percent of the nation’s 4.8 million teachers. For example, The Washington Informer noted that in Texas, there are more than 333,090 public school teachers, and less than one percent of these teachers are black men. In the past school year, two out of three Texas teachers were white despite the state’s projection that minority students will make up around sixty-two percent of the student body in the 2011-2012 school year, an increase of over 10 percent from a decade ago. The majority of black boys will never be educated by someone who looks like them, and sadly, a few of these boys will never experience a black male role model in their public school classrooms at all. Most black males in public school systems are coaches, vo-tech teachers, bus drivers, janitors, or workers in the physical plant. Putting more black males into the classroom will increase the number of role models and mentors for students in the hope that these students will remain in school, eventually pursuing a college education.

It is clear that the addition of more black male teachers will not only benefit the black male students but will also benefit the other students, teachers, and the entire system. There are a number of reasons for the lack of black male teachers, including low salaries, the decline of overall black graduation rates, and changing perceptions about education. In order to change the demographics of the public school system’s teachers, a lot of work and time is necessary. This problem cannot be solved overnight. However, it is apparent that one of the greatest challenges to luring black males into education will be changing society’s perception of education. The current generation of young men and women in American society believe that the sole purpose of an education is to get a degree that will help get them a job that will make them lots of money. A more noble and higher calling in association with education’s purpose must be reintroduced. American society needs to begin associating education with the ability to cultivate other people, being able to touch lives of generations yet unborn, and the chance to change the world. To recapture the heart, soul and minds of the future generations, the educational paradigm must be redefined. In everyday life, children are extolled to aspire in becoming the next American Idol, to be on a reality T.V. show, an NBA player, or a hip-hop mogul. They are convinced that they are entitled to big mansions and multiple luxury cars with a minimal amount of work. A constant stream of greed, materialism, and unmitigated consumerism shown through television, music videos, and songs perpetuate this theme of entitlement. The current educational paradigm, stating that education’s sole purpose is for making more money, supports the destructive and irresponsible behavior demonstrated by American students. Students are learning to want things without being held accountable for the discipline, work ethic, and dedication necessary to achieve the high level of success that will provide such treasures. Before the myriad of problems that affect the graduation and success rate of American students is addressed, the community must come to an agreement on an overarching educational standard that will serve as a guideline. As Plato said, “it’s the purpose given to education that will define mostly everything that follows.” As long as our society defines the purpose of education as a way to satisfy greed and consumerism, all other efforts and interventions in America’s school systems will fail. Since there are a million ways to make money in America without going to school, education must become about transformation and a higher purpose. Lee Iacocca stated it best when he said, “In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have.” Education must be about transformation, about leaving people and this world in a different and better state than it was originally in. Giving black males purpose and the ability to transform the future, especially the future generations of other black males, will serve as the ultimate attraction in luring them to the teaching profession.

Black male teachers are needed because effective teachers must be able to actively engage their students. Black male teachers have the ability to engage and motivate their young black male students at a level other teachers may not be able to readily connect with or understand. Research has shown that there is a significant correlation between high levels of engagement and improved attendance and achievement within students. In order to engage students, a teacher must do three things:

• Get their Attention
• Get their Hearts
• Get their Minds

Black male teachers in the K-12 classrooms will be able to captivate the student’s attention, connect the relevance between what is being taught and what is being learned, and cultivate their skills and knowledge. If the teachers do not connect and engage their students in a meaningful way — a way that is heart-felt and caring — the students will not learn. Black male teachers will immediately bring credibility and capability, connecting to young black males in a way that will create an environment for improvement. The connections will create an incubator for transformation in which the lives of the students, the teachers and the rest of society will be changed forever.

Research indicates that people’s greatest fear is public speaking, and their second greatest fear is death. If this research is true, then it implies that when a person attends a funeral, they would rather be the one in the casket than the one giving the eulogy. Despite attending numerous funerals, I have never witnessed anyone trying to climb into the casket. From this I have concluded that neither public speaking nor death are people’s greatest fears; a greater fear is dying without their lives having meant anything. Black males need to realize and understand that by becoming a teacher, they will never have to worry about that possibility. Every day in their lives will give meaning to not only their own lives but to the lives of generations yet to come. If they can be convinced of this, and I know they can, some of the education problems in our country can be solved. I know on a personal level that this is possible, because there was a day that someone convinced me of this and I have been teaching ever since. There is not a single day that I regret this choice, as I see a number of my students who are black males, impacting lives and changing society. Whenever I answer the phone, and I hear a young man on the other end say, “Doc,” I can’t help smiling as I’m overcome with the satisfaction of a life filled with purpose. Service, purpose, and transformation are the keys to convincing more black males to join the teaching profession.