SwampFox

Tom Rogers: The Failure of the US Education System to Provide Technically Trained Graduates

Tom Rogers, Teacher; Southside High School, Greenville, SC

The failure of the US education system to provide enough technically trained graduates to meet America’s needs is often attributed to problems in K-12 math and science education. Indeed, with the exception of AP Calculus and AP Physics students, the 1995 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) ranked US students near the bottom in advanced math and physics for the industrialized countries tested.

In the past the federal government has compensated for the lack of technically trained graduates by allowing hundreds of thousands of foreign technical employees to legally work in the US. Bringing talented technical people to the United States is a definite benefit but also has a downside. Their jobs represent well-paid positions that could be available to US citizens if only they were qualified. Also, we have to wonder if the supply of highly educated workers coming to the United States on temporary permits can continue indefinitely. To reduce our economy’s dependency on foreign workers, we need to first understand our economy’s demand for them.

We can start by looking at the number of jobs for the most stringent math and science related professions. Surprisingly, the highest numbers are not for mathematicians or scientists but for the applied science professions with comparable levels of math and science training.

Using the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook there are a total of 22 thousand mathematicians/statisticians and 434 thousand scientists in the US for a total of 460 thousand jobs. This compares to 567 thousand physicians/surgeons, 1.449 million engineers, 1.793 million computer professionals (computer scientist, software engineer, systems analysts) for a total of 3.809 million jobs or nearly 9 times more than scientist and mathematician jobs.

Undergraduate majors for the stringent professions are the direct customers of high school output. When we compare these majors with the most demanding high school math and science courses we find that the computer and engineering areas are strongly related to AP Computer Science, AP Calculus, and AP Physics with some relationship to AP Chemistry.

While medicine is generally considered most related to AP Biology, there are surprises. Pre-medicine majors are required to take an equal number of hours of physics, chemistry, organic chemistry, and biology in college. A balance of biology, chemistry, and physics is likely to be the best high school preparation for pre-medicine majors.

Medicine, however, isn’t the only surprise. These days, Biology majors are starting to take computer science classes. Why? In 1998 the total sequencing output of the Human Genome project was 200 Mb. By 2003 the DOE Joint Genome Institute alone sequenced 1,500 Mb in merely the month of January! Within 10 years we’ll be able to hand parents a genetic profile of their offspring complete with predicted diseases. And what is the primary tool for analyzing all this genome data? The computer, it’s becoming a 21st century microscope for biology.

Based on employment numbers for the most stringent professions we’d expect enrollments of the various math and science AP courses to favor Computer Science, Physics, and Calculus.

So how do AP courses in South Carolina line up with the expectations? Not very well: the winner is AP Calculus with 2,766 students or more than AP Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Physics combined. The big loser at 170 students (6% of Calculus’s total) is Computer Science with Physics nearly as bad at 547 students (20% of Calculus’s total). Biology is the top AP science with 1,277 students (2.3 times higher than Physics) and Chemistry in the middle with 757 students.

Computer Science holds yet another distinction: it’s the only AP subject which has steadily declined over the past 5 years. It has gone from 333 in 2001 to a mere 170 students in 2006. While AP Computer Science has all but disappeared in SC (with a similar national trend), the job market for computer professionals grew nationally by over 360% from 1992 to 2004, compared to 7% growth for engineers and 3% growth for physicians and surgeons (again using Occupational Outlook Handbook).

The relative success of Calculus can be attributed to its well-defined feeder system and supply of subject-competent teachers. Math students are tracked and prepared for the pinnacle of K-12 math education, Calculus, from their early years. By contrast, there is no feeder system for preparing Computer Science or Physics students. Teachers with high levels of knowledge in these areas are a rarity at every level of K-12 education.

Considering that, nationally, bachelor’s degree level Computer Science and Computer Engineering majors starting salaries are respectively 67% and 73% higher than the starting salaries of bachelor’s level SC teachers, it’s no wonder qualified Computer Science teachers are a rarity. There’s a small supply of Physics majors and with a national median income in industry at the bachelor’s degree level about 55% higher than K-12 teachers, few will be attracted to teaching. Likewise, about any form of engineering major with a bachelor’s degree would be qualified to teach calculus, physics, or computer science, yet they are generally unavailable as teachers because they can get a starting salary about 65% higher in industry. The fact that teachers are 10 month not 12 month employees (teachers in SC do not get 3 months off during summers) does not compensate for such large differences.

While computer science and physics are probably the worst areas of recruitment for teaching, the truth is that anyone with a good math/science background can generally find a higher paying job in industry. Indeed, there has been a critical shortage of math and science teachers for at least 30 years, both nationally and in SC. Recently, Greenville County Schools has reached the point where it is now recruiting math and science teachers from foreign countries. While these teachers generally have excellent content knowledge, they often have difficulty adjusting to the language and classroom culture in America.

Although the above analysis of high school science course consumption is based on the tip of the iceberg—the most demanding high school courses related to the most stringent end-users—like the iceberg, the general pattern is found across the entire high school spectrum. According to the National Assessment of Education web site, in 2005 only 29% of all US high school students took all three sciences (Biology, Chemistry, and Physics), while 34% took two sciences (Biology and Chemistry) and 36% took only one science (Biology or other). Students taking all three sciences scored an average of 166 on the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test science section as opposed to 131 for the group with the least science.

For each of the 3.8 million stringent jobs mentioned, there are numerous technician, support, or related professions, not to mention sales and management positions with at least some of the same math and science needs. For example there are 1.3 million computer programmers and systems administrators*, 0.8 million engineering technicians and drafters, 2.4 million registered nurses, etc. The types of technical training discussed above do not just affect a handful of elite students. They affect the employability of millions of American students at all levels. While at-risk students and those with non-technical career aspirations may consume less math, science, and computer science education, the quality of what they do consume is just as important to their future and to their chances of graduating on time.

America has the best technical universities in the world and while they have certainly been influenced by idealism, they have also been shaped by practicality and economic forces. Unlike K-12 teachers, who are all equally compensated for the same degree level and years of experience regardless of subject or level taught, supply and demand conditions have a big influence over university salaries. For example engineering professors make substantially more than humanities professors because, without the pay differential, there would be a shortage. This is not to say that engineering professors are more valuable, but only that they are more difficult to find. Likewise, food costs more than air not because it’s more valuable to human existence but, again, because it’s harder to obtain.

The first step in making K-12 math and science better serve the needs of our economy and our students would be to provide a more flexible compensation system that can respond to the supply and demand situation for various types of teachers. These forms of compensation could include signing bonuses, college loan relief, or consideration for time spent working in industry. Students at all levels deserve to have math and science teachers who know and can communicate their subjects.

To match the student performance of other industrialized countries, we’ll need to also look at modifying teaching standards and teacher preparation across the K-12 spectrum. Nationally, the General Electric Company (GE) is so concerned about K-12 math and science that it has granted $ 25 million to a Louisville, Kentucky school district for developing new K-12 math standards. Hillary Clinton has gotten into the discussion by introducing the Math and Science Consistency Act (S. 3790) to create a set of effective voluntary national expectations, and a voluntary national curriculum, for K-12 mathematics and science education. Last summer, the National Governor’s Conference devoted a major portion of its meeting to these issues with testimony from representatives of 3M, Microsoft, GE, and the National Science Foundation all indicating that changes are needed.

Taking the steps to improve K-12 science and math education would benefit a broad spectrum of students as well as have a positive long term effect on our local economy. Taking steps to boost the K-12 computer science education would be an act of national leadership. An increase in the number of students taking the highest levels of math, science, and computer science courses would certainly be an excellent indication that the steps were working.

* Computer jobs are more difficult to categorize than engineering or physician jobs because of the variability in educational requirements. Computer programmer and systems administrator jobs are less likely to require advanced degrees and so were arguably not included in the stringent professions totals.

We encourage readers to use this space to discuss issues of critical importance to the Swamp Fox Community. Please contact us if you have ideas you would like to share.