Counting: Thoughts On STEM
3 min read
Diane Ravitch has a post up where she highlights a piece from Sharon Higgins that attempts to debunk the widely reported STEM crisis.
However, there are some issues here:
3. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the top 20 fastest growing occupations, only one is STEM-related (biomedical engineers). . According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the top 20 occupations w/highest projected numeric change in employment, ZERO are STEM-related).
Sharon Higgins reports - and Ravitch repeats - that only one of the top 20Â fastest growing occupations is STEM related. But, following the link reveals the following STEM-related jobs:
- Personal Care Aides
- Home Health Aides
- Biomedical Engineers
- Veterinary Technologists and Technicians
- Physical Therapist Assistants
- Diagnostic Medical Sonographers
- Occupational Therapy Assistants
- Physical Therapist Aides
- Market Research Analysts and Marketing Specialists
- Physical Therapists
In this tally, I was conservative, and left off all trade jobs, despite the reality that skilled builders require a solid understanding of the math and science underpinning the materials with which they work.
For the jobs with the highest projected change in employment, Higgins reports - and Ravitch repeats - that none are STEM-related. But, following the link reveals differently:
- Registered Nurses
- Home Health Aides
- Personal Care Aides
- Postsecondary Teachers
- Nursing Aides, Orderlies, and Attendants
- Childcare Workers
- Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education
Additionally, if you look at the 20 highest paying professions, you will find a healthy percentage of STEM-related jobs:
- Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
- Physicians and Surgeons
- Orthodontists
- Dentists, All Other Specialists
- Dentists, General
- Architectural and Engineering Managers
- Prosthodontists
- Podiatrists
- Natural Sciences Managers
- Computer and Information Systems Managers
- Petroleum Engineers
- Pharmacists
- Physicists
- Financial Managers
The issue here, of course, isn't whether we have a STEM crisis or not. The issue isn't whether or not these much ballyhooed "jobs of the future" will require STEM or not. The issue is how to counter the claims of false crises that allow people to do horrible things to our public education system in the name of "fixing" the "broken" system. One rule that could help: any time anyone says that there is a crisis that can only be fixed by immediate action, be suspicious. If the person proclaiming the crisis uses the rationale, "It's so broken that we have to do something, because the status quo is just so bad," you can almost certainly know that they are lying.
But, in countering the false narratives foisted onto education, we need to pay attention to the details. STEM - like all subjects - matters. Let's advocate for a balanced, student centered curriculum. Let's address the inconsistencies and falsehoods in arguments that attempt to cash in on the "STEM crisis" hype. But: we don't further our case by making easily avoidable counting errors.
