Why Outreach?
The OSO was created in response to national concerns about an inadequate supply of trained American scientists and engineers to fill future jobs in the U.S., as well as alarm about the significant under-representation of women and ethnic minorities in science and technology careers. Science outreach is now required by some federal R&D funding agencies, such as the National Science Foundation and NASA, as a precondition for funding major science and technology research centers. The need for science outreach is supported by the following data:U.S. Demographic Trends
The National Science Board reported some alarming statistics in its 2008 Science and Engineering indicators:
Retirements from the Science and Engineering (S&E) labor force are likely to become more significant over the next decade. Twenty-six percent of all S&E degree holders in the labor force are age 50 or over. Among S&E doctorate holders in the labor force, 40% are age 50 or over.
The importance of foreign-born scientists and engineers to the S&E enterprise in the United States continues to grow. Twenty-five percent of all college-educated workers in S&E occupations in 2003 were foreign born, as were 40% of doctorate holders in S&E occupations.
The proportions of women, blacks, and Hispanics in S&E occupations have grown over time, but are still less than their proportions of the population. Men still earn the majority of bachelor’s degrees awarded in engineering (80%), computer sciences (78%), and physics (79%). The proportion of blacks in nonacademic S&E occupations increased from less than 3% in 1980 to 5% in 2005. The proportion of Hispanics increased from 2% to 5% during that period. At the doctoral level, blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians/Alaska Natives combined represented just 6% of employment in nonacademic S&E occupations in 2005.
Foreign students make up a much higher proportion of S&E master’s degree recipients than they do of bachelor’s or associate’s degree recipients. During the past two decades, the share of S&E master’s degrees earned by temporary residents rose from 19% to 28%. S&E master’s degrees awarded to students on temporary visas rose from approximately 12,500 in 1985 to about 33,500 in 2005 and increased in most S&E fields during that period.
Students on temporary visas earned more than one-third (36%) of all S&E doctorates awarded in the United States in 2005. Temporary residents earned half or more of all U.S. doctorates in engineering, mathematics, computer sciences, physics, and economics in 2005.
K-12 demographics are also changing in dramatic ways:
In California, two out of every three children in public schools are now ethnic minorities. Hispanics alone constitute 48% of all students in California public schools, as compared to 34% ten years ago.
Last school year, 77% of all California juniors passed the California High School Exit Exam (CASEE) in math and reading. The pass rate for Hispanic/Latino, African American and economically disadvantaged students hovered at 66%.
In 2006, more than 25% of physical science and 15% of life science high school teachers—more than 1,500 science teachers—were not qualified to teach the subject -- they had not majored in the subject and/or had not earned a teaching credential. And more than half of the under-prepared science teachers were assigned to schools serving the state’s high-poverty and minority students.
The National Science Foundation recently reported that in national comparisons of 8th graders, California students scored last in the country in sciences and 7th from the bottom in mathematics. Only 4% of ninth graders in California schools now go on to complete a bachelor’s degree in science, mathematics or engineering.
The results of the 2006 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) program in California showed that only 28% of all fifth graders scored at or above the proficient level in science. The numbers are worse for African American and Latino students, with only 14% of Latino and 16% of African American fifth graders achieving proficient scores.
The STAR results are similarly grim at the high school level, where fewer than one-third of all students performed at a proficient level in biology, chemistry or physics. Only 16% of Latino and 14% of African American eleventh graders scored at the proficient or advanced levels on the biology/life sciences test.
High school graduation rates are notoriously difficult to measure. However, the average freshman graduation rate in the U.S. in 2004 was 75%. This rate is the percentage of high school students who graduate with a regular diploma four years after starting 9th grade.
A 2007study commissioned by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation found that 80% of Bay Area K-5 teachers report spending less than 60 minutes each week on science, and 16% of teachers are spending no time at all on science.
Summary
America is facing a decline in the number of non-minority American men entering science and technology fields, a significant under-representation of women in the natural sciences and engineering, and an increasing number of ethnic minorities in the U.S., groups which traditionally have not gone into science and technology fields. In addition, K-12 education has suffered from budget cuts, teacher shortages, a revolving door of administrators, and the ebb and flow of pedagogical trends, resulting in greater and greater achievement gaps among our students. Finally, science policy is becoming increasingly complicated, requiring the general public and policy makers to understand in greater depth science and its broader implications, especially in emerging new fields such as bio-engineering and nano-scale science and technology. If these trends continue, we will inevitably see a decline in America's science and engineering capabilities and competitiveness in the global economy. Therefore, Stanford is committed to engaging in vigorous science outreach to enhance the scientific and technological literacy of our community and future workforce.
Kaye Storm, Director of the Office of Science Outreach
March 31, 2008
