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Jacob Heinz
Mrs. Warneke
English 12
16 December 2015
Derivers Wanted: Solutions to the STEM Deficit
According to a report by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
in 2012, the United States will need around 1 million more STEM professionals than it will
produce at the current rate by 2022 (Xue and Larson). STEM, which stands for Science
Technology Engineering and Mathematics, is important because STEM professionals are vital to
the current way of life. They have been instrumental in the development of essentially all of the
technology that is taken for granted today. The problem that faces the US today is a lack of
STEM professionals. Each of the causes and proposed solutions to this problem must be
analyzed in order to truly understand the impact and extent of each. There are three main causes
for the STEM deficit that lie in k-12 education, colleges, and the job market, but there are many
possible solutions the most impactful of which are increasing STEM education, encouraging
STEM based clubs, training more teachers, and standardizing math and science education.
The main cause of the STEM deficit lies in the lack of experiences in and general dislike
for STEM classes in middle school and high school students. The number of opportunities
students have for exposure STEM in high school varies, but is generally a small amount. The
only real STEM experience which is common to all schools is Math. Unfortunately Math is one
of the most disliked classes in schools and even students who do well in math dont always go
into STEM careers. According to the Georgetown center on education and the workforce only

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1/4 of high school seniors who test in the top math quartile start with a STEM major (Carnevale,
Smith, and Melton).
Another main cause of the STEM deficit lies in the colleges which train STEM
employees and the businesses that hire them. Colleges have an obscenely high attrition rate for
people in STEM majors and, according to the national center for education statistics, forty eight
percent of STEM based bachelor degree students either switched to a non STEM major or
dropped out of college (Chen 14). STEM inclined students who reach college are likely to run
into a brick wall of tough classes designed to weed out those who lack the motivation or the
ability to graduate. These classes do their job almost too well as they leave only those who are
extremely gifted or stubborn. Obviously this means that the colleges get the best of the best, but
the biggest side effect is a shortage of graduates with STEM degrees. This thinned pool of
graduates does eventually reach the workforce where the final contributing factor to the STEM
deficit hits. The problem in the workforce is that STEM skills are useful in more than just
STEM jobs. This explains why 19% of college students graduate in a STEM major, but only 8%
are working in a STEM occupation 10 years later (Carnevale, Smith, and Melton). These
intelligent students with useful skills get offers to higher paying positions that are not directly
related to STEM. These three factors combine to create the STEM deficit that challenges us
today. With so many factors to this problem, one must look at many possible solutions.
A fairly simple way to increase student interest in STEM is education through increased
numbers of STEM classes or events such as STEM days. Students just arent getting enough
exposure to STEM principles and thus have little interest. A straightforward way to solve this
issue is to offer more STEM classes to raise student awareness. A STEM education day would
be comparatively easier and accomplish the same result, albeit to a lesser degree. Either of these

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approaches, if accomplished, could greatly alter the mindset of those who are uninformed on the
topic and encourage them to look past the hard work and to see the rewards to working in a
STEM career. A great example of one of these rewards is that the mean wage for employees in
STEM fields is nearly double the mean wage of employees in the United States which many
students just dont realize (Sargent 7). The main drawback with these is that they could be
construed as discouraging other careers and would require quite a bit of prior organization even
if they were only at a local level. They also would require resources to be diverted away from
other potentially useful programs.
Another way to increase STEM interest is to encourage STEM based clubs outside of
school. Robotics clubs or engineering clubs would show more aspects of STEM than just math
in a fun environment while still teaching students. Separating STEM from school could also
serve to reduce the stereotype that STEM is for geeks and nerds only. Even the fact that some
subject has a club based around it can greatly increase the awareness of that subject. Clubs
unfortunately require a dedicated leader who is willing and able to devote large amounts of time
which can be extremely hard to come by. There is also the problem of initial membership as a
club would need to surpass the inherent assumptions of nerdiness in the beginning.
The government has its own ideas on the shortage and has come up with a multitude of
possible solutions. In 2012, the President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology
made 7 recommendations to improve Americas STEM position. The council recommended that
the US support shared standards in science and math, train many new STEM focused teachers,
reward high performing STEM teachers, use technology more in schools, create STEM
experiences outside the classroom, create new STEM based schools, and create a strong
leadership for this movement (Prepare... 11). While each of these have their merits, the two

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government suggestions which appear most impactful are the training of new teachers and
supporting shared standards.
The first important government recommendation is to train 100,000 new and effective
STEM teachers for this country. Establishing this new teaching workforce would form a strong
pushing force making it far easier to implement other recommendations. These new teachers
would be able to exponentially increase the exposure of students to STEM. The two largest
problems with this solution are that the teachers unfortunately have to be taken from the pool of
students who are interested in STEM careers and the cost of the training. These are problematic
because the STEM career market is already lacking in employees. A large sum of money both to
train the teachers and to attract them to the job in the first place would be required. This would
also bring up the question of how to train the teachers as there is currently no set formula for
teaching STEM.
The second impactful government recommendation is to support the current state-led
movement for shared standards in math and science. One of the ways that the US tracks its
progress in math and science is through the trends in mathematics and science study (TIMSS)
which compares samples of students from the international community. The United States has
been lagging behind in these areas with 4th and 8th graders placing 11th and 8th respectively in
the TIMMS (Mullis 40-43). Some believe that if Math and Science were to be standardized, it
would be easier to track STEM education across schools which in turn would lead to easier
identification of problem areas. Once problem areas are located, they can be addressed far more
efficiently than if one were to try to fix the whole system at once. Unfortunately standardizing
the curriculum could inhibit those teachers who teach in an effective yet unorthodox method. If
that were to happen, this change could even prove to be counterproductive as new ideas are

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essential to addressing this problem. This solution, like the other government made ones, has its
merits, but would require a large amount of coordination, money, energy, and time which is why
local changes must be considered as well.
In my opinion the best hybrid of the solutions mentioned before would consist of more
STEM information in communities, STEM based clubs, and the training of new STEM focused
teachers. The reason standardization is not a part of my solutions is that it partially suppresses
more innovative teachers with set standards when innovation is what is most needed. Each of
these solutions would benefit each other greatly as they make a loop where interested students
become STEM teachers who create STEM clubs, classes, or information days which get more
students interested in STEM careers and starts the loop again. Once this loop is started, more
students will go to college for STEM degrees and the STEM deficit will cease to exist. With this
problem alleviated, the United States can continue at to improve its rate of technological
development and bring itself ever closer to a better tomorrow.

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Works Cited
Carnevale, Anthony P., Nicole Smith, and Michelle Melton. STEM. Center on Education and
the Workforce. Georgetown University, 20 Oct. 2011. Web. 4 Oct. 2015.
Chen, Xianglei. STEM Attrition: College Students Paths Into and Out of STEM Fields.
National Center for Education Statistics. U.S. Department of Education, 26 Nov. 2013.
Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Mullis, Ina V.S. et al. TIMSS 2011 International Results in Mathematics. TIMSS 2011. TIMSS
& PIRLS International Study Center, Lynch School of Education, Boston College, 2012.
Web. 1 Oct. 2015.
Prepare and Inspire: K-12 Education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
for Americas Future. The White House. Presidents Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology, Sept. 2010. Web. 5 Oct. 2015.
Sargent, John F. The U.S. Science and Engineering Workforce: Recent, Current, and Projected
Employment, Wages, and Unemployment. Federation of American Scientists.
Federation of American Scientists, 19 Feb. 2014. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.
Xue, Yi, and Richard Larson. STEM crisis or STEM surplus? Yes and Yes. Bureau of Labor
Statistics. United States Department of Labor, May 2015. Web. 30 Sept. 2015.