By Deb Harding
You can’t read the news without stumbling onto an article related to the STEM skills gap.
In many schools around the country, including my own in Colorado, educators and students are opting into problem-based learning and STEM programs to help fill that gap. Yet early benchmarks indicate this approach is not yet producing the science, technology, engineering, and math workers we need.
The STEM sector experienced job growth of 10.5 percent between 2009 and 2015, compared with a net growth of only 5.2 in non-STEM occupations, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet, only 26 percent of ACT-tested high school graduates met a “college ready” benchmark in STEM in 2016, according to a report from the testing organization.
And then there is the divide between low-income and affluent school districts. Where I teach, many of my students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and don’t have access to STEM professionals within their daily lives. They have hard-working role models, but not necessarily people who are engaged in the computer science field, the subject I teach…
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