{"id":4028,"date":"2019-02-05T15:39:48","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T20:39:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/?p=4028"},"modified":"2020-08-17T17:34:14","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T17:34:14","slug":"stem-instruction-how-much-there-is-and-who-gets-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/2019\/02\/05\/stem-instruction-how-much-there-is-and-who-gets-it\/","title":{"rendered":"STEM Instruction: How Much There Is and Who Gets It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From: http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/curriculum\/2019\/01\/survey_gives_new_insights_into.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBy Sasha Jones on\n\nJanuary 8, 2019 3:55 PM\n<\/abbr><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a push for greater STEM instruction, students and teachers \ncontinue to experience inequitable access to STEM-related classes and \nresources, according to a new survey of 1,200 schools and 7,600 \nteachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This nationally representative study<\/a> is the sixth in a series of surveys on K-12 STEM education and college and career readiness dating back to 1977, but the first to put an emphasis on computer science and engineering. The\n survey, conducted by Horizon Reasearch, Inc. and commissioned by the \nNational Science Foundation, covered a variety of topics relevant to \nteachers, giving insights into instructional practices, course \nofferings, resources, and professional development participation in K-12\n math, science, and computer science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

“There has been such a huge push towards getting students access to \ncomputer science and this is the first time that we’ve been able to get \nsystematic data,” Sean Smith, one of the study’s co-principle \ninvestigators and the president of Horizon Research, Inc., said. “What I hope is that with this data we’ll have a better sense on how to move forward.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typically, the amount of STEM instruction increases as students age. \nThe survey shows that K-3 students spend an average of 57 minutes a day \non math and 18 minutes on science, compared to 89 minutes dedicated to \nreading\/language arts. In grades 4-6, this number increases to 63 \nminutes on math and 27 minutes on science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to having less class time dedicated to the subject \ncompared to reading\/language arts, science is also taught less \nfrequently, with 17 percent of K-3 classes and 35 percent of  classes in\n grades 4-6  receiving science instruction all or most days, every week \nof the school year. Other research shows<\/a> that students who are engaged in STEM by the time they are adolescents are more likely to pursue the field as adults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the majority of high schools offer some sort of biology\/life\n science, chemistry, or physics courses, about 4 in 10 high schools \noffer AP science courses in biology or physics, the two most commonly \noffered AP science courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, access to computer science instruction increases as \nstudents age. Twenty-six percent of elementary schools offer computer \nscience, while 38 percent of middle schools and 53 percent of high \nschools do the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, the proportion of students with access to computer \nscience instruction is higher than the proportion of schools offering \nit, indicating that larger high schools are more likely to offer courses\n than smaller schools. For example, at the high school level, 70 percent\n of students have access, while only 53 percent of schools offer \ninstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In science and math classes at the high school level, where such \nclasses are not always required each year, female students are just as \nlikely as male students to enroll. However, in computer science classes,\n the share of female students decreases to between 25 percent and 30 \npercent.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey also found that schools in the West (44 percent) and \nNortheast (43 percent) are more likely to offer computer science than \nschools in the Midwest (30 percent) and the South (24 percent).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For students, STEM education is often marketed as a gateway to \nhigher-paying jobs by researchers, government officials, business \ngroups, and educators. Stephen Sawchuk explored this idea\u2014 and its nuances<\/a>\u2014in a recent report<\/a> on STEM education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In examining the teaching force, the report found that the STEM \nteachers with the least experience are concentrated in high-poverty \nschools. Science teachers with five or fewer years of experience and \ncomputer science teachers with less than two years of experience are all\n more likely to teach in high-poverty schools than their \nmore-experienced teaching colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elementary school teachers are less likely to have a college or \ngraduate degree in science or math, while over 50 percent of high school\n teachers teaching the subject do. Only about 1 in 4 high school \ncomputer science teachers have a degree in the computer science field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, most teachers have participated in a professional \ndevelopment program or workshop in their field within the last three \nyears. Other common forms of professional development include working \nclosely with other science teachers from their school (55 percent to 62 \npercent) or other schools (47 percent to 54 percent), and using \ntextbooks\/modules from their classroom to experience lessons as their \nstudents would (40 percent to 45 percent). These numbers increase for \nmath and computer science teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, across math, science, and computer science, about 20 percent \nof teachers or fewer have had more than 35 hours of professional \ndevelopment in the last three years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Science teachers with over 35 hours of professional development are less likely to instruct classes with high proportions of students of color<\/a> or in small schools. However, the opposite is shown for math teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, about 30 percent of schools offer no teacher induction \nprograms, while a third of schools have programs that last a year or \nless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In applying this research, Eric Banilower, the lead author of the report and vice president of Horizon Research, Inc.,\n encourages policymakers and education leaders to ask “are we putting \nthe supports around teachers to enable them to teach science the way we \nenvision?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data will be analyzed in the next month to examine trends and \nfurther explore topics surveyed, including equity and the experience of \nbeginner teachers compared to their more-experienced counterparts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


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From: http:\/\/blogs.edweek.org\/edweek\/curriculum\/2019\/01\/survey_gives_new_insights_into.html By Sasha Jones on January 8, 2019 3:55 PM Despite a push for greater STEM instruction, students and teachers continue to experience inequitable access to STEM-related classes and resources, according to a new survey of 1,200 schools and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-teaching_tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4028"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4730,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4028\/revisions\/4730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dankohn.info\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}