Working on Diversity in STEM Education

The Einstein Project has teamed up with administrators and educators from Green Bay Area Public Schools and the School District of South Milwaukee to tackle the issue of under-representation in STEM education.  Our team was selected by the Smithsonian Science Education Center to attend a Teacher Leadership Summit at Howard University in Washington, DC on February 23-25, 2018.  The event sponsored by the Shell Oil Company aims to help teams create plans for attracting, retaining, and developing a diverse STEM teaching workforce in their districts.

By increasing representation among STEM teachers, the group hopes to in turn increase the diversity of STEM students and subsequent career opportunities available to them.  Every child in our classrooms should feel empowered to be anything they want to be. But to make this a reality, students need role models who look like them to pave the way, proving they can achieve anything they set their minds to. According to the American Association of Colleges for Teachers of Education, 45% of America’s PK-12 population are students of color whereas the teachers that look like them make up only 17.5% of the teaching workforce. What’s more, while STEM-related jobs are growing rapidly, only a small fraction of students graduating with STEM degrees come from underrepresented populations.