I will be the first to tell you how important STEM education is, but talking about it is not enough. We need to provide our students with the resources they need, not only to get quality jobs that allow them to provide for their families but also to grow up to become productive members of our community. Our society needs more scientists, engineers, and mathematicians to solve the problems of our ever-changing world, and getting more workers in those areas starts with educating our students now.
A Major Experience Gap
Many of our students—90 percent of whom are Black and between 6 and 7 percent Latinx—grow up never meeting anyone who started a small business, ran a corporation, or invented a product. This opportunity and experience gap has profound implications on students’ social and economic mobility later in life.
At Rich Township District 227, we address those gaps in a variety of ways, including setting high expectations for our 2,600 students. Our team has rallied around the Rich Township mission, which is to sustain a focus on students and on student success. Each day, we expect them to be prepared, engaged, and focused. They rarely fail us. We have also reimagined our curriculum to offer students true learning with a purpose: we merged the district’s three high schools to create one “super school” with multiple campuses.
A student’s home base is determined by the career pathway he or she chooses as a first-year student—either science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) or fine arts, business, International Baccalaureate (IB), and communications. Some kids must move between campuses for their classes; we provide shuttles, but it is up to them to build travel time into their schedules. They must set challenging learning goals for themselves, whether they are heading to college or the workforce.
Both embody our overall strategy of supporting student agency. We expect our students to take responsibility for their own learning. Agency means discovering what motivates them, striving for continuous improvement, and rebounding from their “failures.” It is not only the key to learning but the cornerstone of a successful life.
Why STEM Education Is So Important
Employers are constantly on the lookout for viable employees with real-world experience in STEM fields, and we have millions of students graduating high school each year who could fill those empty positions if they are given the right opportunities in their education. Manufacturers and construction companies are at the top of the list of employers in need of qualified workers, and they need people who have had an education in one or more of the STEM fields. When we give our students access to STEM education, we provide them with opportunities, not only to be fiscally successful and provide for their families but also to build our cars, roads, bridges, buildings, and more.
Students with access to STEM educational materials and training have the added benefit of gaining stackable credentials. This means they can enter the workforce as soon as they graduate high school, or they have the option to pursue a college degree and build on the skills they developed in high school, leading to even more opportunities for their careers. What matters is giving them the choice to build the careers and lives they want for themselves.
When students are given access to a STEM education and can work in STEM fields, which tend to provide stable, lucrative jobs, this gives those students the opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty (or keep themselves and their families out of poverty). Families that are scally sound are less likely to rely on government programs and more likely to contribute to their communities and society, both scally and through volunteer programs.
The Importance of Working Together
The subtitle of this book says it all: “It Takes a Village to Raise a 21st Century Graduate.” I firmly believe that we are stronger together, and it is only by working together that we will accomplish our goals, both as educators and as a society. Just like we need more than one engineer and more than one scientist to provide the resources our society needs to grow and thrive, it takes more than one person to provide our students with the resources they need to grow holistically.
It is also important to remember that, as educators, we set an example for our students. When they see us working together to achieve a common goal, they will grow up with both an understanding of the importance of teamwork and the skills necessary to work in a team environment, which will better equip them to thrive in both their personal and professional lives. Teamwork is important in many industries, but it is especially important in STEM industries. Many manufacturers and construction companies require professionals from two or more of the STEM fields to work together to complete a project and to keep everyone involved safe throughout the duration of the project.
When students are raised to work well with others, they grow up to be better equipped to work on a team. That, in turn, will lead to better outcomes for the projects they work on.
Transforming Education to Emphasize STEM
Preparing our students for careers in STEM fields requires much more than just a few tweaks to our educational system. In some cases, it is going to require major transformations, so let’s look at some of the things we can do to provide our students with the resources they need to be successful STEM professionals.
Relate STEM to Their Daily Lives
Students who sit in class thinking, When am I ever going to use this? are much less likely to engage with the material, much less pursue the subject outside of class or in subsequent classes. The key to engaging students is to show them how the material they are learning is relevant in their day-to-day lives.
Understanding how their phones work or how the foods they eat can impact their athletic performance are lessons that are much more likely to grab their attention than a list of facts and numbers.
Training
Education provides students with the knowledge they need but not necessarily the skillset for the jobs manufacturers and construction companies need to fill. Most employers want workers with real-world experience in STEM fields, which means we need to devote some time each semester to getting kids out of the classroom and into environments where they can put into practice the laws and theories they learned in the classroom.
The great thing about implementing this part of the educational transformation is that there are so many opportunities for making this happen. It could be as simple as a class project to design and build something or run an experiment. Or it could be something more involved, such as an apprenticeship program in which students can work alongside professionals in the field on projects that will have a direct impact on their communities. That has the added benefit of giving students an opportunity to experience what an average day in their chosen profession would be like, which better enables them to choose a profession.
Mentorship Programs
Mentorship programs are incredibly important for giving students opportunities to see what is possible for them and to start charting a path to get to a successful career, whatever that means for them. There is a reason our country’s biggest companies invest in mentorship programs and encourage their employees to participate in them—it’s because they understand that employees who have access to a mentor are much more likely to be successful in their jobs.
For students, the effect is amplified because access to STEM professionals and business leaders can significantly widen a student’s perspective when it comes to understanding what their professional options are. This is one area where our educational system has consistently failed our students, especially in schools that primarily serve minorities. Schools whose students are most likely to live in poverty or belong to a racial or ethnic minority are least likely to have access to mentorship programs and yet are most in need of such programs. When these students are introduced to STEM professionals and business leaders, that gives them the opportunity to learn how they can follow in the footsteps of those professionals, which makes them much more likely to follow that path out of poverty and lift their communities up with them.
Start Teaching STEM Early
We start asking kids what they want to be when they grow up almost as soon as they start talking, yet we don’t give them access to all their options until much later in life, if ever. Many students don’t get any introduction to the STEM fields until high school or even college, but if no one taught them to cultivate an interest in STEM prior to that point, they are much less likely to be engaged in that kind of learning. This is especially true if they had to wait until college before getting an introduction to the STEM fields because by that point most students have already chosen their profession and are focused on taking classes that will help them get a job in that field.
Contrary to the widely held belief that STEM is only for advanced students, research has shown that kids can (and should) be introduced to STEM fields as early as elementary school. Most young children are very curious about their world and how things work and giving them the answers they seek is a great way to introduce them to STEM fields. This leads back to my first point about making STEM relevant to students’ daily lives to get them to consider STEM fields. The earlier you can accomplish that goal, the more likely they will be to pursue and maintain an interest in STEM.
Conclusion
Educators have a lot of progress to make when it comes to implementing STEM into our educational system, and there is no way to make all the improvements we need to make at the same time. We will need the cooperation of educators at every level, as well as parents and guardians. It is important to note that there is no end goal. Even if we think we know what the perfect STEM program looks like, that vision will likely change as we continue to see advancements made in all those fields, as well as in the educational system itself. But if we take even small steps toward filling those gaps and continue making progress toward our goal of a full STEM education for every student in America, we can change the future of this country.
About the Author
DR. JOHNNIE THOMAS
Dr. Johnnie Thomas is superintendent of Rich Township School District 227 where he has successfully brought innovation and transformation since 2017. The District 227 High Schools are unified in purpose with two campuses: the STEM Campus and the Fine Arts and Communications Campus. Under his leadership, District 227 focuses on the needs of the students while working with parents, staff, and the community. All students have Chromebooks and texts are digital. All students take part in AP courses and the IB program is strong. The district is financially stable with a balanced budget. GPAs improve, and more students become eligible for prestigious scholarships.
As a former superintendent of the Community High School District 155, Dr. Thomas was responsible for the successful delivery of comprehensive educational services to nearly 6,300 students who attend four high schools and an alternative education campus located in McHenry and Lake Counties. He is the eleventh superintendent in the district’s ninety-ve-year history and its first African American leader. Dr. Thomas’ ascent within public school systems began with his role as a School Social Worker with Chicago Public Schools District 299. He was Executive Director of Student Services for Valley View District 365-U from 2005 to 2009. He was Superintendent at Township High School District 214 where he led collaborative efforts to develop, implement, and evaluate services for special education students and faculty.
A Chicago Native
Dr. Thomas, a native of Chicago, received a doctorate from DePaul University, a master’s degree from Loyola University, and a bachelor’s degree from Southern Illinois University. He is an advisory board member of the Loyola University Chicago School of Education. He is a member of the Council for Exceptional Children, the American Association of School Administrators, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Dr. Thomas is a sought-after presenter and professional development facilitator on the topics of leadership, equity, differentiated education, and crisis intervention. He is the proud father of three children. Dr. Thomas is also a world traveler and particularly enjoys talking to global educators about how they prepare students to succeed.
