An Update on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)
From Elizabeth Murray
 This month PCAST released its report entitled "Engage to Excel: Producing One Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics." This report provides a strategy for improving STEM education during the first two years of college, but that strategy is certainly relevant to those of us in the K-12 STEM Community. Below is an excerpt from that report along with the PCAST Committee’s five recommendations.
“The reasons students give for abandoning STEM majors point to the retention strategies that are needed. For example, highperforming students frequently cite uninspiring introductory courses as a factor in their choice to switch majors. And lowperforming students with a high interest and aptitude in STEM careers often have difficulty with the math required in introductory STEM courses with little help provided by their universities. Moreover, many students, and particularly members of groups underrepresented in STEM fields, cite an unwelcoming atmosphere from faculty in STEM courses as a reason for their departure.
Better teaching methods are needed by university faculty to make courses more inspiring, provide more help to students facing mathematical challenges, and to create an atmosphere of a community of STEM learners. Traditional teaching methods have trained many STEM professionals, including most of the current STEM workforce. But a large and growing body of research indicates that STEM education can be substantially improved through a diversification of teaching methods. These data show that evidencebased teaching methods are more effective in reaching all students—especially the “underrepresented majority”—the women and members of minority groups who now constitute approximately 70% of college students while being underrepresented among students who receive undergraduate STEM degrees (approximately 45%). This underrepresented majority is a large potential source of STEM professionals.”
Recommendations from PCAST Committee:
- Catalyze widespread adoption of empirically validated teaching practices.
- Advocate and provide support for replacing standard laboratory courses with discovery-based research courses.
- Launch a national experiment in postsecondary mathematics education to address the math preparation gap.
- Encourage partnerships among stakeholders to diversify pathways to STEM careers.
- Create a Presidential Council on STEM Education with leadership from the academic and business communities to provide strategic leadership for transformative and sustainable change in STEM undergraduate education.
Download the entire PCAST Report here.
Elizabeth Murray is Project Manager for MIT BLOSSOMS.
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