William Floyd, head of external affairs at Google, spoke of the importance of interventions and supports for students, especially black and brown students and girls of all races, who, studies show, are more easily derailed from pursuing STEM studies. “At around the fifth and sixth grades, they start sorting themselves out,†of the STEM pipeline, Floyd said. He recommends interventions in the curriculum and stressed the need for parental support, which research shows, he said, is especially critical for black and brown students and girls.
An exciting offering in New York City public schools is SEP, or Software Engineering Pilot. A program currently offered in 18 middle schools and high schools, it provides a three-year (in middle schools) and four-year (in high schools) sequence in core computer science curriculum. The goals of the program are, according to its website (www.sepnyc.org), to increase the number of high school graduates, particularly from underrepresented groups, that are ready to enter STEM fields; and to develop students’ computational thinking and problem solving skills. Debbie Marcus, deputy executive director of strategy and innovation in the Office of Postsecondary Readiness at the New York City Department of Education, noted that an important part of the sequence is to get students to persist through failure. “They have to learn to get comfortable with failure, to figure it out–because that’s what working in STEM in real life is like.â€
Commissioner Bill Chong, who heads the Department of Youth and Community Development; and Tiana McFarlane, director of education and technology at the New York Urban League, also served on the panel, which was moderated by Ben Chapman, education reporter at the New York Daily News.
A highlight of the event was the availability of NYUL’s new booklet, A Parent’s Guide to STEM, the result of an extraordinary collaboration between entities in higher education, media, and the nonprofit and for-profit sectors. The NYUL’s Arva Rice says that the guide’s goals are to dispel myths about STEM in the minority community; to demystify STEM and expose its connection to our daily lives; and to get students and parents excited about STEM career possibilities. The guide is available for download here. Quantities of up to 19 can be ordered free of charge; an order of 20 copies or more will incur shipping and handling charges but is otherwise also free. The demand for STEM jobs and the need for African Americans in the space compelled Rice and her team to work at filling the gap.
For more on the New York Urban League, one of 94 affiliates across the country, and its important work in the areas of education, STEM, and employment, go to www.nyul.org.