About 37,000 new math and science educators will be ready to teach America’s students by the year 2016, thanks to a big push by large philanthropies like Carnegie, Gates, and Helmsley, working alongside corporate grant makers.
As part of that effort, foundations and charities are also stepping up efforts to bring more women and minorities into the study of the hard sciences and to open that career path to those groups as well as to low-income students.
The momentum behind philanthropy’s efforts to support education in science, technology, engineering, and math—commonly known as STEM—comes from a desire to jump-start the economy by promoting innovation and creating better-paying jobs for many Americans. In the past four years, private and corporate grant makers have committed at least $175-million to developing more STEM students and teachers.
The Carnegie Corporation of New York has committed $56-million over the past five years, making it among the biggest backers of STEM efforts. It largely focuses on raising teaching standards in math and science, says Michele Cahill, vice president of the foundation’s national program, which is driven largely by an interest in promoting better job options for the needy.
“Changes in our economy have led to a lack of social mobility,” she says. “Education is one way we can combat that.”
Boost From Obama
STEM’s popularity with grant makers got a big boost from President Obama, whose willingness to collaborate with the nonprofit world has cast him repeatedly in the role of nonprofit fundraiser-in-chief.
Just last month, he announced a new White House effort to improve the lives of young black and Hispanic males, attracting $200-million in new commitments for the cause from foundations after seeking their help in his State of the Union address.
He also invited grant makers to join his work after he pledged in his State of the Union speech three years ago to train 100,000 people within a decade for teaching jobs in math and science.
Some grant makers say that supporting STEM education gives them an opportunity for them to make the most of the president’s endorsement and to seed social change.
“The government understands it cannot move in an entrepreneurial way, but it can set the tone and have foundations run with this,” says Paula Golden, executive director of the Broadcom Foundation, the philanthropy arm of the semiconductor company.
“That foundations can lead by innovation is a major motivator for grant makers in STEM.”
Major Support
Support for STEM education has been marked by big commitments and collaboration:
- The Posse Foundation, a nonprofit that identifies promising low-income students and works with them to help them succeed in college, announced in January that 10 universities would commit a total of $70-million in scholarships for Posse’s STEM students in nine major cities.
- Carnegie Corporation of New York’s $56-million commitment includes $19-million for a program called 100kin10, which aims to help fulfill Mr. Obama’s goal of increasing the ranks of STEM teachers. The project, begun in 2011, includes 200 partner organizations and 27 donors, among them corporations, individuals, and private foundations. So far, 100kin10 has raised $62-million for the cause and says by 2016 it is expected to be more than one-third of the way toward its goal of producing 100,000 certified math and science teachers.
- The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has poured $30-million into STEM programs since it began supporting such efforts two years ago, including $10-million for higher-education institutions.
- The STEM Funders Network, founded in 2010, now includes 17 members, including Carnegie, the S.D. Bechtel Jr. and Gill foundations, and companies like Time Warner, Chevron, Motorola, and Nascar.
Needs Unclear
But some researchers question whether the assumptions of grant makers, policy makers, tech companies, and Mr. Obama are proven.
Contrary to many assertions, data from the National Center for Education Statistics show steady increases in the number of students who have taken high-level science and math courses over the past decade or more, contrary to many foundations’ assertions.
Some researchers of the STEM labor force say that pumping tens of thousands of teachers into school systems may not be the best use of charitable dollars.
More broadly, they say, STEM education is dominating the national discourse even as statistics show that too few college science and math graduates are getting jobs in those fields.
“I wonder if foundations are doing little more than playing in the echo chamber here,” says Hal Salzman, a professor of planning and public policy at Rutgers University whose writings have challenged the notion that America has a shortage of STEM workers.
Colleges now graduate twice as many STEM majors as there are jobs available in their fields, according to research conducted by Mr. Salzman and others for the Economic Policy Institute. Although some will start their own businesses, “there’s no evidence that bumping up the number of teachers will increase innovation or that STEM grads will create their own jobs,” Mr. Salzman says.
Male Dominated
However, he does find one aspect of philanthropy’s support for STEM education laudable: its efforts to open the field to more women, minorities, and people from low-income backgrounds. “The numbers back that up,” he says.
White males dominate the hard sciences. Women make up only 24 percent of scientists and engineers while blacks make up 6 percent of the STEM work force and Hispanics 7 percent, according to federal data. In the overall work force, each of those groups usually makes up about twice those percentages.
The Posse Foundation is looking to expand its STEM programs. Most of the 660 students who will be chosen to participate in those programs will be black or Latino.
The charity, which has also received grants for its STEM programs from the Ford and Lumina foundations, along with the Tortora Sillcox Family Foundation, will arrange a pre-college immersion course for the students. After that, the charity will help track and monitor their academic progress, and assign them faculty mentors.
“There is a need for more diversity, particularly in STEM leadership positions,” says Deborah Bial, president of the Posse Foundation. “It’s important that our kids can ascend to those levels.”
Resurrecting a Program
In response to the demand for more STEM education and the promise of new support, some charities are looking to start or expand efforts to teach teenagers and younger children math and science.
Officials at YWCA USA want to resurrect a national program called TechGYRLS, which the nonprofit started in 1997 in an attempt to close the STEM gender gap. After the organization was restructured in 2001, only a few of its regional chapters maintained the program.
One local group, the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh, not only hung on to its TechGYRLS after-school program for needy and mostly African-American girls but added a new program for elementary-school girls, as well as a third program to train some after-school care providers in how to teach science.
The Pittsburgh YWCA has received grants for the program from local foundations and the United Way of Allegheny County. Now it wants to more than double its capacity so it can reach as many as 750 girls over the next three years.
“Wouldn’t it be great if down the road we could do this for a fee at wealthier schools and then use that money to grow our programs?” says Magdeline Jensen, head of the YWCA Greater Pittsburgh. “Another dream idea we had is to get individual sponsors for each kid, but we haven’t been able to develop that yet.”
At YWCA USA, officials want to use the Pittsburgh group as a model for reviving TechGYRLS nationwide.
“They’ve stayed current, responded to the needs of the community, and are looking to serve needy populations, including girls in rural areas,” says Casey Harden, vice president for association services.
The national organization will seek out an academic partner to help it develop a new curriculum and will look for older women in the STEM field to find out why they have stayed in careers that so many women leave.
“We really want to be a thought leader on this,” says Ms. Harden.
The organization has little worry about finding support for it.
“Corporate partners could see this as a pipeline to future employees, while academic institutions could see it as a pipeline for students,” says Ms. Harden.
“And there are foundations getting involved,” she says. “It looks like there’s funding for this kind of program now.”
Supporting Science and Math Studies: a Sampling of Recent Grants
Altria Foundation: $1-million, to the Science Museum of Virginia to get middle-school students to participate in afterschool science programs.
Annenberg Foundation: $1-million, to increase the number of math and science teachers in California public schools.
GM Foundation: $2.9-million total, to 26 U.S. organizations and universities to advance science education.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute: $22.5-million, to UTeach, in Austin, Tex., to encourage science and math students to pursue careers in education.
Burton D. Morgan Foundation: $96,800, to Invent Now, for summer youth programs at four Camp Invention sites, which help kids learn about science and technology.
Charles Stewart Mott Foundation: $500,000, to the McLean Hospital, in Belmont, Mass. to increase the number of students interested in pursuing science careers.
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation: $200,000, to Salvadori Center, in New York, to provide STEM programs in schools and professional development for teachers.