You Can't Get Out of the Starting Blocks without Motivation

Speech given to the Arkansas Science and Technology Authority in Little Rock, AR

Thank you for inviting me to talk about building the workforce talent pool we need in the United States – especially in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. I’m going to speak briefly on the national perspective, based on opinion research Public Agenda has been conducting for several years, and then our panel discussion will focus in on the opportunities and challenges right here in Arkansas.

As we all know, without drive, one doesn’t compete – without drive, you never even make it into the starting blocks. If there is one message that I want for you to take away today, it is this: on math and science education, there is very little drive among the real consumers of education – parents and students across the nation – to change the situation as it exists today. And if the United States, generally, and Arkansas, specifically, are going to rise above the gathering storm and build the talent pool our economy will require, then this is a serious challenge that can’t be overlooked.

Before I talk about what we believe are the key findings of our research on math and science education, I’m going to say just a few words about Public Agenda and why we conducted this research to determine if America’s parents and students are truly ready for more math and science education.

Public Agenda is a non-partisan, non-profit opinion research organization founded by Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance over 30 years ago. We specialize in opinion research and public engagement on complex, poorly-understood public policy issues ranging from foreign policy to energy to education. Because of our distinctive focus and history, we bring to all of our work a unique grasp of how public opinion develops over time, and special skills in doing “gap analysis” – all of which was truly brought to bear in this most recent research on public attitudes about the STEM subjects.

By “gap analysis” I mean the differences in attitudes and beliefs between America’s leaders – government, business, non-profit – and the public at large. And, I’m certain it won’t surprise you to learn that the gap here is immense.

The national opinion research we did in 2006 and 2007 – and, indeed, for more than a decade before that – reflects our belief that the drive to transform American education is at a critical juncture. We believe public education reform can attract broad and sustained support but not without astute leadership and genuine community engagement. Without a sincere effort to bring a broader group of Americans into the movement, we fear that the momentum for change could weaken, leaving the country with too many school systems beset with weaknesses and inequities. Our math and science research among parents and students in grades 6-12 certainly reinforces that belief.

The overall picture from our studies is this – while neither parents nor their children underestimate the role science and math now plays – and will play – in the future world of work, leaders working for major high school reform need to do a lot more homework themselves to get both groups signed on to the idea that science and math offerings in American schools need to be strengthened.

Families are aware of the challenge in a general sense, but relatively few see this as the pre-eminent issue facing their local high schools. More important, relatively few families seem to absorb its implications in their own personal lives. Despite giving lip service to the notion that American schools should be competitive, parents clearly don’t see the need to increase math and science coursework for their own kids.

Parents start from a vastly different mindset than employers, who are seeing the skills that many young people bring – or don’t bring – to the workplace. Majorities of parents say that the high school science and math education their children are getting will adequately prepare them for college and the work world. What’s more, they also say that schools are better now than when they were growing up – and harder, too. So they do not see the urgency of the problem, even if they agree with the idea that these subjects are important to American competitiveness around the world.

Indeed, most parents support proposals to make high schools more competitive. More than 70% said that “updating high school classes to better match the skills employers want” will go a long way to improve education in the United States, and two-thirds said “greatly increasing the number and quality of math and science courses students take in the high schools” would improve education. Additionally, when asked a forced choice question, most parents agreed that it’s “crucial for most of today’s students to learn higher- level math skills like algebra and calculus – they are the gateway to success in college and work” rather than “most students don’t need to study higher math skills like advanced algebra and calculus – all most really need in life is good basic math skills.”

But where the rubber really hits the road, most parents said their child takes enough math and science now. Parents of high school students are even more likely to say the current situation is satisfactory. If there is a problem, they say, it’s about how to make sure struggling students learn the basics in math and science. In fact, parents’ concerns about math and science education have actually fallen since the mid-1990s. In 1994, when we asked parents if they thought that kids not being taught enough math and science was a serious problem, the majority, 52%, said it was a serious problem. Now, only 40% say it is a serious problem. Clearly, there’s a lot to be done among today’s parents to build greater urgency and demand for strengthened coursework in math and science.

Like their parents, most students seem to support revamping high school curricula for a competitive, technologically-oriented world. But, like their parents, relatively few students seem to think about this issue as one that hits close to home. When asked about a variety of possible problems at their schools, concerns about lack of emphasis on science and math is near the bottom of the list. Like their parents, students are much more concerned about social issues such as a disrespectful atmosphere in the classroom, class-cutting and cheating by other students. And, despite widely-publicized predictions about the role science and technology will play in the future, nearly four in 10 students say they would be quite unhappy if they ended up in a career with a math or science focus.

We also survey principals and superintendents regularly, and they, too, generally believe current curricula and requirements are fine. Why? They agree with their students that there are other, more urgent, needs to address. There are fires everywhere to attend to, and for many of today’s school leaders this isn’t on fire – yet.

So far, I’ve given you a lot of bad news. But before I turn to some better news, let me say this – on any given emerging national issue, you can bet that the public will be roughly 10 years behind policy leaders in focusing their attention on examining the various options for change. Leadership – especially local leadership – is essential to make anything happen on policy issues such as this. You allocate resources; you make decisions about teachers, curriculum and requirements; and you engage all the important constituencies – just as you’re doing with conferences like this one.

So, what were some of the bright spots in our research? Despite widely-publicized concerns about how few young women pursue higher degrees and professional work in math and science, the findings in our survey showed no significant differences between the attitudes of girls versus boys. Majorities of both girls and boys endorsed the idea of improving science and math education in high schools as a general concept. Although fairly large numbers of students rejected the idea of a math or science career for themselves, girls are were no more likely to say this than boys.

However, there are some differences in attitudes between minority and white students. Minority high schoolers are more likely to consider math and science “absolutely essential” for “real world” success and to say that more and better math and science courses would improve high schools. African-American students are more likely to believe that kids are not being taught enough math and science, and that it is a serious problem.

Our most recent research focused on the neighboring states of Missouri and Kansas. It indicated that the push there and around the country to make algebra a much more essential subject to students and parents seems to have paid off. This is a valuable lesson. Engaging the public can turn attitudes around. And I can report that fewer kids there perceive the STEM disciplines as the realm of nerds or other social undesirables. The vast majority of students we talked to – over 80% – also said that ability in math and science is something that kids can learn in school and develop with experience. They strongly reject the notion that this ability is something people are born with.

So, as we see it, despite the negative starting point I described in these attitudes, the picture is one of opportunity. As one of my heroes, John Gardner, said many years ago, “What we have today are breathtaking opportunities disguised as insoluble problems.”

There is a lot of openness to the general idea of more rigorous math and science curricula, and leadership across the country and right here in Arkansas is focused on increasing the supply side of the “opportunity” equation here – more and better science and math teachers, new offerings of technology and even engineering courses in high school, improving the curriculum (including even relatively strong support for national curricula in these subjects), and strengthening high school and college requirements. But there needs to be a lot more work done to create compelling incentives and real demand for these courses within our middle schools and high schools.

Our challenge, then, is twofold – we have to ratchet up the sense of urgency and personal stake in this area, and we need dramatic, persuasive and motivating incentives for students and their parents.

As leaders in government, business and education move forward to address this issue, and as they build a strong leadership consensus to act, they would be well-advised to also reach out to parents and students directly. It’s likely that we’ll need a combination of “carrots” and “sticks” to make a real impact here in order to mobilize much greater numbers of potential STEM-focused students.

On the “carrot” side, we believe that leaders must reach out to American families and help them understand the economic and educational challenges the country faces. But perhaps the most important role for American political and business leadership is to create an inspirational vision of the opportunities that math and science careers can provide to today’s students.

Because students today clearly don’t get the picture. Nor do they believe success in high school STEM coursework is absolutely necessary in order to be looked upon favorably by post-high-school institutions (both colleges and specialized training institutions). So, on the “stick” side, increasing math and science requirements in order to be accepted to universities and other educational institutions would likely have a direct impact.

Another “carrot” incentive that was looked on favorably was increased scholarships for students entering college with advanced math and science skills developed in high school.

I have spent many years of my career working on communications strategies aimed at motivating young adults to adopt (or not adopt) certain behaviors – for instance, don’t smoke, wear a seatbelt, join the Army, or volunteer in your community. I would not say these were easy communications challenges, but they were not impossible.

There are several key things I’ve learned in this work. One of the most important is that the “cosmic problem” rarely works as a motivator. The fact that there is a serious problem in this country – that is, the United States is falling way behind other countries in technological training – is not a compelling enough story to get a 13-year-old to take advanced algebra. In our research, this fact was at the bottom of the list of things that would encourage students to take advanced math and science classes.

The second thing is that parents have a much greater influence on their children’s choices than most people think – especially parents of teenagers who believe that their kids don’t listen to anything they say. This is especially true in regard to career choices. Actually, the greatest influence parents have in this regard is that they primarily influence what careers not to consider. So, the task here is to encourage parents to keep this math and science career option open in the minds of their children. We need to get parents on our side on this one. Our research suggests that parents may be even more complacent than their children here. Special attention and encouragement with parents is absolutely critical to advancing the cause.

And finally, young people, for all their ironic, even cynical, coolness today, respond to big visions and heroic action. For example, they have very limited understanding of what careers are available to them as scientists, beyond the lab-coat image. I would actually point to the allied health field as an example of a career field that has grown dramatically as a very wide range of careers in health – besides doctors, dentists and nurses – has emerged in the minds of students.

I urge everyone here to engage with students today to understand their hopes and dreams... to let them see the opportunities and potential for them right where they live. We must try to develop an inspiring vision that will help us build a new generation of talented and innovative math and science professionals.

It won’t be easy – students today have many more career choices than we had. But, it surely won’t happen unless we all find those bold, creative ways to challenge kids to reach higher.

We sincerely believe that communities that take the time and effort to seriously and respectfully engage their citizens – parents, students, school leaders and teachers, as well as political, business and civic leaders – can greatly increase the quality of the talent pool now and into the future. Being here today, I suspect you all agree with me on that point.

Thank you very much for inviting me to join you today. It was an honor to address you.