Science Education: A National Crisis

When it comes to science, the education system has done a good job the past few decades encouraging women to pursue higher degrees and professional training in the sciences.

Now it appears we may have a problem with the males.

“We have a case of the disappearing male scientist,” Paul Clifford, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research (FIPR) told participants of the 2005 Regional Phosphate Conference during his luncheon Keynote address this fall.

Why would he think such a thing?

Women have moved from earning less than 5% of the Ph.D.s in science and engineering in the 1960s to earning 26.2% of the Ph.D.s in science and 17.5% of the Ph.D.s in engineering in 2002.

“That is great,” Dr. Clifford said, noting that the trend should mean even more women entering the fields in years to come. But the men, he said, are another story.

There were 3,100 U.S. male citizens who received Ph.D.s in the physical sciences in 1969 as compared to 1650 in 2002. Adjusting for population growth that’s a 62% reduction.

As interesting as those numbers are, the main message Clifford conveyed to the conference lunch audience was that male or female, America is not producing enough scientists and engineers to ensure the country’s economic, military and intellectual strength.

Military contractors have more than 3,000 unfilled positions for scientists and engineers right now, he said, yet they can’t find qualified people who can get security clearances.

America is not the strongest nation in the world because it has the biggest army, the most people or the most money, he said. Its strength comes from being the most technologically and scientifically advanced country in the world, Clifford told the audience.

The economy, public health and safety as well as our national defense, he said, are based on developments in science and technology.

Why does Clifford think the country is in danger of losing its lead? Consider the fact that U.S. students ranked 24th out of 29 industrialized countries, according to the Program for International Student Assessment. Similar results were found in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study.

And while the quality of the engineers and scientists America does produce is hard to measure, it is interesting to note, he said, that the technology school growing the fastest in stature in the world at the moment is the Indian Institute of Technology. It is ranked third in technology behind MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and UC Berkeley, but ahead of Stanford.

What will that mean to America, a country that has kept its intellectual lead by importing many of its brightest minds through immigration, especially at a time when the U.S. is tightening our borders in the interest of national security. Will we continue to be the haven we once were for brilliant minds seeking an open society that allows science to flourish? As the technical and scientific education in other countries advance, will the gifted keep coming to America for their education? If they do, will they stay?

What can be done?

Clifford offered what he called a “few modest proposals.”

“Outsource the defense of the United States to China or India,” he suggested half-jokingly. “We outsource everything else and we are actually already doing just this through our neglect of science education.

Or, develop programs to entice male U.S. citizens to go into science and engineering.

Or, create more high schools like (his alma mater) the Bronx High School of Science,” he said.

Bronx High School of Science is one of six specialized public high schools in New York City, Each year thousands of students from the five boroughs of New York City take a comprehensive examination containing both math and verbal questions in hopes of winning a seat at the school founded in 1938 to specialize in math and science. To graduate with a Bronx Science diploma, every student must complete required courses and pass New York State Regents exams in English, Global History, U.S. History, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Math and a Foreign Language.

Bronx Science Alumni will say that their alma mater's mission is "To provide educational and social opportunities that are unique for gifted and talented students so as to prepare them for meaningful and useful roles in science and society."

"It is considered an elitist school," Clifford said, adding that some use that as a criticism of the school. To the contrary, that’s exactly what is needed to make students with an interest in science and math, feel that society values science and math training at least as much as football training.

To make sure his audience understood his point, Clifford made it clear that he is a sports enthusiast. His problem is not with sports. His problem, he said, is that society invests far more in supporting and promoting sports than it does in supporting and promoting the development of its future scientists. Training young minds in science and math, he said, must - like sports, music and art – start early.

Football players win awards, he said. Science students get certificates. Football players are called heroes. Science students are called nerds. The average salary for full professors at universities is $104,411. The golf coach at the University of Texas earns the same.  

Do schools like the Bronx Science public school make a difference?

At least six of its graduates have been awarded Nobel Prizes in physics. But the goal, Clifford said is not to produce prize winners. It is to encourage any student who wants to expand their knowledge and understanding of science and math.

Is science and math just for nerds, he asked.

Writers E. L. Doctorow and William Saffire are graduates as is former Secretary of Defense Harold Brown. Then there is perhaps the most famous Bronx Science graduate - Walden Robert Cassoto.

”Who’s is that,” Clifford asked. “Bobby Darin,” teen idol of the 1950s.

January 2006