Thread by @BonicMichael

The State of American Science, Technology, Engineering & Math is DISMAL
[It's the country w/ the best science, technology & brain power that wins the race, stupid]

America’s STEM Crisis Threatens Our National Security
by Arthur Herman
americanaffairsjournal.org/2019/02/americ…

2/“The Current State of U.S. STEM Education
What is the current state of STEM education in America? One of the most important benchmarks for measuring STEM proficiency in the United States and around the world is the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Every

3/"three years it measures reading ability, math and science literacy, and other key skills among fifteen-year-olds in a large number of developed and developing countries.

The most recent PISA results date from 2015. The United States ranked thirty-eighth out of seventy-one

4/"countries in math and twenty-fourth in science. Among the thirty-five members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (the PISA’s principal sponsor), the United States comes in fifth from the bottom in math and nineteenth in science…

In summing up the

5/"state of STEM in America, the Trump administration’s “Charting a Course for Success” report puts the best spin it can on the STEM issue. It asserts that “Americans’ basic STEM skills have modestly improved over the past two decades” but also admits that we “continue to lag

6/"behind many other countries” and that “recent data from a test commonly taken by college-bound high school students found that only 20% are ready for courses typically required for a STEM major.” On the other hand, the report said, “in the past 15 years, India and China have

7/"outpaced the United States in the number of science and engineering (S&E) bachelor’s degrees conferred.” Indeed, “these two countries have produced almost half of the total degrees, with India at 25% and China at 22% of the global total.” Meanwhile, “American S&E bachelor’s

8/"degrees comprised only 10% of the global total…

Overall, the data shows that the enrollment of international students in U.S. science and engineering college and university programs has been steadily rising since 2008, while the number of U.S. citizens and permanent

9/"residents enrolled in such programs has steadily declined…

In 2017, 62 percent of all international students in graduate programs at U.S. institutions were enrolled in S&E fields—69 percent of those came from China and India.
In fact, according to the National Foundation for

10/"American Policy, both undergraduate majors and graduate programs at many U.S. universities could not be maintained without international students. Foreign nationals account for 81 percent of the full-time graduate students in electrical engineering, 79 percent in computer

11/"science, 75 percent in industrial engineering, 69 percent in statistics, 63 percent in mechanical engineering, 59 percent in civil engineering, and 57 percent in chemical engineering. Without international students, the number of full-time students pursuing graduate degrees

12/"in the fields of computer science, electrical engineering, and other fields would be shockingly small for an economy as large as America’s…

Overall, the proportion of international PhD-level students on temporary visas to study STEM subjects in the United States has doubled

13/"over the past thirty years. A July 2016 report by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation argued that if current trends continue, international students will comprise half of U.S. STEM PhD graduates by 2020…

Today China is the world leader in number of STEM graduates. The

14/"World Economic Forum reported that China had 4.7 million recent STEM graduates in 2016, and India had 2.6 million new STEM graduates, while the United States had only 568,000. China’s president Xi Jinping has repeatedly declared that his aim is to transform the country into

15/"a “science and technology superpower.” This is an essential part of his “Made in China 2025” program announced late last year, and China’s larger agenda of displacing the United States as the world’s dominant superpower. Fortunately for Xi’s dream, China has the educational

16/"tools to achieve that aim.”

The US has the best colleges and universities on the planet. International students know that and flock in droves to get the best education in STEM degrees on the undergrad and graduate levels. Yet American educators have dismally failed to

17/to properly educate US kids in STEM proficiency. The result is a slo-mo version of the Tortoise and the Hare fable. By 2050 or 2100 if American education continues to lag, China, India & others will leave the US in the dust as the hare of the 1960s Space Race languishes in

18/educational/STEM lethargy. The US couldn't have a worse POTUS in Biden who scoffs at those w/ Ivy League degrees and boasts "China won't eat our lunch". If the US gets outclassed by China and India the US will become less competitive and WILL get its "lunch eaten".

@threadreaderapp compile