A separate survey of K-12 educators conducted by ASQ revealed that 29 percent of surveyed educators would encourage their own children to pursue a STEM teaching career. However, 74 percent would encourage their child to pursue engineering, 44 percent would encourage their children to pursue a career as a scientist, and 33 percent would encourage their child to pursue a computer/IT analyst career.
“While STEM careers like engineering and software development are getting more well-deserved attention in recent years, it’s STEM teachers who will equip our youth with the knowledge and skills to gather and evaluate evidence, make sense of information across a wide range of fields, and solve tough problems,” said ASQ CEO William Troy.
Teacher pay could be an issue
According to both polls, surveyed teachers and parents expressed a number of concerns about their child pursuing STEM teaching as a career.
According to the Harris survey of parents:
- 70 percent of parents surveyed by Harris and 77 percent of educators polled by ASQ worry their child may not make enough money as a teacher.
- 69 percent of parents surveyed by Harris and 82 percent of educators are concerned that STEM teachers may not be compensated enough for their heavy workloads.
- 65 percent of parents say that a STEM teaching career may not be worth the cost of a college degree.
- 67 percent of educators polled by ASQ say that STEM teaching positions may not offer a path for career advancement.
Financial incentives would make STEM teaching more attractive to parents and educators. According to the Harris survey, 55 percent of surveyed parents said they would be more likely to encourage a STEM teaching career path if STEM teachers were better compensated.
Fifty-one percent of surveyed parents would be more apt to steer kids toward the career if more college scholarships were available for students pursuing STEM teaching degrees.
According to the ASQ survey, 67 percent of surveyed educators would be more likely to encourage a STEM teaching career path if STEM teachers were better compensated and 68 percent would encourage their children to pursue STEM teaching if there were more opportunities for career growth.
Surveyed educators said they believe a math or science degree should be required to teach those subjects to better educate children. According to the ASQ survey of educators, 80 percent say they strongly believe that a math or science degree should be required for teaching those subjects in K-12 classrooms and 84 percent said that having a specific STEM degree would improve the quality of K-12 STEM teaching.
For more on President Obama’s initiative to train STEM teachers, click here.
Material from a press release was used in this report.
Laura Ascione is the Editorial Director at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland’s prestigious Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
