History of STEM in the USA

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

A review of the history of Higher Education in the US, with an emphasis on the role STEM education and diversity within in US higher education from Colonial times to the twenty-first century. The founding of the first universities in the US was motivated by providing religious training and later shifted toward science and engineering education as the nation began to grow and the education system included more diverse institutions. At each stage the growth of higher education produced new economic growth, and yet the expansion of the higher education system made slow progress in providing greater access to higher education for women and non-white students. In the nineteenth century the founding of liberal arts colleges, historically black colleges and Land Grant institutions began to provide more diverse curricula and provided access to women and African American students. In the twentieth century, US universities were massively scaled up, and increasing fractions of students received degrees in STEM subjects, with the growth of a STEM workforce which enabled social mobility through higher education. The concept of a meritocratic system of equal opportunity, underlies the American Dream and expectations for social mobility in the US has not provided equal results for students from all racial and ethnic groups, and especially in STEM fields, where the levels of enrollment, degree completion and persistence through graduate programs are all lower for non-white students and women. Bringing greater equity and inclusion within STEM fields is urgently needed, and the chapter reviews some key recommendations for helping develop more diversity in the STEM workforce across all levels of higher education.