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Center for Minority Achievement in Science and Technology
Center for Minority Achievement in Science and Technology
DIVISIONS
Did You Know?
› While 53% of international graduate students studied either engineering or sciences in 2006, only 16% of U.S. students did.
Graduate Enrollment and Degress, 1996-2006 (Council of Graduate Schools). 
› In the U.S. workforce women hold more than half of professional positions overall, but fewer than 22% of software engineering positions.
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) 
› Girls comprise just 10% of all Advance Placement (AP) computer science AB exam-takers.
National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) 
› The mean GPA for African American engineering graduates was 2.5, for Hispanic engineering graduates 2.39, and for non-minority engineering graduates 2.67.
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), 1990. 
› By 2010, the American population will be one-third “minority” (Hispanic/Latino, African American, Native American, Asian).
U.S. Census Bureau, 2000. 
› The shortage of highly qualified math and science teachers in the United States is projected to reach 283,000 by 2015.
National Center for Education Statistics, 2005. 
› 3 out of 10 first-year college students in the United States are placed into a remedial course.
National Center for Education Statistics, 2000. 
› The federal government spent approximately $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2004 to fund over 200 programs designed to increase the number of students in STEM fields and employees in STEM occupations and to improve related educational programs.
2006 GAO Report on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Trends and the Role of Federal Programs 
› Women represent just 9.5% of the nearly 1.5 million bacherlor's-degreed engineers employed in the United States.
2008 Confronting the New American Dilemma: A Data-Based Look at Diversity (CPST) 
› American students ranked lower in science than their peers in 16 other industrialized nations, out of 30 countries in that category.
2006 Program for International Student Assessment 
› 70% of registered voters – approx 91 million people- believe the U.S. public education system needs to be completely replaced or changed in a significant way.
Public Agenda Survey 
› High school freshmen in public school graduating in four years, 2004-05: 74.7 percent
National Center for Education Statistics 

Government Affairs & Public Policy
“Quality and equity need not be considered as competing policy objectives.” 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development"

Laws and public policies have by far the greatest impact on the quality and equity of education in America. Monumental decisions such as rulings in Brown vs. Board of Education, California’s Proposition 209 (1996), and Michigan’s Civil Rights Initiative (2006) all stand as a testament to the tremendous effect legislation has on public education, particularly for minorities and women. Most education policy, as well as roughly 91% of funding, comes from the state and local level. But as No Child Left Behind showed, a change in federal policy can also have a huge impact.

Understanding the process by which these federal and state laws and policies are created, the relationship between state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs), and the power of coordinated advocacy at all levels, is critical to passing policies that support fair and equitable educational opportunities for every child.

CMAST, through its Office of Government Affairs and Public Policy, will earn its place as one of the biggest champions of increasing minority achievement in STEM education and career advancement by:
  • Educating students, parents, educators, and the community on the importance of civic engagement (e.g., voting, attending local school board meetings)

  • Providing tangible and in-tangible support to non-profit and community-based organizations who lawfully advocate on behalf of improving minority education

  • Promoting the need for increased investments in STEM education by both federal, state, and local legislative bodies

  • Serving as a vehicle for distributing news and information regarding pending legislation or other public policy discussions which could have an impact (both adverse and positive) on minority students and professionals in the STEM disciplines