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Seen, Heard, Reflected:
Building and Sustaining a Diverse STEM Teacher Pipeline
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California is home to a thriving tech industry and is known for its leading innovations in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). By 2022, California will have the largest share of the STEM workforce and jobs across the country. The tech workforce, however, is far from representative of the state’s diverse population – only 5% of the tech industry workforce is Latinx and just 2% of the workforce is Black.
Students cannot be what they cannot see and representation starts in the classroom. Too few students in California have access to STEM learning opportunities and STEM teachers that are well-prepared and reflect the racial diversity of our state. The current global health crisis and the rise in online learning are two reminders that our modern-day society is dependent on our science and technological innovations to thrive. To emerge from this crisis stronger than before, we must protect and sustain pipelines for STEM teachers of color to educate and prepare the next generation of STEM leaders.
A new report from our Seen, Heard, Reflected campaign, Building and Sustaining a Diverse STEM Teacher Pipeline, explores the current state of the STEM teacher workforce and its impact on students, uplifts promising practices across teacher preparation programs, and concludes with recommendations for policymakers and teacher preparation programs to better support teachers of color entering STEM fields.
In addition, we’ve created a timeline highlighting recent statewide investments to strengthen the STEM educator workforce, and an in-depth look at four promising practices from teacher preparation programs that have created strong pathways for STEM teachers of color:
