On a recent morning walk with my dog, I was taken aback for a second. As Princess pulled me around a corner, eager to investigate the latest “data” left by other neighborhood pups, I came upon a familiar friend, someone I hadn’t seen in months—our neighborhood school crossing guard. That’s when it hit me, it’s the first day of school. Full disclosure: I’m long past the days of marking school schedules on a calendar, so it was a bit of a surprise.
In our neighborhood, many of the children she protects, where on their way to a local STEAM academy—previously a STEM school, but at some point the “A” was added. I admit, I hadn’t really thought about it for a while now, but it seems the idea of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education has been knocked off the front pages, so to speak. Maybe it’s become so popular nowadays that the newness of the idea has worn off, but it got me wondering, is enrollment in STEM-specific education still rising? After all, as a person covering engineering and technology for most of my career in one capacity or another, the rise of STEM has been a frequent story and column topic for years.
So, I did what anyone these days might do when curious about such types of facts. I asked AI for help.
Here’s what I got, courtesy of ChatGPT, and the news is still good, but there are still challenges to educating the next workforce of control engineers. In broad terms, the STEM K–12 education sector is growing robustly, both in financial terms and overall engagement. However, the gender gap in STEM persists. While boys’ enrollment in STEM programs rebounded to pre-pandemic levels by 2024, girls did not recover, indicating uneven progress in STEM participation.
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In the U.S., demand for STEM-focused schools and curricula continues to rise but institutional capacities and resources may limit access. One example ChatGPT showed me is the case of South Brooklyn, N.Y., where a new charter STEM-focused school received 445 applicants for just 125 seats. So, there’s tough competition for limited resources, and that scenario plays out in cities around the U.S.
While DEI programs are under attack these days, building enough resources to educate girls and minorities in STEM programs is vital to the future of our technology sector. We can’t afford to let STEM education access fall by the wayside.
