Monday, August 14, 2017

HOW NYC SCHOOLS TEACH STEM (STEAM? STEAM'D?)

Some call it STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

Some call it STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math.

Some call it STEAM'D: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math & Design.

But one thing needs to be spelled out clearly: No school in NYC is doing a particularly stellar job teaching it.

While NYC public schools are forced to report their students' English and math state test scores, they stopped reporting science scores several years ago. And not because they were so wonderful.

These days, you need a Freedom of Information Act request to find out how NYC kids are doing in science, and, even when you get those results, how well each individual school is doing, is obscured. Find out why, here.

And despite NYC's moniker as Silicon Alley, the public school Computer Science curriculum isn't much better. (It doesn't help that those in charge use the terms Computer Science and Computer Programming as if they were the same thing; get the details, here.)

For more on the state of STEM in NYC schools, public and private, watch our video, below: