STEM education is critical.

Byline: Timothy P. Murray 

COLUMN: AS I SEE IT

Education is transformational. It opens the doors of opportunity and enlightenment for our students, and cultivates our next generation of innovators and leaders. And sometimes it takes just one spark, one special experience, to inspire and motivate a student to walk through one of those doors and set them on a new path.

To help the youth of Massachusetts reach their potential, and to support the state's economic future in a range of leading industries that depend on innovation, we need to do more to ensure that spark is lit with STEM education - the study of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

To do this, we need a new model, rooting STEM education in the minds of all students early on in their studies.

That's why Gov. Patrick and I have issued a call to action for Massachusetts, to build excitement, and a deep commitment for the study and practice in STEM education. By promoting STEM, we will help foster increased opportunities for our students, and will support long-term economic growth in the commonwealth.

To help bring this change, Gov. Patrick and I have launched a new STEM Advisory Council, which I will chair, to ensure that we are delivering high-quality education and work-force training to prepare our students for careers in the STEM fields. The council will bring executive leadership to the table and cut across the silos of government that work on STEM education issues. The council will also include private-sector leaders to make sure our efforts are aligned with industry needs.

Here in Massachusetts, while our students' test scores are among the best in the country, we're not connecting that academic achievement to STEM career paths. The number of students in our colleges and universities studying in STEM fields declined from 1993 to 2007, while the number rose nationally. According to the 2008 SAT exam, only 22.5 percent of Massachusetts test takers expressed an interest in pursuing a college major in STEM education.

To increase students' interests in these fields, we need to show them the real-world impact of science, technology, engineering and math. We need to help them have that "wow moment" that will push them to pursue these fields.

To do this, we must increase our efforts to recruit, train and retain the best teachers in the STEM fields. High-quality teaching and learning can only occur with a strong teacher who has mastery in the subject and an ability to engage students.

Having a pipeline of STEM graduates is not only important for Massachusetts - it is critical to the success of our nation as a whole. According to the "Tapping America's Potential" report, China graduates about 350,000 engineers a year, compared with about 80,000 in the United States. And the number of engineering degrees awarded in the U.S. is down 20 percent from 1985.

At a time when our economy is shifting to be more globally competitive and innovation based, these are troubling trends that should serve as a serious call to action.

Fifty-two years ago, the United States got a big wake-up call on the importance of STEM when news of the successful launch of Sputnik caught the American people by surprise. It was a time of great tension and competition between the United States and the Soviet Union, and suddenly our security was at risk because we lagged in science and technology development.

So we looked to education and research to help us prevail. Because the public understood what was at stake, we were able to harness the collective STEM energies in our country through the National Education Defense Act. We were inspired by President Kennedy's challenge to reach out for the moon, and we triumphed.

We may not have another Sputnik to react to today, but we have something more fundamental - the current economic crisis.

This crisis should be our wake-up call, and our call to action that leads us to invest in education and STEM programs, because through them runs the path to recovery, renewal and growth.

Now, more than ever, we must continue to build on what has historically made Massachusetts an economic and societal leader - and that is our intellectual capital, our tradition of innovation, the courage of entrepreneurship, the work ethic of our people, and our commitment to giving our students a cutting-edge education.

We have the capability to lead the world in many fields and many markets. To do so, we must build a successful platform for economic recovery and renewal, with a solid foundation of public education in general, and STEM education in particular.

Timothy P. Murray is lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

ART: PHOTO

CUTLINE: Timothy P. Murray