STEM education is incredibly important, but minority and female students are often not provided with equal opportunities to access related knowledge and tools. The STEM workforce is only 24 percent female, 6 percent African American, and 7 percent Hispanic.³

The number of STEM jobs is growing more rapidly than any other job sector, which makes it essential that all students are given an equal opportunity to obtain these jobs starting with equal access to science, math, engineering, and technology education from a young age.³ Over the past ten years, there has been three times the growth in the STEM job sector in comparison to growth in other sectors.³ Therefore, STEM workers are more easily able to find jobs than their peers. Furthermore, STEM workers also typically earn more (about 26 percent more) than their peers in other fields.³

The educational system in general is currently not supporting children in scientific and mathematical fields. Only 20 percent of STEM college students believe that their K-12 education prepared them extremely well for their science and math college courses.³ Furthermore, 76 percent of parents feel that the U.S. is failing to teach their children STEM compared to other countries.³ It is essential that children learn and get excited about science and math fields early on. Nearly 80 percent of STEM college students decided to study STEM before college, and parents say that STEM interest begins at an average of 8.2 years.³

In particular, minority, low-income, and female students are not being supported in STEM classrooms. Black and Latino enrollment in public schools is increasing, but their performance in science and mathematics are decreasing.¹⁰ Science is typically viewed in American society as a white man’s field.⁴ Therefore, students who do not fall in this category are at a severe disadvantage because they do not perceive science as a field that they can enter.⁴ Moreover, society has perpetuated a view that science is only for the “brightest and best” which discourages minority students who are told much less often that white students that they fit in this category.⁴

All students must receive equal opportunities in STEM education, and teachers must incorporate culturally relevant curriculum into their science classrooms in order to engage minority and low-income students. Incorporating hip-hop in the classroom is one viable solution.⁵ Furthermore, using science as a tool for solving urban problems is another way to engage students.⁶ In this way, students will see the real-world applications of what they are learning and will begin to make a difference.⁶