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science technology engineering
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mathematics stem stem chatter has been
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going on a long time in education
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circles and it's something that obsesses
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many people president's education
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secretaries university officials even
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superintendents school board members you
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look at people who are advising
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countries on how to develop their
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economies they talk about STEM education
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it's everywhere
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given how ubiquitous this conversation
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around stem is it's easy to think that
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it's just this sort of timeless
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conversation that's been going on in
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education circles but a better way to
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think about it might be to think about
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how it has come and gone in waves at
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least in the u.s. one particular high
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point of our conversation around stem in
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the u.s. happened after the Soviet Union
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launched the Sputnik satellite in 1957
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that set off a whole set of anxieties in
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the US about how we weren't training
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enough science scientists and engineers
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in order to defeat the Soviet Union's
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and win the Cold War the conversation
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was about national security how stim
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could help improve our chances of
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beating those darn Russians now that the
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Soviet Union is in the dustbin of
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history we talk about stem not so much
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for national security in that sort of
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Cold War context but more about how we
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need to improve STEM education in order
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to be economically competitive in this
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global economy now in today's video
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we're going to focus more in the things
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that took place during this high point
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of stem conversation and actually take a
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look at a public policy solution to help
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North Carolina move itself along become
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a better state at preparing students for
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science and engineering careers and one
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of the policy solutions that it tried
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and one that is going on even to this
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day is the North Carolina School of
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Science and Mathematics now the North
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Carolina School of Science and
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Mathematics was opened in the fall of
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1980
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just before the peak of this mid-1980s
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conversation around STEM education we
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could talk more about the school of
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science in mathematics but instead of
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talking about it
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let's go visit it the North Carolina
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School of Science and Mathematics
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pioneer in the realm of stem public
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policy he was the first free residential
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math and science school
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and the idea for it dates back to the
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early 1960s an energetic North Carolina
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Governor Terry Sanford Sanford who
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incidentally went on to become president
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of Duke for many years had a coterie of
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young advisors around him to feed him
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good ideas one of these advisors was a
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man named Johnny Lee who was a novelist
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and a communications professor at the
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University of North Carolina at Chapel
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Hill
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he had many great ideas that he helped
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Shepherd through the Sanford
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administration including summer programs
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for gifted students the North Carolina
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Zoo a public-private partnership to
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fight poverty in the state and a
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residential high school and college
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devoted to the arts but he also had a
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similar idea for a School of Science and
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Mathematics that was never implemented
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during the Sanford administration the
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relentless hunt eventually won over
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enough legislative support for the
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school and it opened in the fall of 1980
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with about 150 juniors to be joined the
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next year by another class of 150
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students working up to just under 700
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students over the next five years who
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came to the school one legislator and
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worried that he would lose his star
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quarterback because he loved math and
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science so much but in fact the initial
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class had no inner scholastic sports
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teams instead according to a magazine
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article in the first class students
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preferred Dungeons and Dragons or
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fooling around in one of the schools for
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computers which it may surprise those of
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you with four computers currently on
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your percentage to know was considered a
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bounteous cornucopia of computational
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powers as an academic dean put it they
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gave up girlfriends and football and
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being of the walk for an unknown
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challenge
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governor hunt bragged that the students
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of the school of science and math were
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no bookworms
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they were movers and shakers he
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challenged the incoming class to win
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Nobel prizes that is exactly what we
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expect of you here to become the best of
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the best
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flash-forward to 1977 newly elected
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governor Jim Hunt even more energetic
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than Sanford brings Ely together to a
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dinner at the governor's mansion with
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Hunt's own team of science advisors
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where Ely shares this idea of a
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residential high school for science and
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mathematics students hunt loves the idea
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and it soon becomes his pet project
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he and really his staff write thousands
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of letters to educators and scientists
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in the state across the nation to ask
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them about this idea solicit their
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feedback the feedback was mostly
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positive but there were some concerns
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from the perspective of today with our
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panoply of magnet schools charter
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schools early colleges establishing a
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residential high school devoted to
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Science and Mathematics
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might seem like a no-brainer but back in
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the 1970s there was nothing quite like
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it
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you have the Bronx School of Science in
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New York but that wasn't residential
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being residential dramatically increased
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the cost and that wasn't something that
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the legislature looked very fondly on
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educators meanwhile worried that the
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school would take resources away from
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the rest of the public school system
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those who opposed the school included
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some of the most powerful people in
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education in the state including the
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state superintendent the chairman of the
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State Board of Education the North
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Carolina School Board Association and
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the North Carolina Association of
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educators which represented almost all
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the teachers in the state the leading
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complaint that opponents organized
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around was that the school was elitist
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as one superintendent said in a letter
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to the governor the risk of developing
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attitudes of snobbishness and
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separateness at this age could be quite
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detrimental in future years
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he thought that kind of specialization
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shouldn't happen until after a well
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rounded experience at a comprehend
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of highschool a place where students
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experience the joys that come from being
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a participating member of a wholesome
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home environment others feared it would
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be elitist because it would only be
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accessible to those with lots of money
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in the initial planning phases it was
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decided that tuition would be free for
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North Carolinians but that families
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would have to pay about four thousand
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dollars in room and board an amount that
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was hard to scrounge up for most
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families the state was after all one of
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the poorest in the country ranking in
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the 40s in terms of per capita income
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critics worried that only wealthy and
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mostly white students would be able to
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attend to address these concerns school
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planners decided to eliminate the
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charges for room and board to ensure
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geographic diversity the legislature
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mandated that the student body roughly
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matched congressional districts which
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kept the school from being completely
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dominated by students from urban areas
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like Charlotte or the Research Triangle
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though it did less to ensure economic
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diversity the school sought to balance
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boys to girls with no visitation after
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10:00 p.m. of course and balancing
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gender was no small thing for a school
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of science and math two fields then as
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now over-represented by men in terms of
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racial diversity school planners sought
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to balance the demographics overall in
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the state now these concessions did
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drive up the cost of the school per
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pupil expenditure was estimated to run
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about four times the average for public
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high school students it would cost less
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to send the state's gifted students to
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the nation's finest prep schools
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complained one state representative when
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presented with the eleven point two
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million dollar cost in one of the
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initial years to help cover the costs
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school leaders raised about seven
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million dollars in private funding and
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the city of Durham
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decided to donate the site of an old
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hospital as a campus to further address
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these concerns of elitism Hunt and his
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administration worked to convince
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educators and legislators that this
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school of science and math wouldn't just
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bottle up good instruction or just be
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this container for elite education but
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would help figure out how to teach
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science and math to these smart kids and
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then go and instruct public school
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teachers across this
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eight how to do it better in other words
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it would be a sort of laboratory now
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incidentally that laboratory idea was
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also the idea behind charter schools
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initially that they would be this place
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where you could experiment with new
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practices that you could then diffuse
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into the rest of the public school
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system as we will discuss in other
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videos that's not exactly how much our
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schools worked out but that was the
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initial idea speaking to those who were
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concerned that the school of science and
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math would compete against other public
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schools on science advisor Quinton
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Lindsay
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argued that it would be a complimentary
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rather than a competitive relationship
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the other reason that Hunt gave was
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essentially elitist albeit elitist in
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the sense that any meritocracy is
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elitist hunt' argued that the state
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needed a top-notch facility in order to
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train the leading scientists and
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mathematicians of tomorrow as he put it
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as the school came together in 1979 and
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1980 Hunt emphasized the point to an
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even greater degree arguing that North
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Carolina needed this school in order to
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attract new industries like micro
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electronics and biotechnology the school
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of science and math might be the most
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profitable investment we ever made
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because it's an investment in our young
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minds said hunt in an opening ceremony
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in 1980
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brain power he claimed is the micro
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electronics industry most important raw
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material as hunt kept talking about the
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school he began connecting it with these
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issues of economic competitiveness with
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places like Japan Hunt complained to a
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group of businessmen in 1981 that
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compared with Japan we are short on
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engineers and we're long on lawyers the
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school of science and math would help
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remedy that engineering gap so far at
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least there have been no Nobel Prize
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winners among the alumni of the North
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Carolina School of Science and
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Mathematics but its former students have
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gone on to do plenty of worthy things
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the school has remained a key component
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of the North Carolina's education system
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so much so that the legislature recently
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decided to build a second campus in the
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western part of the state
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and to some degree the idea that the
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School of Science and Mathematics would
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help diffuse better instruction into
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other parts of the state and to the rest
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of the public school system has played
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out another sign of this school success
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is the number of copycat schools that
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popped up across the u.s. and
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particularly in the South first in
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Louisiana then Illinois Alabama
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Mississippi and on and on let's pop back
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to Duke and wrap things up
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so with 15 other emulators across the
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other states you'd think that the North
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Carolina school assigns to math should
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be considered a universal success North
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Carolina got ahead of the curve by
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getting the school out there and
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established before the sturm and drang
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around a nation at risk really set off
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this national conversation about STEM
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education on top of that about 600
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students a year have gotten a great
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education gratis while many more across
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the state have benefited from the
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diffusion of better science and math
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instruction still from a public policy
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perspective are these residential high
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schools for science and math worth it
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would that money that's spent on them be
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better off just spread around to the
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existing high schools so that you get
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better instruction there unfortunately
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very few scholars have even studied this
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question at all now what might the test
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scores of North Carolina tell us
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according to the National Assessment of
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Education progress which is considered
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the gold standard of comparable test
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data for the United States North
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Carolina test scores were well above the
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national average in the early 2000s
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which is saying something given that
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it's a southern state and usually
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southern states don't do so well on
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those sorts of metrics but it doesn't
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really seem to suggest that the North
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Carolina school of science and math had
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anything to do with it since the test
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scores weren't all that great in the
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1990s and they've leveled off since then
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according to the National Science
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Foundation the science and engineering
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workforce ranges between six million and
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21 million jobs depending on the
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definition which is a wide split but no
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matter what you use to calculate that
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300 additional graduates from the North
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Carolina School of Science and math
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every year is only a very very tiny drop
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in an ocean moreover despite all the
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hype around science and engineering
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around stem a scholar who rounded up all
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the evidence couldn't find any
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indication of a labor market shortage in
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those occupations that required a
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bachelor's or higher in fact he suggests
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our education system produces more
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science and engineering graduates than
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there are job openings so then what good
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is the North Carolina School
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Science and Mathematics back in 1979 the
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editorial page of the state's major
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newspaper made a qualified case for the
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school arguing that it will be a symbol
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of educational commitment
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perhaps that's still the takeaway all
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these years later the school stands as a
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symbol of our long-standing hopes fears
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and obsession with science technology
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engineering and mathematics education
