On Equity and the Futures of STEM Education and Graduate Student Programs

By: David Bressoud @dbressoud

David Bressoud is DeWitt Wallace Professor Emeritus at Macalester College and Director of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences

David Bressoud is DeWitt Wallace Professor Emeritus at Macalester College and Director of the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences

On December 4, 2020, the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences held its 124th semi-annual meeting. In addition to updates on CBMS activities and plans for the National Math Festival, there was a presentation from several NRC boards. But the heart of our gathering consisted of the breakout sessions at which the society presidents, directors, and others discussed seven topics:

  • Equity

  • The Future of STEM Education

  • The Future of Graduate Student Programs

  • Classroom Issues

  • Running Online Conferences

  • Expanding Online Offerings

  • Membership Issues

For this month’s Launchings, I am sharing the notes from the first three of these. The full agenda with notes from each of these breakouts can be found at https://www.cbmsweb.org/council-meeting-materials/. See the end of this article for the names and abbreviations of the member societies and other organizations represented at this meeting.

Equity

Online instruction and the greatly increased visibility of the Black Lives Matter movement have accentuated the need to deal with issues of equity. How do we ensure that those from under-resourced or otherwise challenged communities continue to have access to quality education and the supports needed to realize their full potential? We may address both equity for students as well as equity for professionals (junior researchers, women, bipoc[1]) who have been particularly implicated by the COVID crisis.

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Click on this image to access the report.

The two Equity groups covered a lot of territory: the need to engage all students in reasoning and critical thinking, the importance of messaging—especially for first generation college students—engaging all students in metacognitive conversations, promoting growth mindset, and providing role models that look like the students (see especially the website of Latinxs and Hispanics in the mathematical sciences, lathisms.org). The group also expressed a desire that any student could repeat any course and replace the old grade with the new one without stigma. This was connected to promotion of mastery learning and meaningful assessments.

NCSM has its recent position statement on the importance of detracking, Closing the Opportunity Gap: A Call for Detracking Mathematics.

The emphasis, especially in the first group, was on helping people become aware of hidden biases and take action. Many of the CBMS societies are facilitating such discussions:

Other books and resources that were mentioned in the group included:

The question arose of how to leverage the existing book discussions into action.

The Future of STEM Education

A related discussion centered around the 2020 National Academies Symposium, Imagining the Future of Undergraduate STEM Education. This gathering asked participants to envision what STEM education might look like in 2040 and how we might get there. What should mathematics education look like in 2040? Presumably, the curriculum should be one that supports students in moving into industry as well as heading toward research/teaching careers. What would this be in practice? What are the implications for institutions? Professional organizations?

The discussion began with statements of the importance of modeling and problem-solving across the mathematics curriculum. There was recognition both that these develop the skills that students will need in their careers and that this is the approach that is most likely to excite and motivate students from under-served groups. Part of this involves breaking down silos. As one participant remarked, “The departmental structure: socially it makes sense, but intellectually it doesn’t.”

Pursuing the theme of breaking down silos, the group talked about the role of data science. Many statistics departments are now incorporating data science, but mathematics departments have been slow to embrace this field. The Joint Policy Board for Mathematics (AMS, ASA, MAA, and SIAM) has recognized that data science is a broad field that can go in many different directions, but that mathematics, statistics, and computer science all have important roles to play. The recent ABET program for accrediting data science programs is standards based, but there is concern that data science may come to be dominated by computer science. Those who have reviewed new departments of data science have found that often there is little or no recognition that mathematics has a role to play.

Returning to the theme of equity, the group cited one of the commissioned papers for the symposium, Transformation in the U.S. Higher Education System: Implications for Racial Equity by Lindsey Malcolm-Piqueux. We need to fight against the messages that emphasize deficiencies or the need for “innate talent,” messages that serve to push people out.

The Future of Graduate Student Programs

Supporting recent PhDs through the difficult academic job market of the next few years. Should we be shrinking PhD programs? Letting our students stay for n>7 years? Running more math-to-industry programs to help them get jobs there? What are the societies’ roles in shaping this discussion?

These are summaries of the comments made by the participants in this discussion: Edray Goins (CBMS Executive Committee), Ruth Haas (AWM), Dave Kung (TPSE), Michael Pearson (MAA), Catherine Roberts (AMS), Mark Green (BMSA & TPSE), Mike Ferrara (NSF), Jessica Utts (IMS), Kathryn Leverenz (Math Institute of Wisconsin). Their names are associated with these comments with their permission.

Catherine: The Simons Foundation is paying for several postdocs at the NSF Math Institutes.

Mark: We should think about the question: What does the world need PhD mathematicians for? Math PhD’s are needed in many different realms, and the answers can inform how we train students. We should provide more opportunities for those students who want to learn more about working in industry, government, national labs, etc. Only a comparatively small fraction of undergraduate math majors go on to grad school in math, and only around half of math PhD’s go into academic jobs. (Dave: But half of those drop out without a PhD!) Change in graduate programs is probably going to come from the institutions which have the ability and desire to experiment.

Michael: How much has our perception in the academic community changed? How do we view what it means to be a mathematician? How do we come to a new place where there is a bigger tent in being in the mathematics community? This has to be led by the folks who produce the bulk of graduate students. Many, even at undergrad institutions, don’t see it as part of their job to support undergrad majors to get industry jobs.

Catherine: Our existing ideology of hierarchy and "elite" supports systemic racism.

Mike: I was at a TPSE conference where there was discussion about undergraduates majoring in math. There was a feeling among some faculty that it’s not their job to help their students to get jobs.

Ruth: I’m a grad chair, and I was talking with a grad student about getting jobs. This student was fearful that he had failed because I recommended that he consider a job at a liberal arts college. 

Dave: We can work to change the language we use to describe elite institutions. There was a survey at Ohio State asking whether the grad students were interested in industry jobs. Something like 90% of the grad students said they were interested. The Erdös Institute at Ohio State is getting some information out there about it.

Edray: Illinois has an internship program (summer experiences in industry). Are there other places? (Dave: Erdös Institute at Ohio State does this.)

Mike: At my prior institution, we had a small program where people could do an internship for credit.  Increasingly, it also seems that jobs at PUIs, liberal arts schools, "smaller" institutions are what I would have called unicorns in my earlier years. Maybe 3,4,5 papers, uncommon teaching experiences, a postdoc, etc. That makes the academic path more challenging to walk as well. I see dozens of really talented early PhDs that would have had a ton of offers when I was on the market stuck in a seemingly never-ending chain of 1-year visiting gigs.


I found that students who could land summer internships at the labs was a way to mitigate pushback. It was seen as "academic enough" since papers might come out of it.

Jessica: How much pushback is there to not do internships? One student had a Facebook internship and got some flack for not spending that time on research, but it’s served her well.

Catherine: The culture of “elitism” is so embedded in our culture—it might be better to inoculate our students against such things, since this might be easier than successfully changing the culture.

Ruth: How do we push back against this culture? We’re so steeped in Real Analysis and Algebra. Some students know exactly what they want - but many others are much more influenced by the culture.

Edray: How do we get more Black students as math majors? Many students of color are looking for financial security, and see CS as having more financial security.

Catherine: http://www.ams.org/profession/career-info/career-index

Dave: There’s a good point, not everyone has the financial privilege of doing mathematics.

Ruth: Academia is changing because of economic factors, we must help shape the change to serve diverse communities better. Math skills are important to financial independence.

Mark: It is important that graduate students be aware of the full spectrum of their career options. The more confident those who enter graduate study in math can be that this is going to lead to a fulfilling career, the better.  Being able to have this confidence is an important facet of creating a welcoming environment for students of all backgrounds. Opportunities in math are expanding—for example, the Data Science track created jointly by math and stat at UCLA recently opened up, and this track for undergraduates is growing rapidly. 

When I was involved with the Math 2025 report, we read a study that indicated that about half of the papers in math journals were coming from people who were not in academia. We should welcome members of the “Mathematical Diaspora” into our community, and value students who join them in pursuing non-academic careers. It is one ecosystem.

Dave: About 45% of math PhDs end up publishing 0 or 1 papers.

Catherine: When I was at the College of Holy Cross, I would ask my colleagues who they thought should go to grad school. They typically would focus on the students who got the best grades, rather than take a more holistic view to consider potential.

Mark: I saw an article listing the top 100 universities in terms of their impact on the social mobility of their students. In the top 10 were a couple of UC’s, several California State universities, BYU Provo, and several other places. Measures like social mobility should count for more in evaluating colleges and universities. There is a reorientation of perspective that we need. Community colleges were not considered for purposes of that article, which was just about universities—if they had been, they would have been well-represented throughout the list.

Jessica: Taking the perspective from statistics, we haven’t talked about master’s programs. These are popping up in Data Science. Unfortunately, often they don’t involve much mathematics—but they do involve a lot of coding.  Also, ABET is coming up with an accrediting program for undergraduate Data Science programs. The ASA is getting involved in this.

Kathryn: Even for people in Math Ed, we hear from students on how horrible they are treated. There is a lot of snootiness in higher ed!

Jessica: At Irvine, our department (Statistics) has a monthly discussion on diversity issues. We have reading materials. A faculty member has been successful in getting this started and had a lot of support from the faculty.  A lot of faculty live nearby in University Hills, and there have been some racial incidents. This has motivated many of us to talk about racial justice in the department (and the neighborhood).

Dave: We invited math chairs to talk about racial justice. We expected maybe 20 chairs, and we got more than 120 to join the discussion.

Catherine: I see this a lot with the AMS. Some people send me e-mails saying they want to quit the AMS because change is happening too fast, and others send e-mails saying they are upset that AMS is not moving fast enough! 

[1] Black, Indigenous, and People of Color

[2] Podcast at https://www.teachingmathteachingpodcast.com/21

The 19 societies that are members of CBMS:

  • American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges – AMATYC

  • American Mathematical Society – AMS

  • American Statistical Association – ASA

  • Association for Symbolic Logic – ASL

  • Association for Women in Mathematics – AWM

  • Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators – AMTE

  • Association of State Supervisors of Mathematics – ASSM

  • Benjamin Banneker Association – BBA

  • Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences – INFORMS

  • Institute of Mathematical Statistics – IMS

  • Mathematical Association of America – MAA

  • National Association of Mathematicians – NAM

  • National Council of Teachers of Mathematics – NCTM

  • National Museum of Mathematics – MoMath

  • NCSM: Leadership in Mathematics Education – NCSM

  • Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics ­– SIAM

  • Society of Actuaries – SOA

  • TODOS: Mathematics for All – TODOS

  • Women and Mathematics Education – WME

 

Other organizations represented at the meeting:

  • Mathematics Institute of Wisconsin

  • Mathematical Sciences Research Institute – MSRI

  • National Research Council’s Committee on Applied and Theoretical Statistics – CATS

  • National Research Council’s Board on International Scientific Organizations – BISO

  • National Research Council’s Board on Mathematical Sciences and Analytics – BMSA

  • National Research Council’s Board on Science Education – BOSE

  • National Science Foundation ­– NSF

  • NWEA

  • Transforming Post-Secondary Education in Mathematics – TPSE


Download the list of all past Launchings columns, dating back to 2005, with links to each column.

LAUNCHINGS, TEACHING & LEARNINGDavid BressoudDavid Bressoud, calculus, history of mathematics, STEM, women, economics, race, equity, inclusion, IP Guide, COVID-19, coronavirus, STEM education, resources, online resources