The Hechinger Report- Jill Barshay
“It’s a well-established problem that too few blacks and Hispanics, and too few women of all colors, pursue degrees and careers in the sciences. And much research has gone into why minority students aren’t taking as many science classes in high school, and later in college, as their white counterparts do. Wonks call it the “leaky STEM pipeline,” referring to all the students who leave science, technology, engineering and math as they progress through their educational careers. But a new study indicates that the STEM pipeline might have a giant hole in it far earlier than many of us ever thought: before kindergarten. It found that many minority children enter kindergarten with a low level of general knowledge of the world around them, and they tended to falter in science throughout their school years. Five-year olds who were able answer general questions like “What do firemen do?” and “What do planes and trains have in common?” went on to score much better on science tests in the third, fifth and eighth grades. But most who started behind stayed behind. Few caught up.”(more)