I spoke last week to a live audience of about 700 high school students at John I. Leonard High School in West Palm Beach and (I’m told) many more via a livestream at schools around Palm Beach County about the courses they should take in high school to prepare for success as college majors in STEM fields (Brief summary: chemistry, physics, precalculus, calculus). But even as I was speaking, I couldn’t help thinking that this would all be more effective if it were delivered directly to the parents of the students instead of just to the students themselves.
There is strong evidence from the Wisconsin Study of Families and Work on the effectiveness of communicating with parents about the importance of their students’ taking courses on chemistry, physics and upper-level math in high school. The outreach to parents performed in that study not only improved course-taking in those high school subjects but also increased the percentage of students who ultimately ended up in STEM jobs after college.
I’ve had my own remarkable experience with parent outreach. In fall of 2015, counselors at Mosley High School in Lynn Haven asked me to speak directly to parents during an evening event at the school about high school course selection, and we continued those sessions for a few years. When I started, Mosley (which had about 1,700 students) had 151 students enrolled in chemistry, 32 in calculus and six (yes, 6) in physics. Three years later, chemistry and calculus enrollment had doubled, and physics enrollment had increased to (ahem) 173.
I didn’t make that happen by speaking golden words to parents. The most important point about this remarkable transformation is that it was driven by the school’s decision makers, the counselors and administrators, and that I was just an instrument to be used to further their ends. And just to be clear about being an instrument, I had a blast. It felt good to be part of that kind of transformation.
Parent outreach about preparing for STEM careers works. It works dramatically well. And yet, school and district leaders are generally unwilling to give it a try. After all these years, I am still puzzled about the reasons for their reluctance.
Parents not only want their kids to get into good colleges, but they also want their kids to succeed when they arrive at those colleges. Listening to advice from those of us who have seen thousands of students succeed (and not succeed) seems like the most natural thing in the world for those parents. School and district leaders should give parents that opportunity.
Bridge to Tomorrow 