Welcome

Thanks for stopping by. For several years, I have done research to understand persistent policy and legal problems related to inequality, opportunity, jobs, and education. Most recently, my research has focused on how we can best develop our educated workforce, especially those working in STEM (science, technology, education, and math) jobs .

I’m excited to announce my new book, coming this fall, from University of Chicago Press:  Wasted Education: How We Fail Graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Here I explore the reasons why more than half of STEM graduates (some estimates are as high as 70 percent) do not work in STEM jobs, despite employers’ claims of urgent shortages of STEM workers. The story is both simple and complicated: Employers themselves are major factors driving STEM grads from STEM jobs, but understanding how and why they might drive away STEM grads touches on pay, recruitment and management strategies, layoffs, training, employer openness to diversity, and the business models of some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world. My book is the first that explores what happens to (supposedly) coveted STEM grads when they start working, and the purpose of our investments in STEM education during a time when humanity faces numerous crises that will require technological solutions.