The NACME plan resulted from a two-day roundtable that included almost 40 engineering, science, and mathematics academic leaders. It focuses on the country’s community colleges, where more than half of all underrepresented science and engineering bachelor’s and master’s degree recipients began their post-secondary careers. In the comprehensive action plan, NACME identified three important steps:

 * Adjust existing community college math curricula to allow students to learn engineering-related skills and to advance to higher level math courses;

* Identify funding sources to implement curricula changes;

* Launch several pilot programs at leading community colleges.

 “When it comes to the sciences and engineering in particular, the United States is frankly falling far behind other nations and regions,” said Dr. Irving Pressley McPhail, CEO and President of NACME. “We know about some of the major hurdles students face in receiving engineering degrees – or even being educated about and exposed to the industry – so we have identified fairly easy, but far-reaching steps that community colleges can implement to start to curb this competitive crisis.”

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