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STEM and the City
Alumna and Professor Clair Berube ’83 publishes second edition exploring STEM education in America’s urban schools
University News | October 22, 2025
Virginia Wesleyan University Associate Professor of Education and Director of Education Programs Clair Berube ’83 has released the second edition of her influential book, “STEM and the City: A Report on STEM Education in the Great American Urban Public School System” (Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, England), co-authored with Sue Anne McKinney.
Originally published in 2014, the first edition of “STEM and the City” was inspired by Dr. Berube’s experience teaching middle school science in an urban school in Norfolk, Virginia. A decade later, the new edition expands upon her research and observations with timely insights into the evolving challenges facing STEM education in America’s public schools.
“The first book, like this one, was inspired by my experience teaching middle school science in an urban setting,” Berube explained. “In this edition, we explore how the issues we identified ten years ago have not only persisted but worsened in many ways.”
The updated edition includes chapters tracing the history of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in American schools, as well as explorations of anti-intellectualism, gender bias, educational inequities, and the effects of political polarization on public education. Berube also examines the long-term impact of No Child Left Behind, high-stakes testing, and the pandemic on STEM instruction.
“There are leadership positions in America right now held by non-scientists who are spreading dangerous misinformation,” she said. “We wanted to address how these trends, along with the culture wars, have influenced what happens in classrooms—especially in high-poverty, urban schools.”
McKinney contributes a chapter on educational malpractice and the mishandling of STEM instruction before, during, and after the pandemic, highlighting how students lost critical instructional time as a result.
According to Berube, the new edition was necessary because “many of the problems we discussed in the first edition have become exponentially worse. Since 2014, we’ve seen the rise of new political and social forces that have made science itself suspect. American public education has become a political football, and that’s deeply concerning.”
A proud Virginia Wesleyan alumna, Berube earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from VWU and Bachelor and Master of Science in Education degrees and her Ph.D. in Urban Studies/Education from Old Dominion University. Her research focuses on urban education, high-stakes testing, gender and race in STEM, and problem-based learning.
Berube, who is teaching Personality Psychology, Research Methods in Education, and Leadership in Educational Policy at Virginia Wesleyan this semester, returned to her alma mater to teach in 2020, 37 years after she had graduated. She has also served as an assistant professor of education at Wagner College in New York City and as an associate professor of education at Hampton University.
In addition to “STEM and the City,” Berube is the author of several other books and scholarly articles, including “The Investments: An American Conspiracy” (Information Age Publishers, 2020), where she details "how certain politicians are invested in the failure of American public education." Her passions extend to science, psychology, and social justice in education—topics that continue to inform both her writing and teaching.