The STEM Plan in Brief
The Committee on STEM Education (CoSTEM), comprised of 13 agencies—including all of the mission-science agencies and the Department of Education—are facilitating a cohesive national strategy, with new and repurposed funds, to increase the impact of federal investments in five areas: 1.) improving STEM instruction in preschool through 12th grade; 2.) increasing and sustaining public and youth engagement with STEM; 3.) improving the STEM experience for undergraduate students; 4.) better serving groups historically underrepresented in STEM fields; and 5.) designing graduate education for tomorrow's STEM workforce
Coordinated efforts to improve STEM education are outlined in the federal, 5-year Strategic Plan for STEM Education and concentrate on improving the delivery, impact, and visibility of STEM efforts. Additionally, the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the Smithsonian Institution are leading efforts to improve outcomes for traditionally underrepresented groups.
The health and longevity of our Nation’s, citizenry, economy and environmental resources depend in large part on the acceleration of scientific and technological innovations, such as those that improve health care, inspire new industries, protect the environment, and safeguard us from harm. Maintaining America’s historical preeminence in the STEM fields will require a concerted and inclusive effort to ensure that the STEM workforce is equipped with the skills and training needed to excel in these fields. During President Obama’s first term, the Administration used multiple strategies to make progress on improving STEM education:
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Making STEM a priority in more of the Administration’s education efforts. The first round of the Department of Education’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top competition offered states a competitive preference priority on developing comprehensive strategies to improve achievement and provide rigorous curricula in STEM subjects; partner with local STEM institutions, businesses, and museums; and broaden participation of women and girls and other groups underrepresented in STEM fields. Other examples include STEM priorities in the Department of Education’s Invest in Innovation and Supporting Effective Educator Development programs. Prioritizing STEM in existing programs at the Department of Education has the advantage of leveraging existing resources and embedding STEM within our overall education reform efforts.
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Setting ambitious but achievable goals and challenging the private sector. President Obama announced the goal to prepare 100,000 excellent STEM teachers over the next decade in his 2011 State of the Union Address. Answering this call to action, over 150 organizations led by the Carnegie Corporation of New York formed a coalition called 100Kin10. Members of the coalition have made over 150 commitments to support STEM-teacher preparation and have raised over $30 million for this effort. In mid-March, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced a $22.5M investment to support expansion of the successful UTeach program in support of this goal. Additional examples of this all-hands-on-deck approach to challenging companies, foundations, non-profits, universities, and skilled volunteers include Change the Equation, US2020, and the scaling up and expanding an AP program for children in military families.
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The first-ever White House Science Fair took place in late 2010 and the second in 2012, fulfilling a commitment made at the launch of the Educate to Innovate campaign to directly use the pulpit to inspire more boys and girls to excel in mathematics and science. A call to action was issued to the 200,000 Federal scientists and engineers to volunteer in their local communities and think of creative ways to engage students in STEM subjects. Improving STEM education will continue to be a high priority in President Obama’s second term. Guided by the aims articulated in the February 2012 Progress Report and subsequent pre-final drafts of this Strategic Plan—as well by the President’s desire to re-organize STEM-education programs for greater coherence, efficiency, ease of evaluation, and focus on his highest priorities—the Executive Office of the President recommended, and the President accepted, a FY2014 Budget Request for STEM education that would increase the total investment in STEM-ed programs by 6 percent over the 2012 appropriated level.
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The Department of Education was designated to play an increased role in improving P-12 STEM instruction by supporting partnerships among school districts and universities, science agencies, businesses, and other community partners to transform teaching and learning. It also invested an additional $80 million in support of the 100,000 new STEM-ed teachers goal and $35 million for the launch of a pilot STEM-ed Master Teacher Corps, as well as in creation of new STEM Innovation Networks to better connect school districts with local, regional, and national STEM resources. The Department also collaborated with all of the CoSTEM agencies to ensure that Federal scientific assets were utilized in the improvement of P-12 STEM education.
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The National Science Foundation increased its focus on improving the delivery of undergraduate STEM teaching and learning through evidence-based reforms, including a new $123 million program aimed at improving retention of undergraduates in STEM fields. NSF also received $325 million to expand and enhance its graduate fellowship programs, including creation of a new National Graduate Research Fellowship, using a common infrastructure at NSF to reach more students and offer a set of opportunities that address national needs and mission critical workforce needs for the CoSTEM agencies.
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The Smithsonian Institution received $25 million to focus on improving the reach of informal STEM education by ensuring that materials are aligned to what students are learning in the classroom. The Smithsonian worked with NSF, ED, the other CoSTEM agencies including the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other science partners to harness their unique expertise and resources to disseminate relevant, evidence-based materials and curricula, on-line resources, and delivery and dissemination mechanisms to reach more teachers and students both inside and outside the classroom.
All of the CoSTEM agencies continued to be key players in the re-organized effort. All of these agencies depend upon the cultivation of a talented and well-trained workforce in order to meet their STEM-related missions, and all of them play a critical role in inspiring and training the next generation of STEM workers. Whether it be through direct support, provision of expertise and content, mobilization of talented STEM role models and mentors, or by exposing students to real-world learning opportunities at Federal STEM facilities, these agencies inspire and inform future scientists, engineers, innovators, and explorers.
The Strategic Plan complements the important steps already taken. The Plan begins by providing an overview of the importance of STEM education to American scientific discovery and innovation, the need to better prepare students for today’s jobs and those of the future, and the importance of a STEM-literate society and also describes the current state of Federal STEM education efforts. The document then presents five priority STEM education investment areas where a coordinated Federal strategy can be developed, over five years, designed to lead to major improvements in key areas. This increased coordination is expected to bring significant gains in efficiency and coverage.
Also included in this plan are initial implementation roadmaps in each of the priority STEM education investment areas, proposing potential short-, medium-, and long-term objectives and strategies that might help Federal agencies achieve the outlined goals (section 5). Additionally, throughout the document, the plan highlights (1) key outcomes for the Nation and ways Federal agencies can contribute, (2) areas where agencies will play lead roles, thereby increasing accountability, (3) methods to build and share evidence, and (4) approaches for decreasing fragmentation. The Strategic Plan will allow us to better achieve a number of inter-related goals:
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It will help Federal STEM efforts reach more students and more teachers more effectively by reorienting Federal policy to meet the needs of those who are delivering STEM education: school districts, States, and colleges, and universities;
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It will help in reorganizing efforts and redirecting resources around more clearly defined priorities, with accountable lead agencies;
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It will enable rigorous evaluation and evidence-building strategies for Federal STEM-education programs;
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It will increase the impact of Federal investments in important areas such as graduate education by expanding resources for a more limited number of programs, while recognizing shortages in key disciplines and professions; and,
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It will provide additional resources to meet specific national goals, such as preparing and recruiting 100,000 high-quality K-12 STEM teachers, recognizing and rewarding excellence in STEM instruction, strengthening the infrastructure for supporting STEM instruction and engagement, increasing the number of undergraduates with a STEM degree by one million over the next decade, and broadening participation in STEM fields by underrepresented groups.
The STEM Strategic Plan sets out ambitious national goals to drive Federal investment in five12 priority STEM education investment areas:
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Improve STEM Instruction: Prepare 100,000 excellent new K-12 STEM teachers by 2020, and support the existing STEM teacher workforce;
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Increase and Sustain Youth and Public Engagement in STEM: Support a 50 percent increase in the number of U.S. youth who have an authentic STEM experience each year prior to completing high school;
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Enhance STEM Experience of Undergraduate Students: Graduate one million additional students with degrees in STEM fields over the next 10 years;
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Better Serve Groups Historically Under-represented in STEM Fields: Increase the number of students from groups that have been underrepresented in STEM fields that graduate with STEM degrees in the next 10 years and improve women’s participation in areas of STEM where they are significantly underrepresented; and,
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Design Graduate Education for Tomorrow’s STEM Workforce: Provide graduate-trained STEM professionals with basic and applied research expertise, options to acquire specialized skills in areas of national importance, mission-critical workforce needs for the CoSTEM agencies, and ancillary skills needed for success in a broad range of careers.
