Committee on STEM Education:
5-year Strategic Federal STEM
Education Plan
Goal 1 Lead: Office of STEM,
US Department of Education
www.ed.gov/STEM
Contact: Camsie McAdams,
Acting Director
Camsie.mcadams@ed.gov
“LEADERSHIP TOMORROW
DEPENDS ON HOW WE
EDUCATE OUR STUDENTS
TODAY—ESPECIALLY IN
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY,
ENGINEERING AND MATH.”
President Barack Obama
Participating Organizations
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Department of Agriculture
Department of Commerce
Department of Defense
Department of Education
Department of Energy
Department of Health and
Human Services
Department of Homeland
Security
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Department of the Interior
Department of Transportation
Environmental Protection
Agency
Executive Office of the
President
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration
National Science Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
National Goals for STEM Education
Improve STEM Instruction: Prepare 100,000 excellent new
K-12 STEM teachers by 2020, and support the existing
STEM teacher workforce
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
Enhance STEM Experience of Undergraduate Students:
Graduate 1 million additional students with degrees in
STEM fields over the next 10 years
Goals, continued
Better Serve Groups Historically Under-represented in STEM
Fields: Increase the number of students from groups that have
been underrepresented in STEM that graduate with STEM
degrees in the next 10 years and improve women’s
participation in areas of STEM where they are significantly
underrepresented
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.
Coordination Approaches
Build new models for leveraging assets and expertise.
Implement a strategy of lead and collaborating agencies to
leverage capabilities across agencies to achieve the most
significant impact of Federal STEM education investments.
Build and use evidence-based approaches. Conduct STEM
education research and evaluation to build evidence about
promising practices and program effectiveness, to be used
across agencies, and share with the public to improve the
impact of the Federal STEM education investment.
P-12 Strategic Objectives
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Identify, develop, test, and support effective teacher
preparation efforts that encourage teachers’ use of
evidence-based practices that provide students with
rich STEM learning opportunities.
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Increase the number and quality of authentic STEM
experiences for pre- and in-service P-12 teachers
participating in Federally-supported internship,
fellowship, and scholarship programs.
P-12 Near-Term Actions
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Identify and assess Federal investments that incentivize
(a) the recruitment or training of excellent K-12 STEM
teachers to work in high-need schools and (b) the
retention of those effective STEM teachers whose
students show annual growth in STEM learning.
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Identify and assess Federal STEM investments in teacher
IFS, including: size, scope, structure, methods, status of
assessment and evaluation activities and characteristics
of included STEM experiences.
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Initiate plans for linking existing resources with new
infrastructures for reaching wide audiences.
P-12 Near-Term Outcomes
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Better understanding of Federal investments that
incentivize (a) the recruitment or training of excellent
P-12 STEM teachers to high-need schools and (b) the
retention of those effective STEM teachers whose
students show annual growth in STEM learning.
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Collect information about Federal investments in
teacher IFS including recommended additional
information beyond that which was available. A
baseline of relevant programs will provide the basis
upon which assessment criteria can be developed.
These criteria will be used to compare/contrast
practices to develop guidance.