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Event Announcement

State Plans for STEM: Building Consensus, Designing the Plan, and Aligning Initiatives

A Webinar — June 29, 2009

This one-hour webinar was conducted on 29 June, 2009.  The presenters address how two states, Pennsylvania and Minnesota, have developed their state plans for STEM education.

*NOTE: In order to view this webinar please download the required codec HERE:  (once codec has been downloaded and installed on your computer you will be able to download and view the STEM Webinar.)

 

Participants learned:

  • How all stakeholders can be included in the planning process as states develop their state plans
  • How STEM was balanced with other state priorities, and integrated into an overall education agenda
  • How partnerships were created and leveraged

  • What the resulting plans look like in detail

Pennsylvania’s step-by-step approach showcases a state embarking on putting into place a plan around STEM, one that is integrated with current initiatives in the state. The process has emphasized the importance of posing critical questions to guide the development of the plan.   They addressed what STEM meant to them, what their resources and assets were, their short-term and long-term goals, how they envisaged communicating those goals to various constituents, as well as their ability to sustain their efforts.  Critical to all these considerations was the building of strong relationships among the key players.  To ground their work in data, the state conducted asset mapping of best practices, and a gap analysis, to identify challenge areas.  A regional approach has been put into place, with 5 centers already in place.  They are working to define a successful strategy to engage the business community.  What has been successfully implemented is a statewide network communications program, featuring web presentations and podcasts, all with a consistent framework.  The message about STEM is customized for different audiences, and thus they recognized the imperative to engage the entire community in emphasizing the importance of the STEM agenda for the state.

Minnesota’s strategy represents a more developed  STEM plan, which includes an emphasis on cohesive messaging, complete with branding STEM with a logo, a focus on raising math and science standards through the creation of a statewide system of Math/Science Teacher Centers, and a keen emphasis on utilizing the resources of the business community and engaging higher education partners.  The state concentrated on building STEM into the existing structure of standards and assessments, creating consensus around common goals, grounding the case for creating a STEM plan in data, and ensuring a variety of funding mechanisms to ensure implementation and sustainability.  The impact of this work is already visible on the students, as evidenced by the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) results that reveal the state’s students are performing very well in math and science relative to students from other nations.  

 

Resources:

Webinar: *NOTE: In order to view this webinar please download the required codec HERE:  (once codec has been downloaded and installed on your computer you will be able to download and view the STEM Webinar.)

 

Webinar Recording: State Plans for STEM Building Consensus

Click to Download WMV file

 

Webinar Recording (AUDIO ONLY ): State Plans for STEM Building Consensus

Download MP3 file (podcast version)

 

Presentations:

 

Pennsylvania - PA STEM Initiative PPT

Minnesota - STEM Sustainability PPT

Washington, DC - National Governors Association Center for Best Practices PPT

 

Additional Resources:

 

 

NGA Center STEM State Web site

 

 

The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF), a nonprofit, nonpartisan professional development organization based in Washington, DC, provides learning opportunities for policy leaders, practitioners, and researchers working on youth and education issues at the national, state, and local levels.

AYPF’s events and policy reports are made possible by the support of a consortium of philanthropic foundations: Carnegie Corporation of New York, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, WT Grant Foundation, James Irvine Foundation, C.S. Mott Foundation, and others.