AIR Experts to Provide Insights into STEM Education Issues at U.S. News STEM Solutions National Leadership Conference
Washington, D.C. –American Institutes for Research (AIR) experts Tracy Gray and Courtney Tanenbaum will present on the Common Career Technical Core career clusters and advancing STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education for underserved youth during the U.S. News STEM Solutions National Leadership Conference April 23-25, 2014 in Washington, D.C., at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
The conference, created by U.S. News & World Report and sponsored by more than 30 organizations, including AIR, brings together a network of national leaders and experts who are proactively working to develop student STEM skills and advance the future of the STEM workforce.
Dr. Gray will present on a panel Wednesday, April 23 from 4:15 – 5:15 p.m., “Inside the New CTE Career Clusters (Session 2B).” It will explore the emerging Common Career Technical Core (CCTC) and related 16 “career clusters” effort, and examine the specifics of career technical education (CTE) programs worth implementing across the country. Forty-two states have declared their support for the development of the CCTC, an initiative to develop a set of rigorous standards for CTE that represent what students need to know and be able to do at the end of a particular program of study.
Ms. Tanenbaum will present on a panel Friday, April 25 from 10:30 – 11:45 a.m., “Serving Underserved Youth (Session 8F),” which will discuss how to create in-school and out-of-school programs that show great potential for advancing STEM education in historically underserved communities and actively engage youth in 21st-century learning.
Dr. Gray, a managing researcher at AIR, is a nationally recognized expert in education and technology implementation and has led numerous projects in the U.S. and internationally, examining the impact of technology on educational achievement. She directs Power Up What Works, a national technology center funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) that provides customizable resources to improve teaching and learning for struggling students and those with disabilities. She has published and lectured widely on issues related to the integration of emerging technologies into the classroom and after-school programs.
Ms. Tanenbaum, an AIR senior researcher, serves as the research lead for AIR’s STEM-focused work. She is the principal investigator for a National Science Foundation (NSF) funded grant that supports research examining the academic and career pathways of traditionally underrepresented groups of individuals in STEM. Most recently she authored an issue brief examining gender differences in the early career pathways of STEM doctoral recipients and led a symposium that brought together social science researchers and STEM educators to strategize efforts that could mitigate the barriers and biases underrepresented groups encounter in STEM academic pathways, including stereotype threat, chilly climates, and challenges related to developing a science identity.
For more details about the conference, visit http://usnewsstemsolutions.com/.
About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education and workforce productivity. For more information, visit www.air.org.
###