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14 Sep 2016
Blog Post

Vision 2026 Sets Course for the Future of STEM

Imagine a STEM education for all students that starts as early as preschool. Imagine it continuing for all students through high school and beyond—lifelong learning.

Imagine classroom designs that make use of technology, the natural world, and community and informal learning centers, engaging students of every grade level in relevant challenges that can be addressed through STEM. Imagine what this looks like in practice:

  • High schools where students are working with employees from national tech companies to solve real-world problems about bringing new and innovative products to market.
  • Games, simulations, and cognitive tutoring systems that help all students access individualized STEM content by adapting activities based on a student’s voiced responses, tactile motions, and past learning behaviors.
  • Learning activities that invite play, risk, and, yes, failure. Failure, after all, lets students do what scientists do: tinker, discover, and take chances as they map out new approaches to solving complex problems. The setbacks they experience develop students’ persistence, even in the face of challenges and uncertainty.

Graphic: Behind STEMNow imagine all of this happening in every community, every school, and for every child, regardless of neighborhood, race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, or disability.

This could be the future of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) teaching and learning in America. Or, at least it should be, according to a new vision that evolved out of workshops convened by the U.S. Department of Education’s STEM Initiatives Team in the Office of Innovation and Improvement. AIR collaborated on the initiative.

STEM 2026 is grounded in the premise that every student has the right to a foundational and authentic STEM education as part of a well-balanced set of academic experiences. The vision builds on work done over the past decade to advance educational equity and ensure that all students graduate prepared for college and/or careers. It also is grounded in research and data that show that the process of learning and practicing STEM disciplines can develop such lifelong learning skills as teamwork, a passion for inquiry and discovery, persistence, and the application of gained knowledge to new situations.

Yet, the U.S. remains far from providing equal access and opportunity to unlocking these skills:

  • Compared with 43 percent of White students and 61 percent of Asian students, just 13 percent of Black students and 19 percent of Hispanic students score at or above proficiency in eighth-grade mathematics.
  • Schools with the highest proportions of students from low-income households are more likely than others to have science and mathematics teachers with only one to two years of experience.
  • Between 10 and 25 percent of the nation’s high schools do not offer the core set of high school math and science courses, including algebra I and II, geometry, biology, and chemistry. Half of the nation’s high schools don’t offer calculus, and 37 percent don’t offer physics.
  • Girls represented just 22 percent of AP Computer Science exam takers; students of color, 13 percent.

How can the nation and its schools turn those numbers around?

STEM 2026 provides examples for policymakers, educators, researchers, and technology developers to see how today’s innovative work could gradually lead to high-level STEM education’s potential for all:

  • The Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, one of the more than 250 members of the Remake Learning network, has a MAKESHOP® space where children and families play, design, and create using the same tools professionals use. They can, for example, experiment with programming language, use a saw for the first time, or build and tinker with such old and new technologies as historical and virtual looms to create intricate patterns.
  • The National Geographic and National Park Service’s BioBlitzes are events at national parks where scientists, families, students, teachers, and other community members together identify and count the plants, animals, fungi, and other local organisms.  
  • Virtual tools like EcoMUVE and EcoMOBILE enhance learning and engage students in two ways. Through EcoMUVE, students explore a virtual pond ecosystem in their classrooms. EcoMOBILE software lets students on a class trip to a real pond use their mobile devices to get information, answer questions, and overlay virtual graphics on the pond.
  • Nimble Tools is for students with special needs. Its virtual keyboard can be quickly customized with overlays for each user. Further, an on-screen avatar can ask questions in American Sign Language, and text and images can be adjusted to make text accessible for each student.

In these examples, STEM’s future is well on its way. STEM 2026 is intended to catalyze collaboration and point the way into a learning environment where everyone feels invested and empowered to engage in STEM teaching and learning. 

Courtney Tanenbaum is a principal researcher and the Practice Area Director for STEM at AIR specializing in broadening participation of historically underrepresented groups in STEM education and career pathways.

Related Projects

Project

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Woman scientist uses a pipette

Broadening Participation in STEM

STEM degree production in the U.S. is not keeping pace with the demand for STEM talent. Women, racial and ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities are underrepresented in the STEM disciplines—the largest untapped STEM talent pools in the United States.

Related Work

14 Sep 2016
Report

female-technical-student-STEM-115990793-245x165.jpg

Female technical student at whiteboard

STEM 2026: A Vision for Innovation in STEM Education

A strong science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education is becoming increasingly recognized as a key driver of opportunity. In a series of discussion-based workshops, 30 experts and thought leaders were invited to exchange ideas and develop recommendations for the future of STEM education.
Topic: 
Higher Education and Career Readiness, College and Career Readiness, P-12 Education and Social Development
25 Apr 2016
Blog Post

Tanenbaum Courtney.jpg

Courtney Tanenbaum

Summer STEM—Engaging Youth, Building Identity, Narrowing Gaps

What is summer STEM? Hands-on programs that teach science, technology, engineering, and math in ways that engage young people and fight the summer learning loss that especially affects the nation’s most vulnerable children and youth. In this blog post, Elizabeth Devaney and Courtney Tanenbaum share what we’re learning about successful summer STEM programs.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, Afterschool and Expanded Learning, STEM
5 Apr 2016
Blog Post

Rasberry, Melissa_2105.jpg

Melissa Rasberry

Make Room for C-S in S-T-E-M

Computational skills are in high demand in many disciplines and careers, yet computer science (CS) education remains elusive, accessible to and accessed by only a select few. In this blog post, Courtney Tanenbaum and Melissa Rasberry call for increased computer science opportunities, especially for underserved populations.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, STEM
13 Mar 2014
Blog Post

Tanenbaum Courtney.jpg

Courtney Tanenbaum

The Disconnect Between Minority Students and STEM Careers

A recent ACT report offers new perspectives on the achievement gap between White and Asian students and their African-American, Hispanic, and Native American peers. In this blog post, Courtney Tanenbaum discusses how to address the fact that the academic achievement gap that exists in general for ethnically diverse students is even more pronounced among those interested in the STEM fields, and the importance of having a science identity.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, STEM
11 Mar 2014
Video

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Courtney Tanenbaum

Long Story Short: Why Don't More Women Pursue STEM Careers?

The increase in women with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math hasn't led to a similar increase in women in STEM leadership positions. In this 90-second video interview, Courtney Tanenbaum, senior researcher at AIR, explains why.
Topic: 
P-12 Education and Social Development, STEM

Further Reading

  • AIR Report Synthesizes Experts’ Vision for STEM Education in 2026: More Problem-Solving and Play, With an Emphasis on Inclusion
  • STEM 2026: A Vision for Innovation in STEM Education
  • Long Story Short: Why Don't More Women Pursue STEM Careers?
  • Summer STEM—Engaging Youth, Building Identity, Narrowing Gaps
  • Broadening Participation in STEM
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Courtney Tanenbaum

Courtney Tanenbaum

Principal Researcher and Practice Area Director

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