Our Journey

Over the next five years, James Madison University’s College of Education will increase the number of STEM elementary and secondary teachers, especially Black, Latinx, and Native American teachers as well as teachers from other underrepresented and underserved groups by 10%. To do this we will develop and implement a recruitment and retention plan while preparing teacher candidates to engage in caring, equitable, ambitious science teaching. This will lead to an increased number (20) of Black, Latinx, and Native American STEM teachers at all levels of schooling who better represent the students they are teaching as well as to increase the number of STEM teachers.

By 2028, the STEM Ed Innovators Equity Leaders program, the flagship offering of the Jhumki Basu Foundation, aims to develop 400 teacher leaders to bring transformative practices into their schools and districts across the United States. As Equity Leaders bring this work to their professional learning communities, we will expand STEM belonging in 1,000+ classrooms, impacting 20,000+ students per year. Our model co-creates personalized programs with each Equity Leaders to meet one or more of the following goals: 1) developing curriculum aligned with equitable learning standards, 2) fostering anti-racist, culturally responsive and sustaining pedagogy, and 3) facilitating collaborative professional communities of practice centering the historically marginalized and underrepresented funds of knowledge of Black, Latinx, and Native American STEM teachers.

By 2027, we will specifically prepare future teachers with the dispositions, mindsets, skills, and depth of understanding necessary to help young people feel a sense of belonging in STEM classrooms. Preservice teachers will complete redesigned methods and practicum experiences to develop their ability to implement dispositions of belonging among Black, Latinx, Native American, and students with disabilities in STEM courses. Through these experiences, future teachers of science (K-12) will create a pipeline for the next generation of Black, Latinx, and Native American teachers of STEM. Measurements will include students’ perceptions of a sense of value and fit within the STEM classroom. Over the next five years, this impact will also be measured in the number of Black, Latinx, and Native American students entering our teacher preparation programs.

By 2030, the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership (KFP) at NC State University will develop 375 educators as STEM leaders who foster inclusive, high-impact learning environments. KFP’s model combines extensive pedagogical and leadership training for support and retention of in-service teachers with authentic STEM experiences, and is supported by strong university and industry partnerships. At least 90% of these educators will teach STEM subjects or serve as elementary generalists, with 50% being educators of color or working in Title 1 schools, and half teaching in rural areas. 160 educators will participate in a yearlong Kenan Fellowship, a three-week STEM immersion, and 80 hours of professional development, equipping them to shape the future STEM workforce. 115 educators will engage as “Mountains to Sea Scholars” with topics like Climate Change and Water Quality through expert-led sessions, enriching their regionally relevant STEM instruction. 100 educators will participate in “STEMwork” to receive Project-Based Learning training, connecting classrooms to local industries for applied STEM learning. By providing teachers with culturally responsive teaching strategies and authentic STEM experiences, KFP will enhance students’ real-world STEM learning and sense of belonging. These programs will improve STEM instruction for 56,000 students, build lasting and supportive educator networks that retain educators, and advance an equitable STEM education ecosystem.

By 2029, KID Museum will provide STEM professional development and curriculum, grounded in maker learning and culturally responsive-sustaining education practices, to 1000 teachers in schools that primarily serve Black, Latine, and Native American students, with the goal of building teachers’ confidence and capacity to create learning environments where their students feel they are known and belong in STEM. At least 30% of these teachers will be STEM-specific educators and specialists. This preparation will result in more educators both in STEM and non-STEM classrooms being more competent and confident about their ability to center their Black, Latine, and Native American students’ voices and experiences in STEM in their classrooms, having a positive impact on their pedagogy and practice. This will ultimately result in increased student interest, confidence, and sense of belonging in STEM.

Knowles Teacher Initiative will work to support the development of an educational system where all students engage with math and science in deep and meaningful ways through two key programs: 1) our Teaching Fellowship and 2) our Knowles Academy. By 2029, we will: 1) bring an additional 150 high school STEM educators to our current network of over 500 HS STEM teachers through our multi-year Teaching Fellowship program. Our long term impact is creating STEM teacher leaders who develop equitable teaching practices within their own classrooms, understand systemic issues and recognize their role in their school system (and beyond) and are empowered to impact that system in support of more equitable outcomes for students, especially those who have traditionally been marginalized in STEM. 2) impact an additional 8,000 STEM teachers through the Knowles Academy by designing and implementing professional learning that meets the needs and interest of teachers who work in districts from marginalized communities, considering specific factors in that customization such as cultural relevance, language diversity, and inclusive STEM pedagogy.

KQED is making two commitments to support teacher and student belonging. KQED will increase the capacity of 100 + middle and high school STEM teachers annually to share their own authentic selves with their students through models created in KQED facilitate professional development. KQED will also publish and broadcast Latino, Black and Native American students media creations to public media audiences in collaboration with school districts and public media stations across the country and by sharing youth media. Validating the voices and experiences of the youth overall will influence their belonging, including in STEM.

LabXchange will provide ongoing professional development and services for 2,500 registered educators, increasing their skill and confidence in implementing digital resources in their teaching. By 2025, LabXchange will develop a teacher ambassador program for up to 500 highly motivated educators that offers specialized training in leadership and instructional design. LabXchange will also ensure that the recruitment for US-based teachers focuses on teachers serving in Title I schools and other schools that serve majority Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students. LabXchange will also offer educators access to a network of over 300 mentors, including scientists, educators, and other STEM professionals, for sharing best practices and other inspiration. With Department of Defense STEM grant funding, LabXchange will expand our content library to include data science and climate change topics that will help teachers update and expand their content knowledge.

LabXchange will seek to identify barriers which might prevent Black, Latinx, and Native American teachers from participating in our forthcoming teacher ambassador program, and work to address these barriers so that our program better reflects the educators and students in our global community. We will identify barriers by surveying teachers, planning and conducting pilot studies in classrooms, and collaborating with non-profit organizations that serve or convene educator networks.

LabXchange will release two new clusters of learning pathways to raise awareness of racism. One cluster will provide educators with high-quality curricular materials and evidence-based antiracist and inclusive teaching tools to use in the classroom. One cluster, designed for learners, will provide engaging materials to learn to recognize and rectify systemic racism. LabXchange will support the implementation of the learning pathways through workshops and virtual professional development opportunities for our network of more than 2,500 educators.

Lawrence Hall of Science commits to supporting a minimum of 500 teachers and 200 leaders through attention to systems change and organizational capacity-building that enables equitable outcomes in STEM learning. We commit to focusing our efforts on K-12 educational systems that serve Black, Indigenous, Latinx, multilingual learners and those who experience poverty and food scarcity. Our model of systems capacity-building and STEM improvement is anchored in positioning our most marginalized groups as leaders in the systems design process, experts, and essential to solving systems challenges. When implemented, this model enables the creation of conditions that support STEM teachers in creating high-quality, equitable science learning experiences for students.

Lawrence Hall of Science commits to supporting teachers through equity-centered district capacity building support, professional learning that centers student perspectives and identities, and high-quality instructional materials that foreground culturally and linguistically responsive and sustaining approaches to science education. These approaches are designed to foster belonging in STEM classrooms by explicitly addressing the needs of Black, Indigenous, Latinx, People of Color, multilingual learners and those who experience poverty and food scarcity.

By 2029, Young Inventors is committed to preparing over 5,000 pre-service and in-service elementary teachers, with a focus on districts with predominantly minority student populations, to create joyful and inquiry-led learning environments in STEM. Through our innovative instructional resources and professional learning programs, we will support educators, particularly those with limited experience in STEM, to deliver rigorous learning sequences that are made accessible and engaging through visuals and multimedia supports. Central to our commitment is the expansion of partnerships with local and state-level grow-your-own teaching apprenticeship programs. This initiative will provide aspiring teachers from minority communities with early pre-service training and hands-on STEM teaching experiences. In parallel, we are working to support school districts across the country to bolster elementary STEM instruction by providing supports to in-service teachers, designed to develop their facilitation skills and confidence in STEM teaching and learning.

Learners Edge is committed to providing educators with research-based applicable science, technology, and math professional learning. Over the next 5 years, we commit to supporting 350+ educators across the country to better understand the critical impact of exclusion on students from Black, Latinx and Native American populations and with intersectional identities through two initiatives:
1) revising existing graduate-level continuing education courses and supplemental content to facilitate the development of educator skills and mindsets that cultivate belonging in STEM classes

2) developing new graduate-level coursework and supplemental content that engages educators in critical reflection, strategy implementation, and advocacy that improves learning experiences for Black, Latinx and Native American students

We’ll use our research-based professional learning model to facilitate this important work and measure impact through self-reported shifts in teacher practice— new knowledge acquisition, increase in confidence, and frequency of strategy implementation– as well as student-reported impact on belonging in STEM learning.

Over the next decade, Learning Blade will introduce over 200,000 underserved students to STEM and computer science career pathways, expanding their interest and awareness of the opportunities in the real world to ensure that all students see themselves in STEM and CS. STEM Career Awareness shows students how STEM careers can help people, support students to find their path and develop a sense of purpose. Learning Blade supports teachers with resources that develop students’ interest and engagement in the STEM/CS workforce, specifically for underserved students. By providing teachers access to high-quality career exploration and project-based learning, we help expand students’ sense of belonging in the STEM/CS workforce. Our teacher professional development and student learning experiences focus on making sure ALL students see themselves in STEM/CS.

Learning Blade will support communities of teachers by training over 3,000 teachers with the knowledge and resources to help expand student participation in STEM and computer science over the next five years. We commit to providing high-quality professional development (PD) that focuses specifically on best practices of career exploration and its impact on building more racially diverse participation in STEM. Learning Blade professional development (PD) is accredited by CSTA and accepted by states for PD credit. Learning Blade shows educators how to integrate career exploration resources across the disciplinary silos and highlights the best practice of using cross-disciplinary standards to connect career exploration to real-world problem-solving scenarios.

Lehman College CUNY Department of Middle and High School Education commits to prepare Black and Latinx teachers to foster belonging in their STEM classrooms: Over the next 5 years we will continue and expand on our certifications and scholarship programs to encourage students to explore instructional practices grounded in equity in the classroom. Specifically, we are implementing a dual certification that will allow students to focus on special education as well as an area of content expertise such as math or science. Additionally, we will continue LUTE STEM a year-long scholarship program that serves as extended student/teacher training for pre-service teachers. While in the program students receive equity training and learn liberatory design and restorative justice practices. We will also continue our Human Rights and Transformative Justice certification that provides teachers with tools to utilize equity and social emotional learning. Finally, we will continue to share the teaching of universal design learning strategies and culturally relevant pedagogy to our students through seminars that foster discourse on these topics.

Commitment Statement Coming Soon

In collaboration with the College of Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences, Lipscomb University’s College of Education will intentionally assist in attracting more STEM educators by continuing Computer Science, Science, and Math engagement with 100 high school students (predominantly students of color, first-generation college) through high quality and rigorous summer programming which involves full day interactions with faculty to support students with hands-on activities, collaborative projects, and engaging lessons to inspire curiosity and creativity. To help remove financial barriers for students interested in STEM education, we will offer scholarships in partnership with the National Science Foundation for students who enroll in our education preparation program in a STEM field. By 2029, we will prepare 75 6-8/6-12 educators for successful initial licensure or add-on endorsements in Math, Science, or Computer Science.

By 2029, the Los Angeles Education Partnership (LAEP) will support 200 teachers in cultivating inclusive, dynamic classrooms, reaching approximately 30,000 students across 800 classrooms. Our vision is to create environments where every student feels a profound sense of belonging in STEAM fields. At least 75% of these teachers will serve in schools predominantly supporting Black, Latinx, and Native American students, ensuring our efforts address communities historically underrepresented in STEAM.

We will provide holistic support to educators through coaching and professional development, empowering them to guide their students toward at least one year of academic growth while also building their leadership capacity. This includes a strong focus on DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) work and cognitive coaching to help teachers become catalysts for systemic change.

Our approach will equip STEAM practitioners with best practices in culturally responsive teaching, along with differentiated strategies to meet the diverse needs of their students. We will also foster community partnerships that bridge STEAM learning with real-world applications and create schoolwide STEAM cultures. These efforts will empower teachers to establish mentorship networks and dismantle systemic barriers to STEAM inclusion.
By adopting this holistic model, we aim to increase student engagement, elevate academic achievement, and inspire sustained interest in STEAM careers. In doing so, we hope to pave the way for a more equitable and inclusive future in STEAM.

Loyola Marymount University is committed to recruiting, retaining and supporting BIPOC educators in California to ensure that students in LA and across the state have educators who reflect their identity. LMU is working with the Consortium of Charter Schools in LA to build a residency pathway focused on diversifying the educator workforce in LA and hopes to recruit and retain 90 residents by 2027 that primarily serve the BIPOC communities of LA and primarily identify as BIPOC educators.  In addition, LMU is working with Teach For America- Los Angeles as a certification partner to certify educators in high-need placements like STEM.  This partnership has emphasized recruiting BIPOC STEM educators to serve in high-need LA schools. LMU is committed to providing $5 million in scholarship by 2027 support to ensure that certification is a realistic option for educators who are coming from low-income backgrounds supporting both teacher recruitment and retention in LA.  Lastly, recognizing the critical role that education leaders play in fostering student and educator belonging for educators and students of color, LMU has built a partnership with the Diversity in Leadership Institute (DLI) to recruit 180 education leaders by 2027, 100% of whom identify as people of color and to provide supports to these exceptional leaders to foster environments of belonging in the schools and systems they lead both for BIPOC students and BIPOC educators in their school and district communities.

“We commit to increase the number of STEM teachers that complete our program, preparing 150 STEM teachers over the next 5 years by promoting the addition of science and math middle grades endorsements amongst elementary and secondary teacher candidates. We commit to increasingly prepare teachers for schools that currently face the greatest shortages by deepening our existing school partnerships that serve Title 1 students and families through regular meetings with school partners to review how our field-based approach to teacher education can be more mutually beneficial to these partner schools and communities.

Loyola University Chicago commits increasing support our teacher candidates to develop the skills and mindsets to foster belonging in STEM classrooms, especially for Black, Latinx and/or Native American students, by regularly reviewing and redesigning program curricula as necessary to ensure it promotes anti-racist, anti-bias, and culturally relevant education.”

Commitment Statement Coming Soon

By 2027, we will support 3,000 formal and informal educators across the U.S. through high-quality and culturally-responsive STEM professional learning. We plan to engage 100 educators from marginalized communities/populations in co-designing these professional learning opportunities that build from an assets-based mindset leveraging the expertise, lived experiences, and equitable power already present. We will develop strategies influenced by culturally-responsive tools that examine both the barriers to high-quality professional learning and access to educators’ perspectives. We will strategically design educator programming and support to address different levels, interests, and entry points.