Our Journey

Over the next five years, NCGE will promote the importance of STEM within the geography education community by expanding participation in the National GIS Competition to include all 50 states and territories and grow student/teacher participation by 50%. Additionally, NCGE will provide 15 STEM focused professional development tracks through its educator webinar series and sessions during the annual conference. In year one we will be collecting baseline data and building growth targets, with the goal of impacting 200 classroom educators and their students.

Commitment Statement Coming Soon

By 2029, the National Council on Teacher Quality will drive improvements in the teacher pipeline, compensation structures, and state teacher data systems in order to make specific policies and resource allocations that will help recruit and retain teachers, with a focus on the needs of Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students through lifting up best practices in teacher preparation to diversify the candidate pool, share how states and district use strategic pay to attract and reward STEM educators, and model how states can build data systems that help predict their future teacher workforce needs. As a result of these efforts, preparation programs, districts, and states will implement policies and practices that will attract and retain a strong, diverse workforce, and students will experience an inclusive environment where they will love learning and be able to achieve their own life goals. This will impact learning by reducing the number of schools with high percentages of students of color reporting they had STEM vacancies and student achievement in math and science increasing for all students, but particularly for Black, Latinx, and Native American students.

The National Math and Science Initiative commits to inspire, strengthen, and retain the next generation of diverse STEM teacher-leaders by elevating our supports for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous STEM teachers. By 2027, NMSI will scale its New Teacher Academy, a new teacher induction program for Black, Latinx, and Indigenous teachers in the first three years of their career, to at least 400 early career STEM teachers of color in at least five new districts that serve a majority of students of color and/or in poverty. NMSI’s New Teacher Academy provides our Laying the Foundation professional development, school-year mentorship, and professional learning communities for early-career STEM teachers to combat isolation, improve practice, and foster a stronger teacher-identity. By providing a strong community for new teachers, along with support in content and instruction, our goal is to help new teachers see success faster and stay in the classroom longer.

NNSTOY will use the 9 domain recommendations in our Build for Equity research along with engaging with other thought partners to impact policy and hiring practices to recruit, retain, and advance Black, Latinx, and Native American STEM teachers.

NNSTOY is currently building a Teach for Equity course that joins equitable teaching practices with habit science. We plan on launching this work that will directly benefit Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students within the next 3 years.

By 2029, we will work in collaboration with other federal agencies, Climate Generation and the CLEAN Network to facilitate over 10 regional cohorts per year through the Teach Climate and CLEAN Networks to support climate teaching. We will accomplish this by providing workshops, reviewing and distributing climate curriculum for teaching across all disciplines, and engaging in conversations about the “best practices” of climate change education and methods for localizing community and justice-centered climate change solutions. We will provide intensive training to 6,000 teachers, 2,400 of whom work in schools that serve a high population of Black, Latinx and/or Native American students. These cohorts will add to the growing Teach Climate and CLEAN networks who have participated in this work beginning in 2017. The outcomes we hope for is to ignite and sustain the ability of educators, especially Black, Latinx and/or Native American educators, to build collective strength to inspire hope and enable climate action in their communities.

The National Science Teaching Association commits to make science learning engaging, accessible, and important to ALL students by helping teachers provide students-as-scientists with authentic, relevant opportunities to make sense of the world and beyond – what we call sensemaking. By 2027, we will develop the NSTA Lesson Plan Library with 250 lessons and 24 storylines with our sensemaking approach that makes science accessible to all students and will include lessons that are culturally relevant for Black, Latino, and Native American students. We will also complete our initial Pathways to Success program of 250 Professional Learning Units, which are bite-sized, self-paced, asynchronous short courses that educators can use to improve their practice, enrich students’ learning, and increase equitable participation in the classroom.

The National Writing Project will create a networked community for science teachers and will recruit 25 teachers annually to join and lead conversations about teaching science there. Over five years we’ll have created a hub of activity for any interested science teacher in our Write Now Teacher Studio seeded with 125 active science teacher leaders.

Within the National Writing Project’s science teacher community of practice, we will develop a thread of programming focused on how teachers can develop skills and mindsets to foster belonging in stem classrooms. We will highlight the value of writing in STEM classrooms to deepen understanding of and connection to science. We will also focus on reflective and personal writing as ways to surface tensions around belonging and to deepen connections to the subject of science. We will also build a thread of reading and writing about this topic specifically as it pertains to Black, Latinx and Native students.

By 2027, 325 NJ teachers will complete a STEM content add-on endorsement or degree program with NJCTL. We will target schools serving a majority Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students with teacher vacancies and help them to recruit teachers to enter the program, anticipating that about 50% of the teachers completing our program will be in these districts. We currently have strong partnerships with several large urban districts in NJ serving the target demographic and we will continue to foster those.

By 2027, 325 NJ teachers will complete a STEM content add-on endorsement or degree program with NJCTL. NJCTL strives for the additional teachers in the program to identify as an underrepresented minority in STEM. We will recruit people to enroll from the NJEA Member Benefits Fairs that we attend and will specifically target Educational Support Professionals (ESPs). ESPs who have a bachelors degree can enter our NJ DOE approved Alternate Route program to become a teacher. Of the ESPs in NJEA, 29% of them are underrepresented minorities.

We commit to recruiting 50 new scientists a year into the teaching field from diverse backgrounds and we commit to retaining teachers who teach in schools that serve a majority of Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students by partnering them with 25 a year scientists to build capacity to implement high impact STEM projects in their classrooms.

The New York Academy of Sciences is committed to exploring new and innovative models that link and leverage the resources of the scientific community to ensure success of the next generation of majority Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students. We will accomplish this by training scientists, especially in building a sense of belonging as they work with 10,000 students over 10 years as teachers and mentors.

NYBG commits to providing professional development to 12,000 teachers in the next five years (2,500 teachers annually). Over 70% of teachers who NYBG trains come from the Bronx, which has a high percentage of Title 1 schools and Black and Latinx students. NYBG runs the largest teacher professional development program at a botanical garden in the world, and we support STEM teachers in pedagogy and classroom resources.

NYBG’s professional learning sessions focus on both knowledge- and skills-based acquisitions. NYBG also has created a community of teachers to share ideas and tactics for helping students feel included and represented in STEM disciplines. Through teacher community-building, teachers feel more equipped to support their students as well as other teachers.

The NYC Department of Education is committed to supporting teachers to cultivate classrooms of STEM belonging and schools to cultivate workplaces of belonging, with a focus on the needs of Black and Latinx students. By 2027, NYCDOE will support 300 teachers and administrators with professional learning focused on helping teachers to create classrooms of collaboration, sense-making, and authentic learning, where students become advocates for equity in their communities. NYCDOE teachers and administrators will be part of Leadership Teams that receive intensive professional learning on integrating culturally responsive pedagogy in STEM classrooms, creating classrooms in which students utilize their cultural assets and experiences to deepen their knowledge of science concepts and the engineering design process. These teachers will become coaches for other science teachers in their district and will be available to build capacity in their districts and other districts in the NYC Department of Education. NYCDOE is also supporting The Climate Education Leadership, which will continue to promote the integration of climate education across disciplines in K-12 classrooms. Through this work, we will foster student belonging in STEM by supporting students to develop the 21st century skills needed to be agents of change in their communities and are prepared for success in pursuing STEM careers.

The NYC Department of Education is committed to supporting teachers to cultivate classrooms of STEM belonging and schools to cultivate workplaces of belonging, with a focus on the needs of Black and Latinx students. By 2027, NYCDOE will support 300 teachers and administrators with professional learning focused on helping teachers to create classrooms of collaboration, sense-making, and authentic learning, where students become advocates for equity in their communities. NYCDOE teachers and administrators will be part of Leadership Teams that receive intensive professional learning on integrating culturally responsive pedagogy in STEM classrooms, creating classrooms in which students utilize their cultural assets and experiences to deepen their knowledge of science concepts and the engineering design process. These teachers will become coaches for other science teachers in their district and will be available to build capacity in their districts and other districts in the NYC Department of Education. NYCDOE is also supporting The Climate Education Leadership, which will continue to promote the integration of climate education across disciplines in K-12 classrooms. Through this work, we will foster student belonging in STEM by supporting students to develop the 21st century skills needed to be agents of change in their communities and are prepared for success in pursuing STEM careers.

By 2029, NextGenScience at WestEd will provide leadership development tools and services to state, district, and regional leaders to support them with the design and implementation of high-leverage strategies. These strategies will empower them to make big changes in science teaching, learning, and leadership in their school system, such as by selecting and supporting the implementation of high-quality, culturally-relevant instructional materials and ensuring adequate time for elementary science education, with a focus on the needs of Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students. As a result of these efforts, over 15,000 leaders and teachers will facilitate science learning that honors students’ identities and experiences, motivates them to explore relevant issues, and prepares them for college, career, and citizenship. This work will impact learning on a national level by: increasing the number of high-quality K-12 science instructional materials used in classrooms, developing leaders in science education, evaluating district science systems, and supporting educators and leaders with evaluating, selecting, designing, and implementing high-quality instructional materials and assessments.

By 2029, Northeast Florida Regional STEM2 Hub will support 1000 K12 STEM educators to cultivate classrooms of STEM belonging with a focus on the needs of Black, Latinx, and/or Native American students through high-quality professional learning experiences, STEM program planning and strategic implementation: To accomplish this, our programs will include supporting STEM teacher professional learning through our Computer Science Festival, Computer Science Professional Development, Pathways to Space Professional Development along with Standards Alignment, Industry-Led Technical Professional Development Series, as well as through collaboration with our local College of Education to develop and implement STEM preservice teacher programs. As a result of these efforts, educators will develop an engineering mindset and will feel empowered to facilitate STEM classes, and students will develop a sense of belonging in STEM fields. This will impact learning for 25,000 K12 students over five years.

Northern Arizona University, Department of STEM Education will increase the number of Native American and Latinx secondary STEM teachers graduating from our undergraduate and graduate teacher education degree programs by 30% over the next five years for a total of 184 teachers prepared. We will use targeted recruitment strategies to attract more Native American and Latinx candidates to our teacher education degree programs. We will collaborate with the NAU Office of Native American Initiatives to recruit more Native American students to our teacher education degree programs. To recruit more Latinx students to our teacher education degree programs, we will collaborate with the NAU statewide HSI Advisor to the Provost, to advertise our degree programs to Latinx students.

Notre Dame of Maryland University is committed to recruiting and retaining 100 STEM educators from the communities they partner with across the state of Maryland. Notre Dame of Maryland University provides more than 100 teachers and administrators primarily serving Latinx students to be able to better support their students in STEM education by providing professional development along with access to hands-on STEM kits and MacBooks. Notre Dame of Maryland University is also working with local school systems to prepare paraprofessionals as part of a “grow your own” initiative, which will result in 200 educators certified by 2027. Lastly, Notre Dame of Maryland University is committed to fostering classrooms of belonging through the School of Education STEM Camp that works with a racially diverse group of students from local communities. They are committed to recruiting summer camp staff that share identities with the students in their programs and provide the staff with professional development to foster student belonging at the camp. By 2027, Notre Dame of Maryland will have served more than 500 students in their summer program.

By 2027, we will work in collaboration with the Teacher Powered Schools Network and Empower Schools to facilitate eighteen school teams through the design process to become Teacher-Powered Schools, and in doing so, formalize teacher autonomies, strengthen collaborative practices, increase shared decision-making, and positively impact teacher retention rates.

By 2027, the Ohio State University’s College of Education hopes to re-imagine one of the introductory courses for teacher candidates to increase the number and diversity of teacher candidates who are interested in teaching. The reimagining work would involve bringing more critical perspectives into education and seeing its impact on recruitment and retention. OSU plans to work with their superintendents-in-residence to better understand the critical issues around recruiting and retaining educators of color in their school districts and determine opportunities to impact hiring and retention for STEM educators of color and STEM educators who teach majority Black, Latinx and/or Native American students.

By 2027, Out Teach will provide coaching and training to 8,700 elementary teachers in Title 1 schools with the goal of 80% of teachers improving their practice to facilitate rigorous schoolyard science instruction. Outcomes will be measured through classroom observations, teacher self-reflections and evaluations administered at professional development sessions.

Research highlights the crucial importance of belonging for youth, particularly those from Black, Latinx, and Native American backgrounds, engaged in STEM programs. Leveraging our research findings, Partnerships in Education and Resilience (PEAR) has developed a comprehensive measurement system utilized nationally and internationally. This system encompasses data collection, visualization, and reporting to assess student wellbeing and STEM engagement, educator experience, and program quality. By 2029, PEAR aims to bolster school districts and out-of-school time STEM programs by offering a unified measurement system. This system helps STEM educators gauge students’ sense of belonging and STEM identity from the start of the program, enabling continuous quality improvement. Furthermore, educators can self-report on their efficacy in fostering belonging in STEM, and observers can share feedback on program quality that integrates with student and educator data to create a full picture of the program. The overarching objective is to impact over 200,000 young individuals and 10,000 STEM educators nationwide by 2029. PEAR’s goal is to increase student feelings of belonging and STEM identity, elevate educator confidence in delivering high-quality STEM learning experiences, and to support educator professional development and retention by fostering a sense of belonging in STEM for both youth and educators.