Our Journey

Our vision, over three decades, is to end the STEM teacher shortage with equity, representation, and belonging at the center.

In the last decade, we successfully prepared over 100K new STEM teachers who have helped strengthen and improve the field and our world. Over the next decade, we are looking to build on that progress by preparing and retaining 150K new STEM teachers who increasingly mirror the diversity of their school community, especially for schools serving majority Black, Latinx, and Native American students. We’lll support our network to foster workplaces and classrooms of belonging so that everyone we reach can see a path for themselves in STEM. And in the decade after that, we are hopeful that our commitment to this work will solve the STEM teacher shortage once and for all.

Our Journey and where we’re headed:

100Kin10

In 2011, we took up a call by President Obama to prepare 100K STEM teachers in 10 years alongside 28 partner organizations. By 2021, 300 organizations worked collectively to surpass our shared goal and we prepared nearly 110K excellent STEM teachers to the field. We did this by focusing our radical collaboration on:

Building a Network
of Diverse Stakeholders

We inspire organizations to make and pursue ambitious commitments to the goal and build those partner organizations into a strong network grounded in a shared vision.

Creating a Map of the System

We enable those closest to the problem to co-create a comprehensive map of the problem and keep it relevant through data, best practices, and other key information.

Building tools for Making Progress

We support partners to succeed at their commitments and tackle the systemic challenges revealed by the map.

Collectively We Advance the Field

In 2021, Bellwether Education Partners conducted a third-party evaluation of our impact. They found that the network spurred five major advancements in STEM teaching and learning:

BETTER RECRUITMENT: 100Kin10 prep programs used improved strategies to recruit highly qualified STEM teacher candidates

IMPROVED PREPARATION: More STEM teacher candidates have access to evidence-based STEM preparation via 100Kin10 partners

EXPANDED EARLY STEM: 100Kin10 partner programs have increased emphasis on preparing and supporting elementary teachers with STEM skills, and in particular foundational math

ENHANCED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: More teachers have access to quality STEM professional growth and collaborative work environments via 100Kin10 partners

MORE AUTHENTIC STEM: More teachers and students have access to meaningful, authentic, and rigorous STEM learning via 100Kin10 partners

GRAND CHALLENGES

The future of our country depends on today’s students becoming tomorrow’s innovators. We believe that young people have infinite potential and that when that potential is nourished in STEM classrooms, they will bring to life out of this world solutions to our biggest challenges. This is why we must tackle the underlying causes of our nation’s shortage of excellent STEM teachers. So we identified the 100 challenges to preparing and retaining great STEM teachers and created a roadmap that points the way toward transforming STEM education.

THE UNCOMMISSION

In 2021, nearly 600 young people shared their K-12 STEM experiences through a diverse, participatory storytelling effort called the unCommission. We knew their input was critical in order to identify action-ready considerations for the future of STEM learning and opportunity. Now, their voices are guiding our next chapter and goal on this journey to end the STEM teacher shortage with equity, representation, and belonging at the center of this work.

Our Next Shared

GOAL

OUR NEXT SHARED

GOAL

STEM has never been more important to our future.

The people who will cure cancer and dementia, desalinate water, help us avoid future pandemics and solve challenges unknown or invisible are in our nation’s classrooms today. And, we cannot solve these challenges without ensuring those most under-represented in STEM are centered in the work ahead.

To achieve our next shared goal, we are relaunching and growing our network with an explicit focus on Black, Latinx, and Native American teachers and students. In order for students to succeed in STEM, they need to feel that they belong in STEM classrooms and careers. That’s why we’re preparing and retaining 150K teachers in STEM, with an explicit focus on creating a sense of belonging and equity in our classrooms, and beyond. And we cannot wait for you to join us.

Change requires all of us.

Radical collaboration among change-makers across industry and sector is the only way to effect real progress and move our world forward. Our role is to mobilize our network with a focused strategy, clarity of purpose, and vision for achieving change.

Together we can make momentous change in our world.