Over the past eight years or so, educators have struggled to make sense of the many views and definitions of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and what constitutes quality in STEM practices. The multitude of recent STEM funding opportunities has done little to create a common understanding about how to best engage students, schools, districts, and states in STEM education. This document offers an overview of the role of STEM in current educational improvement efforts. It offers a brief history of STEM initiatives and publications and attempts to capture important trends and dispel confusion over the goals and approaches of STEM initiatives. The authors also present several important considerations for state and district educators developing STEM programs that serve the needs of their students. They do not advocate for one STEM approach, but provide some thinking tools and rationale for states and districts to compare and contrast the available STEM approaches. (Contains 2 figures and 1 footnote.)