In response to a report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, President Obama issued a challenge to the U.S. education system to create more than 1,000 new STEM-focused schools, including 200 high schools. Inclusive STEM-focused high schools--which focus their efforts on females, minorities, and students who are…

Computer science programs are too often identified with a narrow stratum of the student population, often white or Asian boys who have access to computers at home. But because computers play such a huge role in our world today, all students can benefit from the study of computer science and the opportunity to build skills related to computing. The…

If you can believe the daily flood of mass media stories, journal articles, and white papers, the United States is facing a STEM worker crisis. Business leaders and politicians warn that the nation is falling hopelessly behind in the global economic race because our students are unprepared for and uninterested in science, technology, engineering,…

The new Next Generation Science Standards make it a priority for schools to focus more on the E in STEM, to help students learn the skills and practices of engineering. Schools that are doing so face a challenge, however: How to design educational experiences in engineering that engage all students--including girls and minorities, who are…

When state leaders and national partners in the development of the Next Generation Science Standards met to consider implementation strategies, states and school districts wanted to know which materials were aligned to the new standards. The answer from the developers was short but not sweet: You won't find much now, and it's going to…

In too many K-12 schools, notes Hoachlander, science, math, and technology are still taught in isolation from one another--and engineering is barely taught at all. Even when STEM content and skills are presented in an integrated fashion, they are rarely linked to the rest of the academic subjects or to real-world work in STEM fields. Hoachlander…

One day a teacher writes 12 = ___ + ___ on the board. "You wrote it wrong," says one of the 1st graders. "You can't write the answer first!" exclaims another. As teachers in classrooms across the United States put the new mathematics standards into practice, they'll face countless examples like this one. When teachers…

When most educators think of STEM education, they think of fully integrated projects seamlessly combining all four disciplines--science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Although such transdisciplinary STEM units are ideal, writes Vasquez, they are not the only way to give students valuable STEM experiences. She gives examples of two…

"Whether your state has adopted the Next Generation Science Standards or will soon revise its own science standards, one thing is clear," writes noted science educator Jeff Marshall. "Change is underway--in what is learned, in how we teach, and in how we assess." This article offers five realizations that point to the potential…

After watching a shirt being wafted into the air as it dries over a hearth, the tinkerer Joseph Montgolfier decides to try lighting a fire under a balloon--and creates the first flying machine. After observing an art object swinging from a cathedral's ceiling, Galileo mulls over the mechanisms of a pendulum-driven clock--and produces one 50…

Why and under what conditions might students value their science learning? To find out, the authors observed approximately 400 science classes. They found that although several teachers were amazingly adept at regularly promoting the value of science, many others missed out on important opportunities to promote the value of science. The authors…

Are makerspaces--where children can create gas-powered Roman chariots, singing greeting cards, or playdough circuit boards--just the site for a slightly wacky explosion of inventiveness? Or can these maker activities be channeled to support deep STEM learning? Bronwyn Bevan, director of the Exploratorium Institute for Research and Learning in San…

Although students do need hands-on experiences to master key skills in science, technology, and engineering, Cummins asserts, K-12 teachers should also help students understand key STEM concepts by reading, writing, and talking about the work of professional scientists and engineers. Cummins lists high-quality texts that help young people…

"Improving Schools: What Works?" is the theme chosen for this issue of "Educational Leadership (EL)," and this theme should help dispel just one of the myths that have grown up about school reform: that educators are stuck in the status quo and don't care to implement change. This and some other myths about school…

School improvement programs that work in some places don't work in others. School improvement programs that work with some students don't work with others. Programs that appear to have positive effects in the hands of some teachers don't work for other teachers. If we can't be confident that a program will travel well, from one…