White House STEM Announcement

On Tuesday, the White House unveiled a STEM strategic plan intended to guide the next five years: Charting a Course of Success: America's Strategy for STEM Education. Having identified STEM skills as critical in the 21st century economy, the goal is to increase STEM opportunities for students nationwide. This is the second five-year STEM plan released by a presidential administration, with the Obama Administration first releasing one in 2013.

The plan is described as "an urgent call to action for nationwide collaboration with learners, families, educators, communities, and employers." As U.S. News & World Report highlights, the administration's three main goals are for Americans to acquire basic STEM concepts, increase STEM access to underserved students, and encourage the pursuit of STEM careers.

The plan was developed by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the National Science and Technology Council Committee on STEM Education. Embedded in the plan is a reinforcement of the importance of things like project-based learning and CTE, with the report noting that "[e]ducation systems that combing high-quality career and technical training with college preparatory curriculum are particularly effective at preparing students for both employment and post-secondary study, especially when training required to obtain industry-recognized credentials is embedded in the coursework."

In terms of the federal government's role, the report notes that "Federal agencies can help post-secondary institutions better align their programs with secondary school STEM and CTE curricula through meetings and workshops, studies, and grant funding." The report also noted teacher pipeline issues in STEM and the resulting challenges it has presented. This of course is an issue across CTE that ACTE continues to work to address.

ACTE understands that STEM is an important part of CTE, and has held a "STEM is CTE" symposium at CareerTech VISION for the past three years.

Comments

[Aretha Rankine]

Good Morning,

Can we have our CTE/CTAE classes capped at 20 students? This will allow us to be able to give more individual attention to struggling students. I know that in some states the cap is set to 20 students in a CTEA/ CTE class. There is also the liability factor, since students in these classes work with tools and equipment unlike academic classes, and the teacher has to be able to actively supervise students (all students). Please consider this email, and pass it on to the person(s) that can help to affect change.

Thank You.

Sincerely,
Aretha Rankine