More than 400 Join TIES to Develop Federal STEM Recommendations
The chat box was overwhelmed within minutes of the launch of Tuesday’s first STEM Learning Ecosystem Community of Practice’s Town Hall to collect ideas for what the Biden-Harris administration can do to improve STEM for all.
“We’ve waited a long time for this,” one attendee wrote.
“It’s time for science to again take center stage in our country,” another commented.
“We’re grateful for a chance to have our voices heard,” wrote an attendee.
More than 400 people joined the conversation, posing questions, ideas and hopes for how the next administration can improve STEM, making it more equitable and accessible for all.
Erik Nikolaus Martin, senior policy advisor of the Day One Project and Melissa Moritz, deputy director, STEM, U.S. Department of Education for the Obama-Biden Administration, guided STEM leaders, teachers, business officials, parents, students, out-of-school time educators and those from government and philanthropy about how they can channel their ideas into actionable and practical steps for the next administration.
Read more about the Day One Project here.
“You’ll talk to a lot of people and you’ll hear a lot of what’s wrong with the system, but it is very hard to get a specific and actionable policy change that should be enacted and could be enacted with who is supposed to own the decision,” Martin said.
Tuesday’s Town Hall meeting, organized by TIES and moderated by Jeremy Shorr, as well as the Town Hall scheduled for Thursday are being combined with a series of other data collection efforts to gather concise, actionable ideas ready for implementation. TIES will then compile a comprehensive report on behalf of the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice with recommendations for STEM policies for the nation.
The top three questions that the group is exploring are:
If you had 15 minutes with the President-Elect…
- What would you offer as actionable strategies for improving equity and access to STEM education and stronger STEM career pipelines in your communities?
- What would you suggest the administration do to advance state, regional and local STEM priorities and initiatives that improve lives and communities?
- What would you offer for strategies to eliminate barriers to early childhood STEM education? (Are there steps for better teacher preparation for teaching STEM etc.)