Partnerships for STEM Exposure for Every Student Bill Hatch, M.A. J.D. NCDPI CTE Equity, Civil Rights and Special Populations Coordinator

NC About 700,000 students enrolling in CTE annually across the state. Offering about 135 courses.

Nontraditional Careers An occupation or field of work, including computer science, technology, and other emerging high skill occupations, and For which individuals from one gender comprise less than 25 percent of the individuals employed in the occupation or field of work.

Two of Eight CTE Core Indicators Secondary nontraditional participation and completion rates are trending slightly higher, however it may not make any significant changes to the future STEM job force. Academic attainment: reading and language arts Academic attainment: mathematics Technical attainment Completion Graduation rate Positive placement Nontraditional participation Nontraditional completion

NC NT Enrollment Rates % of students enrolled in CTE courses leading to NT occupations. Close to a 2.5% gain over 5 years. Is that enough? I did not want to over-do the slides with charts, but over the last 8 years our CTE NT Completion Rate (those finishing a sequence of 4 courses in NT field) has only risen from 15% to 20%. Source: 2007 NC CAR

NAPE Five Step Process NC CTE is it third year of using the NAPE Five Step Improvement Process. The schools systems across the state are in various stages of implementation. Things to always consider: School Climate, Student Isolation, Classroom Climate, Guidance Materials, Parents, Self-efficacy, Student Attitudes & Influences, and Nontraditional Role Models

Science Technology Engineering Math Career & Technical Education has technical occupations that are related to: Science Technology Engineering Math STEM occupations have education requirements that range from a high school diploma and on-the-job training to a PhD.

NC’s RttT STEM Objectives Provide new opportunities for students in the lowest-achieving schools and districts to attend schools that will better support their achievement and successful graduation and lead them to college and career readiness.

NC’s RttT STEM Objectives To reduce a potentially crippling workforce knowledge gap and to prepare more students – especially those who traditionally have been underrepresented – for STEM careers

Present and Future Job Market A globally competitive, knowledge-based economy is a fact of life for North Carolina’s high school students – now and for the foreseeable future – STEM skills are critical drivers in that economy.

Career Opportunities Fields such as biotechnology, software design, aeronautical engineering, and others – will require adaptability, creativity, critical thinking, and technical competence in STEM.

Career Opportunities Employment in these areas is projected to grow 70 percent faster than growth for other occupations. STEM graduates on average are expected to enjoy better employment prospects and higher starting salaries than graduates in non-STEM fields.

Getting More Students in the STEM Pipeline What can DPI and/or CTE get more students in the STEM Pipeline?? At ALL students at ALL ages.

Key Partnerships We have a number of partnerships across the state where things are beginning to show results. However, I am relatively new to DPI and I did not have much of a foundation. Who can we work with to make this happen? First , the consultants in the Technical Education began to collaborate more closely. And about at that same time, I knew from Mimi and NAPE that NC State would be a good place to start. Their campus is two miles from our offices! So the several of us at DPI started meeting with the people in the Engineering Department at NC State.

Kathy Titus-Becker, Director of the Women in Science and Engineering; Laura Bottomley, Director of the Engineering Place and Outreach, Liz Parry, K-16 STEM Partnership Development Coordinator. Consultants at DPI from CTE Tech. Education and Career Development, and a retired DPI Equity consultant.

Our first few meetings were just brain-storming sessions, the only real ground rule was that everything was considered no matter of feasibility or cost, and that we might break with our respective institution's party line with impunity. Where do we want to be in 1, 3, 5, 10 years? And how do we get there?

Nontraditional I think we all began the process of thinking in terms of how we can get more NT students into the STEM pipeline.

Underrepresented (UR) African Americans account for about 15 percent of the population between ages 20 and 24, however, earn only about 8 percent of science and engineering degrees. The ratio is similar for Hispanics. National Science Foundation That changed almost immediately! To a person on the team we all identified this as a deal breaker to working on the project if we could not include UR minorities. This is K-16 issue and need to get students to enter the STEM pipeline at all levels. Early student awareness, exposure and participation with STEM; parent awareness and exposure to STEM, and counselor exposure to STEM occupations, and available courses. Finally, to reach teachers to better market their courses to UR groups…if marketing is not done specifically to reach students are UR then the teacher will continue to get same students taking classes. All students should be able to see themselves in the recruitment material.

By the Year 2050 These forecasts may well come true, but the present truth is that we are missing the boat some where in reaching ALL students….what can we do better? In preparing this presentation, I realized that I have not gone to the “CTE Data Well”. I am a research and data based person. I am going to make it a priority to go through with our CTE course consultant and determine courses with high, medium and low concentrations of STEM components, and disaggregate the demographic information. I have a hypothesis that we will find woman and underrepresented minorities under enrolled for those courses. I will keep you posted.

New O P E T J C R S Brainstorming sessions of “What can we do to increase NT and Underrepresented demographics in the future job force? Setting no limits on feasibility!

Gaps and Perceptions

Engineering is Elementary http://www.mos.org/eie/

Christine Cunningham, Engineering is Elementary We hear that little kids can’t engineer . We say they’re born engineers - they naturally want to solve problems - and the current process tends to educate it out of them. Christine Cunningham, Engineering is Elementary The Engineering is Elementary (EiE) project fosters engineering and technological literacy among elementary school students and educators. EiE has created a research-based, standards-driven, and classroom-tested curriculum that integrates engineering and technology concepts and skills with elementary science topics. EiE lessons not only promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning in grades 1-5, but also connect with literacy and social studies. To date, EiE has reached over 1.7 million students and 22,000 teachers and is presently used in all fifty states. This may sound like an advertisement for EIE, but its just the one I am most familiar with, and it’s proven successful.

Inviting and engaging to students who are “at risk” or traditionally UR. They are selective in their choice of schools to assist with implementation of EIE. Potential sites should represent a diverse student population, with additional emphasis on a lower socio-economic base. EIE curriculum must be inviting and engaging to students “at risk” or traditionally underrepresented and that the materials work in elementary classrooms of all sorts.

Rachel Freeman Elementary 2010 EOG 5th Grade Reading 75% … 26% Math 81% … 10% Science 83% … 37% Rachel Freeman is in Wilmington NC and the first school in NC to fully implement the EIE curriculum. It is a downtown Wilmington school their school demographics are 95% minority and 90% FRL. They are in their fifth year and the results are really staring to show. In talking with the principal and curriculum specialist they went through a huge change, but were dedicated to at total engineering model…which they use throughout all curriculum subjects areas and even for behavioral issues. Their curriculum specialist told me how she was exhausted and crying behind the front office counter as the students had just left at the last day of the first year. It took administration, teacher, parent and student buy-in. The results are nothing short of staggering. http://www.nhcs.k12.nc.us/freeman/ http://www.nhcs.k12.nc.us/freeman/

Rachel Freeman Elementary EOG 2010 4th Grade Reading 62% … 11% Math 69% … 2% 3rd Grade Reading 53% Math 73% EIE since 2006

Rachel Freeman Elementary http://www.nhcs.k12.nc.us/freeman/ http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=9889513&nav=menu157_2 http://www.changetheequation.org/featuredprograms/teaching-children-that-engineering-is-elementary/

Looking for STEM curriculum that provides pathway of feeder schools from Elementary… One of the first things that we identified with Rachel Freeman is that once the fifth graders moved on to Middle School it is very likely that they will not have opportunities to be in a STEM curriculum. The EOG scores were so significantly improved, we thought, what if there was a continuum from K-16.

…to Middle…

…to High School…and beyond. We have just put together a NC school district with the K-16 STEM Partnership Development Coordinator who provides instruction on the EIE model to Elementary Schools. And through a grant they are going to implement EIE at the Elementary and bring down PLTW to a Middle and continue PLTW at the High School all in a feeder track. This will be the first in NC. There are other systems that are very interested in a similar model, though maybe not with either of the particular curricula. Each have a cost, and I have no tie to either, except that I am the most familiar with them, and that each can demonstrate success.

PLTW partners with middle schools and high schools to provide a rigorous, relevant STEM education. Through an engaging, hands-on curriculum, PLTW encourages the development of problem-solving skills, critical thinking, creative and innovative reasoning. The PLTW middle and high school STEM education programs give students a brighter future by providing them with a foundation and proven path to college and career success in STEM-related fields. STEM education is at the heart of today’s high-tech, high-skill global economy.

~2009 Study by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Positive Outcomes of PLTW students who began sixth grade at lower proficiency levels in math, reading and science, and with lower attendance rates had greatly reduced those gaps by the eighth grade. ~2009 Study by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Evaluation of PLTW student outcomes indicates a wide range of positive outcomes for longitudinal growth in math and science, development of critical thinking and problem-solving skills, preparation for post-secondary education, and national graduation rates. For instance, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee study in 2009 looked at PLTW students who began middle school (sixth grade) at lower proficiency in math, reading and science and with lower attendance rates than a control group of non-PLTW students. The report shows that by the eighth grade, those gaps had been eliminated.

NCSU Engineering Department and WISE as clearing house for speakers NT or UR role models at Science Fun Days, Career Fairs, Career Nights, or Family STEM Nights Using NCSU Engineering Department/Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) as clearing house for Career Day/Night/Fair speakers, particularly to increase nontraditional or underrepresented students. Set up a “Nontraditional Role Model” group/list from NCSU’s STEM graduates/undergraduate students NC DPI and NCSU collaborate in preparing STEM presentations for:-8th graders/parents @ their schools’ Career Fairs, and Family STEM nights @ elementary schools

STEM Symposiums Statewide Symposium for Nontraditional and Underrepresented STEM Initiatives. UC Davis symposium: focusing on the challenges of teaching STEM to students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The event is sponsored by the UC Davis K-14 Outreach Center for Computing and STEM Education and the College of Engineering. UC Davis C-STEM Day is designed to foster teacher skills in computing, STEM education.

Pre-K STEM Programs We have just begun to work within DPI with the Office of Early Learning to see what is presently being done with STEM initiatives, and if need how can we help to supplement. This is the age to open the STEM possibilities…before they have formed their perceptions of what they can and can not do…be.

Afterschool STEM Programs Again working within DPI to see what is presently being done with STEM initiatives in the Afterschool programs, and if need how can we help to supplement. Full curriculum or using bit and pieces for activities. Particularly if STEM is not part of that school’s curriculum. Exploring grant sources.

Elementary Exploring Career Decisions NCSU to assist in writing a curriculum for exploring careers for elementary level teachers. Presently, the majority of our 115 LEAs offer Exploring Career Decisions through their CTE programs in 7-8 grade. The earlier that children can learn about the ever expanding potential career that they could go into, the better! Just think about the root causes part step in the NAPE Improvement Process.

Seek Out Partners/Explore Ideas Continue to use all the strategies to increase participation of all students in STEM activities and curriculum…at all ages. Seek out business, community college and university partners. Rachel Freeman uses GE employees as classroom resources.

Challenges & Questions What do you think will be some of the challenges that we will face? Better yet….What do you think some of the problems that you would face in your state? State/System/School/Teacher/Parent/Student buy-in. $$$ for materials and commercial curriculum. Curriculum territorial issues. Getting speakers/assistance to remote rural areas.

Partnerships for STEM Exposure for Every Student Bill Hatch, M.A. J.D. NCDPI CTE Equity, Civil Rights and Special Populations Coordinator