Date & Time: Tuesday, August 20th at 2 pm ET

Schools and districts are under increasing pressure to align education with practical skill development, ensuring students are equipped for the workforce. This webinar will delve into innovative strategies for integrating STEM and Career Technical Education (CTE), arming students with foundational skills for a variety of careers—from technical roles to engineering positions.

A panel of experts will explore how to leverage school facilities and data as educational tools, and share insights from Hardin County Schools, where district leaders have implemented experiential learning opportunities and certification programs in their schools.

Topics will include:

• New approaches to integrate STEM and CTE learning through certifications
• How to implement experiential learning opportunities and certification programs in schools for little or no cost
• How to build a career readiness program that equips students for high-demand fields

Presenters

Roger Tadajewski, Executive Director, National Coalition of Certification Centers (NC3)

Ben Sego, Board Member, Hardin County Schools (Ky.), Former NASA contractor

Michael Hines, Education Leader, Trane by Trane Technologies

Register Now

Sponsored by

The post From Classroom to Career: How Certifications Enable Practical STEM Learning and CTE Readiness appeared first on District Administration.

Female students experience exposure gaps to various STEM careers as early as middle school, a new report from YouScience and Ford Next Generation Learning asserts. This gap is measured by comparing the difference between female middle and high school students’ aptitude (their natural ability to learn or perform skills regardless of the environment) and their self-reported interest.

Failure to support a diverse workforce in STEM careers early on can lead to significant problems, including innovation deficits, earning disparities and economic disruptions. “We can no longer overlook young women who have the aptitude but have not been exposed to these opportunities,” Executive Director at Ford Next Generation Learning Cheryl Carrier said in the report. “We are now equipped with the knowledge to do better, so we must.”

The widest exposure gaps exist in advanced manufacturing and computer and technology careers at 87%. Exposure gaps were measured in other fields like architecture and construction, which are around 55%. The health science career gap sits around 30%, and engineering, 22%.

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Advice for leaders

The researchers have identified nine solutions to closing STEM exposure gaps for female students. These ideas include:

1. Aptitude measures: A foundational tool that helps students discover their best fit for postsecondary education and career pathways.
2. Career academies: High school programs focused on specific career fields.
3. Collaborative planning: Working with family, educators and counselors to help students navigate their postsecondary goals.
4. Interdisciplinary education: Collaboration between schools and districts to create personalized pathways and integrated programs.
5. Career-connected learning: Helps students connect education to the real world.
6. Education-to-career planning tools: Helps counselors and teachers provide personalized plans for postsecondary education and training.
7. Industry-recognized certifications: Quantifying student knowledge and skills that connect the classroom to employers.
8. Work-based learning: Provides students with internships and apprenticeships with business and industry partners.
9. Community connections: Leveraging ties to address local workforce needs.

The post 9 ways to promote STEM to your female students appeared first on District Administration.

Date & Time: Wednesday, July 17th at 2 pm ET

Research has shown the benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) include improved academic achievement, better emotional well-being, and long-term student success. But how can teachers incorporate SEL in an already crowded school day?

The science classroom can provide some surprising ways to teach students social and emotional skills across grades K-12.

In this 20-minute Ed Talk, an educator and professional learning consultant will share four strategies for integrating SEL into science instruction, helping students at any grade level to develop both academically and emotionally.

Topics will include:

• The five core SEL competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making
• Using hands-on science activities that require collaboration and problem-solving to build SEL skills
• Leveraging tools and research from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to enhance SEL initiatives
• Adopting science standards that promote science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts to foster soft skills development

Presenter

Hoover Herrera, National Science Consultant, Carolina Science

Register Now

Sponsored by

The post Integrating SEL Into K-12 Science Instruction appeared first on District Administration.

A national keyword search conducted by K12 data tracker Burbio suggests growing momentum behind STEM-related initiatives at school board meetings as we head into summer. In this month’s dataset, Burbio highlights five states/regions where STEM-centered conversations have been most prominent in their discussions. The share of districts that have mentioned STEM (or STEAM) at least once include:

• Florida (46.3%)
• California (43.5%)
• New England (42.7%)
• Southern states [AL, MS, NC, TN and SC] (27.5%)
• Texas (13.3%)

Discussions at school board meetings in these locations have also spent significant amounts of time discussing special education:

• New England (84.6%)
• California (82.7%)
• Southern states (38.6%)
• Texas (36.3%)
• Florida (19.5%)

More from DA: This California leader is using AI to expand his reach—and become multilingual

What about K12 grants?

Shifting away from school board discussions, Burbio gathered data that reflects the scope of state-specific funding for K12 schools. Below, you’ll find a chart summarizing 10 of the most common categories of grants, the total number of grants in each category and the market size for the categories listed.

Note: The data represents grants that were available during the 2023-24 school year and several that have been announced for 2024-25.

The post School boarding meetings: How much time is devoted STEM? appeared first on District Administration.

Unfortunately, this approach clashes with the current reality of classroom instruction. More than ever, students want to exercise agency and take charge of their learning. Students have voiced that they need to know why they are learning and have fun while doing it. In this fast-paced and technologically advanced world, teachers have a few minutes to capture students’ attention and engage their curiosity. To capture students’ attention, districts must reimagine and rebuild their academic programs.

I’ve been honored to help the effort to rethink the math instruction in my school system, the Little Rock School District in Arkansas. Working with my colleagues, we have outlined six critical steps to reimagining math instruction that ignites student curiosity, captures their attention and brings positive outcomes:

1. Pinpointing the problem

Before our district could reimagine math instruction, we had to zero in on the problem. The Little Rock School District noticed declines in student enrollment and academic outcomes. While anecdotally we knew student engagement was the issue, we had to investigate further to make sure.

To find the problem, district leadership established a team of stakeholders—students, parents, teachers, principals, assistant principals, district leaders, school staff and the superintendent—to narrow the focus and pinpoint the issue. Gathering a task force to investigate the problem allowed district stakeholders to work through circumstances and scenarios and create pathways to solutions.

2. Establishing a logical process

Insanity is doing the same thing the same way but wanting different results. There must be a logical process to reimagining a thriving math program. Our district placed schools into three networks within the district. Each network has a math coordinator who works with the STEM director (me) to develop math training and assessments.

When leaders are in their network meetings, they focus on their schools’ needs with their assistant superintendent and their math coordinator. I meet with the math and science coordinators to discuss data regularly. The coordinators can dive into the data and support leaders and teachers as they make instructional decisions based on their students’ specific data.

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Once this system was established, our district saw increased usage of our high-quality materials: Illustrative Mathematics, Discovery Education’s DreamBox for K8, and McGraw Hill ALEKS for high school students. We also saw an increase between our interim one and interim two assessments in most schools. This process is still in its infancy and has room to grow because we never stop learning.

3. Finding high-quality instructional materials

A math program cannot thrive without high-quality materials and resources, such as Illustrative Mathematics and Discovery Education DreamBox. Illustrative Mathematics is a problem-based curriculum, and DreamBox is a K8 digital supplemental math resource that adapts to each student. It integrates state-level assessments and the district’s curriculum into its system so teachers can create assignments that align to their state standards and instruction.

Growth and standards reports provide data that our leaders, school leaders and teachers use during their networks’ data discussions. By the end of the data discussions, schools can be confident that their instructional plan will align closely to what teachers need to provide fun and engaging math instruction.

4. Narrowing the focus

The focus for reimagining math instruction is purposefully planning for math discourse. Math discourse should occur during math instruction so can explain their mathematical thinking to their peers and teachers. It is also a chance for teachers to guide students toward their understanding of mathematics.

When our district narrowed the focus of math instruction, it gave direction to district leaders, school leaders and teachers. District leaders also encouraged discourse during other courses. When students talk about their learning and how they think, they take charge of their learning, which is every educator’s dream.

5. Providing coaching

One way to get the biggest bang for your buck is to coach, coach, coach. Coaching is a powerful tool. The coach’s role is to “see” the best in people and “pull” that out of them. Effective coaches nurture people’s innate ability to be great. They have a keen sense of mulling through the weeds to get to the root of that “thing” that is stopping them from greatness.

District and school leaders need coaching, so you do not want to leave them out. Our district restructured learning for adults by repurposing the role of a coach. Coaches are now called teacher leaders and we have them in schools where they are needed most. The teacher leaders lead alongside their principal to coach teachers and instructional leaders through data discussions, planning and implementation of our math curriculum.

6. Reimagining professional development

Purposeful professional development can change the mindset of even the most entrenched educators. When our district started focusing on data—and used the data—we were able to provide the necessary training for teachers. We made sure that teachers understood all the curricular resources.

During our dedicated PD days, we allowed teachers to choose the training that best aligned with their professional growth plan. Our content providers worked with us to provide on-demand webinars aligned with our goals.

With these steps, my colleagues and I reimagined math instruction, ignited curiosity and better captured students’ attention. With that accomplished we feel we have created a better environment that will lead to better academic achievement in math.

The post 6 ways to reimagine math that will spark curiosity appeared first on District Administration.

“Sea Lab has never stopped in its mission to put students into roles as scientists,” says Kate O’Donoghue, the district’s curriculum, data and assessment manager for science. “It puts students right in the middle of local flora and fauna and lets them see how science works when they can get into it with their hands.”

On a recent spring day, fourth- and fifth-graders were doing a “beach profile” and identifying the different plants and animals living there. They also dissected quahogs and compared the mollusk to a human’s biological characteristics, says Simone Bourgeois, the teacher facilitator of Sea Lab.

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Another key to the mission at Sea Lab, which opened in 1968, is for students to work across disciplines. In other recent projects, for example, students have grown lettuce in a hydroponic aquarium and composed music based on the sinking of military ships.

Another class transformed their classroom into a pirate ship to study “the good and the bad” of piracy. While not promoting piracy, students did learn about the extensive mapmaking and navigation skills of these notorious seafarers, who they worked for and how and where they buried treasure, Bourgeois pointed out.

Because some of Sea Lab’s activities occur on a boat or under the water, the program also teaches students to swim. And while the Sea Lab follows state standards, Bourgeois says teachers also stretch the curriculum into some non-traditional and unique subjects, such as assessing whether Bigfoot or UFOs are real. That study of the supernatural has included learning debating skills, she added.

“There’s a little bit of whimsy science thrown in,” Bourgeois explains. “We do everything from meteorology to zoology to any content science a student might approach either in high school or college.”

While the district, which serves many immigrant families, has intensified its focus on English and math, O’Donoghue, Bourgeois and other educators have been working to expand the time teachers spend on hands-on and inquiry-based science, using new curricula such as Discovery Education’s Mystery Science.

Climate and the human impact on climate change are key elements at every level of Sea Lab’s curriculum and learning activities. Bourgeois was recently told by a parent that their student now only lets them buy biodegradable paper products. “We have prepared children to dictate to their parents what we need to do to protect what we have,” she says. “We have a bevy of young women and men going forward as environmentalists.”

The post How one district is transforming learning by connecting kids to the ocean—and Bigfoot appeared first on District Administration.

Before you dive into all the ideas, check out NASA’s map to see if the total eclipse will be visible in the skies above your community.

A few educational eclipse apps

1. Live stream! Available on the NASA app.
2. Eclipse companion: Totality by Big Kid Science is a “solar eclipse companion” featuring interactive maps, safety tips and access to books and other educational resources.
3. Got pics? The Solar Snap Eclipse App Kit aims to help viewers take photos of the eclipse
4. Forecast and foresight: The Eclipse App offers cloud forecasts and an up-to-minute guide on when to put on and remove eclipse glasses, among other features.

Eclipse learning activities

1. Middle school smarts: PBS has done all the work on a ready-to-go solar eclipse lesson plan for grades 6-8.
2. Don’t forget the moon! The American Astronomical Society has a long list of activities, including building pinhole viewers and exploring the moon.
3. UV bead experiment: A wide range of NASA activities—including a “UV bead experiment” and eclipse models—have been collected in one place by Arizona State University.
4. Measuring shadows: Exploring cultural beliefs about eclipses, pinhole viewer art and shadow analysis are among Big Kid Science’s learning activities.
5. Pop a balloon: A magnifying glass can concentrate the sun’s energy on a tiny spot of an inflated balloon. During the eclipse, kids will notice the sun’s energy diminishing as the temperature drops slightly (from Scholastic).
6. Construction paper sun prints: Have children collect leaves, flowers and other natural items with interesting shapes. Place these items on construction paper left out in the sun. Cover with clear plastic (also from Scholastic).
7. Fresh concepts: The American Astronomical Society has published an e-book and a video on how teachers can prepare for the eclipse.
8. Poetry in motion: The University of Southern Indiana has an extensive list of eclipse learning activities for elementary to high school. Students can analyze Emily Dickinson’s 1891 eclipse poem, “It Sounded As if the Streets Were Running,” or estimate the speed of the lunar shadow.
9. Webinar wisdom: The National Science Teaching Association has posted teaching resources to help educators make the most of the solar eclipse.
10. Arts and astronomy: Here are six hands-on eclipse crafts from the Exploratorium in San Francisco.
11. Eclipse investigations: Vernier Science Education shared “7 Tips and Ideas to Make the Eclipse Engaging for Your Students“
12. Eclipse experiments: Rice University is sharing ideas for activities and experiments along with animations and lists of viewing equipment.
13. Eclipse engineering: Learn to design a mobile observatory (from LEGO Edcuation).
14. Motion and light: Four “mini missions” guide kids in building illuminated models of the eclipse (also from LEGO Edcuation).
15. More free stuff! Teachers Pay Teachers has a list of free solar eclipse learning activities.

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The post Eclipse imminent! Try out these interesting activities with students appeared first on District Administration.

Here are the sizes of the exposure gaps in major STEM and career disciplines:

• Advanced manufacturing: 75%
• Health science: 57%
• Finance: 56%
• Architecture and construction: 53%
• Computers and technology: 51%

“The solution to this lies within redefining education for Black students through access to identity-affirming informal learning environments; so they understand the full scope of their aptitudes, and also the full scope of what careers are possible,” said Cynthia Chapple, founder and CEO of Black Girls Do STEM.

What’s an exposure gap?

As of 2021, just 9% of the STEM workforce was Black. Still, that’s an increase from 7% a decade earlier, the report points out.

The difference between students’ aptitudes (as demonstrated on assessments) and their expressed interests is how the organizations behind the study calculate exposure gaps. The gaps also identify which fields a student hasn’t had the opportunity to explore—particularly the careers that might be a good fit.

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For Black female students, the gaps between aptitude and interest are even more substantial:

• Advanced manufacturing: 88%
• Computers and technology: 73%
• Architecture and construction: 72%

Let’s close the STEM divide

Solving the problem starts with administrators using aptitudes to create more personalized career pathways for Black students. Once students’ aptitudes are identified, educators should engage with families to map out STEM and CTE courses that lead to industry certifications. Students are more likely to follow their aptitudes when they have family support.

These pathways should also be interdisciplinary and career-connected, comprising work-based learning, internships and
apprenticeships.

Black Girls Do STEM, for instance, is a seven-year pathway program that exposes students to STEM fields to stimulate their interests in various career fields. The nonprofit’s two programs, which include a Saturday academy, include mentoring, SAT/ACT preparation, college tours and internships and externships, among other components.

The post Not enough Black students are being exposed to STEM careers appeared first on District Administration.

Students in Corsicana ISD in Central Texas will not only get the day off but they will also receive a free pair of eclipse glasses from the district. “Our area is expected to be a prime watching area with more than four minutes of eclipse totality,” the district notes on its website. “The city population could effectively double that day and local resources are predicted to be strained, including phone and emergency responders.”

Ennis ISD will close for the day as the small central Texas town south of Dallas expects as many as 200,000 visitors for the eclipse, which “only occurs at any given place every 360 to 410 years,” the district says on its website. Nearby Manor ISD simply declared the eclipse a ‘student holiday.’

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The moon will fully block the sun on April 8, and the eclipse will first be visible (weather permitting) in southwest Texas around 12:30 Central time, according to NASA. It will then cross parts of the Midwest and New England throughout the afternoon, passing over:

Dallas around 1:40 p.m.. Central time
Indiana and Ohio, 3:15 p.m. Eastern time
Western New York, 3:20 p.m., Eastern time
New Hampshire and Maine, 3:30 p.m., Eastern time

The total eclipse will be visible for about two to four minutes, with partial views lasting over an hour in the locations where it can be seen. The total eclipse will also be seen in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Vermont, and in small parts of Tennessee and Michigan.

Several institutions and organizations are sharing learning activities that teachers can tie into the eclipse even if their schools aren’t in the direct path.

Total solar eclipse shutdown?

One of the biggest systems to close for the solar eclipse is the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which announced Friday that it was giving students the day off and that NASA had donated eclipse glasses for all of its scholars, Spectrum News reported. Athens City Schools in Ohio is also providing eclipse glasses to all of its students and closing, in part, because administrators wouldn’t be able to provide adequate supervision to ensure everyone views the eclipse safely, the district said on its website.

But not all students in the so-called “path of totality” are getting the whole day off. Dozens of districts in Indiana will close on April 8 but many of those will hold a virtual learning day. Districts across the Southern Tier of New York have announced half-days as the eclipse won’t be visible until later in the afternoon.

The post On the right path? More districts closing for solar eclipse appeared first on District Administration.

Small and rural high schools and those in which a majority of the students live in poverty are less likely than students in other settings to be offered Advanced Placement math courses, according to the high school principals surveyed for the RAND Corporation’s “American Mathematics Educator Study.”

“Achievement in mathematics, particularly in advanced mathematics courses—such as trigonometry, precalculus, calculus, or Advanced Placement courses—is important for long-term college and career success,” the report says. “However, many students—particularly students who are Black, Hispanic, or from low-income households—do not have access to advanced mathematics courses.”

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However, the biggest obstacles math instruction faces are absenteeism among students and teacher shortages. Another hurdle is how students are “tracked,” or grouped by achievement level. A majority of principals reported that teacher recommendations play an important role in tracking.

“Although tracking may be intended to ensure that students are exposed to appropriately challenging content, in practice it can limit access to advanced mathematics courses in high school based on early achievement levels,” the authors of the report caution.

Principals also noted that students have greater access to college prep courses than career-oriented math instruction.

New formulas for high school math

The report offers several ideas for enrolling more students in advanced classes and bolstering math’s role in the transition to college and careers:

1. Expanding access: High schools should offer the full range of math classes that meet state graduation requirements. Schools that have limited capacity to expand math offerings should partner with other districts, colleges or online providers of advanced courses. It’s also important to ensure that students in all math courses are covering grade-level content.
2. Making placement decisions equitably: Most high school principals blend assessment data and educator recommendations to place students in math courses. To make these decisions more equitable, district and school leaders should use multiple data sources consistently and transparently. Administrators should also receive training on correcting the inherent bias in various data sources.
3. Supporting career preparation: Administrators should ramp up efforts to connect students with college and career mentors and invest more heavily in business partnerships that provide job-shadowing opportunities, including virtual experiences when limited by geography or financial resources. However, many of the principals surveyed reported that they did not have enough data to determine precisely what postsecondary transitions and career support students are receiving.
4. Identifying barriers to postsecondary readiness: Educators should share more information with families about courses, math pathways and postsecondary options.

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