Committee on the Evaluation Framework for Successful K-12 STEM Education
Project History
Project Overview
In response to a request from Congress, the National Research Council issued the report Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in June 2011. The report considers various STEM-focused school models, highlights research on effective STEM education practices, and identifies conditions that promote school- and student-level success.
After the report’s release, Congress asked the National Science Foundation to begin working on the transformations in K-12 STEM education called for in the report. Recommended improvements at the state and district levels include adequate instructional time and resources for science, coherent standards and curricula, greater teacher capacity, and supportive school conditions. At the state and national levels, the report urges greater attention to science, including assessments for science investment in support for STEM teachers, and increased support for research programs to identify instructional practices that improve student outcomes in STEM.
In addition, Congress requested that the NSF identify methods for tracking and evaluating the implementation of the improvements recommended by Successful K-12 STEM Education. In response, the NSF has requested that the NRC appoint an expert committee to develop a strategic plan for evaluating progress toward the report’s recommendations. This project, which is overseen by the NRC’s Board on Science Education (BOSE) and Board on Testing and Assessment (BOTA), will hold its first meeting in April 2012 and complete its report by November 2012.
The strategic plan developed by the committee will:
- Identify existing and additional measures needed for tracking the report’s recommended improvements.
- Discuss the feasibility of including such measures in existing programs of data collection and linking them to existing and improved measures of science learning outcomes.
- Identify additional research that would be needed to inform a full-scale evaluation of progress toward the report’s recommendations.
Contain recommendations regarding the roles of various federal and state institutions in supporting the needed research and data collection for an evaluation of progress toward the recommendations.
Committee Membership
| Meeting Type and Date | Location | Resources |
Committee Meeting 1 April 23-24, 2012
Open and Closed Sessions | Keck Center Washington, DC | Agenda |
Committee Meeting 2 June 13-14, 2012 | Beckman Center Irvine, CA | Closed to the public |
Committee Meeting 3
September 5-6, 2012
| Jonsson Center
Woods Hole, MA | Closed to the public |
