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Please enjoy this week's STEM Ed update.

Coalition Updates

Coalition Statement on FY16 Budget Proposal

The Coalition issued a statement

this week on the Obama Administration's proposed Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Request, which would provide more than $3 billion for STEM education programs across the federal government.

Read Coalition's statement here.

Ithaca College Joins Coalition's Leadership Council

The STEM Education Coalition is pleased to announce that Ithaca College has joined it's Leadership Council. Ithaca has been designated by New York as a leading university for programs related to diversity and the STEM fields. They have forged strong partnerships with a number of regional and national employers such as Bayer, to target the recruitment of underrepresented students into STEM careers.

Read more here.

Top Article:

The Economic and Fiscal Consequences of Improving U.S. Educational Outcomes

Washington Center for Equitable Growth

A recent study addresses a key challenge confronting the United States-how to promote both

widely shared and faster economic growth. It does so by analyzing and describing the effects of raising educational achievement, especially for those not at the top of the economic ladder. The results of this analysis, which are consistent with a large body of research across a variety of academic disciplines, demonstrate that improving the education of future workers accelerates economic growth and can promote more equal opportunity over the long run.

Read more here.

Stay in the Know:

Latest STEM Education Policy News Across the U.S.

Obama's Proposed Budget Seeks More for Education

Wall Street Journal

President Barack Obama 's fiscal 2016 budget proposal

calls for $70.7 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education, a $3.6 billion increase from the current level, with backing for signature proposals such as making community college free, simplifying the financial aid process and expanding preschool.

Read more here.

Economists Say Millennials Should Consider Careers In Trades

NPR

As the economy continues to recover, economists are seeing stark differences between people with high school and college degrees. The unemployment rate is nearly twice as high for Americans with a high school diploma as for those with a four-year college degree or more. But economists say that doesn't mean everybody needs a four-year degree. In fact, millions of good-paying jobs are opening up in the trades. And some pay better than what the average college graduate makes.

Read more here.

The Activity Gap

The Atlantic

Disparity exacerbates the already-growing income achievement gap that has kept poor children behind in

school and later in life. While upper- and middle-class students have become more active in school clubs and sports teams over the past four decades, their working-class peers "have become increasingly disengaged and disconnected," particularly since their participation rates started plummeting in the '90s.

Read more here.

School Leaders Mostly Mystified by Computer Science Education

The Journal

Low-income schools are less likely than higher income schools to offer computer science (CS) classes. In all schools where computer science courses are part of the curriculum, there is no standardized set of learning standards. And most of the time CS classes are categorized as electives with a vocational slant. These results and others surfaced in a survey administered by the Computer Science Teacher Association (CSTA), a membership organization that promotes the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines.

Read more here.

Why Pew Research Center is Going Deeper on Science

FACTANK

Many Americans hope that advances in science will improve people's lives and enhance the economy. They are

anxious to understand what innovations will disrupt existing daily activities and business routines. Policy arguments about science-related issues have held center stage in the Obama era, starting with protracted debates over medical care and health insurance and extending into concerns over energy and the environment, policies around food, challenges created by digital technology disruptions, and whether educators are preparing today's K-12 students for a future with greater requirements for science and math literacy.

Read more here.

From Around the Community

The Anatomy of the Perfect Medical & Science Employees

Although the economy is recovering, there is still a bit of uneasiness as we enter 2015. Two industries leading the charge are science and medical. Both industries are ripe with innovation and technology, which often calls for short-term specialty talent.

Read more here.

Ford Visit Shows How Education Is Racing Forward

This week, Edsel B. Ford II, the great grandson of Henry Ford, visited Mooresville. He spoke at a Mooresville-South Iredell Chamber of Commerce luncheon, checked out a local Ford dealership and toured our NASCAR Technical Institute campus.
Read more here.

SkillsUSA STEM Scholarship

Obama's Education Budget Has Funding For An Effort To Make Schools Safer While Creating A Positive Learning Environment

Violence and trauma in schools and communities can affect students overall health and well-being as well as their educational outcomes states President Obama in his FY'15 Budget. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has emphasized for several years that the academic achievement of America's youth is strongly linked with their health, safety, and well-being.

Read more here.

National Math Festival

On Saturday, April 18th, experience mathematics like never before, when the first-of-its-kind National Math Festival comes to Washington, D.C. As the country's first national festival dedicated to discovering the delight and power of mathematics, this free and public celebration will feature dozens of activities for every age-from hands-on magic, a scavenger hunt, and Houdini-like getaways, to lectures with some of the most influential mathematicians of our time.

Read more here.

FLIGHT DAY

Join us at the Foxcroft school to watch as the January workshop students take their first flight and our past students fly their customized quad-copters and hexa-copters! Flight Day is free to attend and open to the general public. Come out with your family, friends, school, club, or alone. Don't forget to bring your drone to fly around, but not to worry if you don't own one because this is the perfect opportunity for interested students of all ages to learn more about our workshop's drone building and mentoring opportunities.

RSVP here.

Washington Facts: STEM Edition

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) stakeholders should have an expanded interest in President Obama's FY'16 Budget. It expands, identifies, and provides information on new STEM impact funding sources for those who are STEM curriculum developers, teachers, educators, administrators, students and their parents, science education material suppliers and all levels of education lawmakers.

Read more here.

The Draper Prize

The Draper Prize will be presented at a gala dinner event in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 24, 2015, along with the Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize. During Engineers Week. The Draper Prize is one of the world's largest and most prestigious engineering award. The award will be given to an engineer or engineering team who have contributed to the advancement of engineering knowledge and the betterment of the mankind through technology.

Read more here.

Join the Coalition!

We at the STEM Education Coalition hope you have enjoyed this week's edition of the STEM Ed Newsletter.

Any organization may join the Coalition, and there is no cost to become an Affiliate Member. Affiliate members are listed on our website, receive periodic communications on policy matters, and will be signed up for the weekly newsletter.

Your organization can also apply to join the Coalition's Leadership Council, where they play an active role in setting the public policy agenda for the Coalition and are invited to participate in frequent interactions with policymakers.

If you would like to join the Coalition at any level, please read our message to prospective members or email us at [email protected].

We appreciate your continued support and involvement.

Our Coalition's Co-Chairs

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