Race to Top Winners Include STEM in Agendas
As you've probably heard by now, Delaware and Tennessee were the only two states to win first-round grants in the federal Race to the Top Fund competition.
There's a lot of material to wade through in their applications outlining what they aim to do (235 pages for Delaware, 264 for Tennessee), but I'm going to focus here on STEM education, which is featured in both plans. Careful readers of this blog may recall that this was one of the criteria upon which applications would be judged. States could earn 15 of the 500 points for having an emphasis on education in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
At the risk of sounding snarky, you'll perhaps notice a heavy dose of buzzwords and phrases in the Race to the Top applications: "groundbreaking," "partnership," "college-readiness," "cross-disciplinary," "cutting-edge approaches," "sustainable innovations," "rigorous academic curriculum," "student-focused support," and, well, you get the idea.
In any case, here's a taste of what Delaware has in mind on the STEM front.
"Over the next four years, Delaware plans to increase rigor in STEM coursework, promote college-readiness in the core areas of science and mathematics, and to further integrate technology to engage students," that state's application says.