President Obama Announces Plan for STEM Master Teacher Corps

Today the White House announced the President's plan to dedicate $1 billion to create a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Master Teacher Corps.  The program will begin in 50 locations with 50 exceptional STEM teachers leading the way, but plans are to expand to 10,000 STEM teachers within the next four years. The program will reward high-performing teachers with salary stipends of $20,000 per year.

Plans were also announced to dedicate $100 million from the Teachers Incentive Fund to help schools recruit STEM teachers.  These teachers would then serve as mentors to fellow STEM teachers within the schools districts.

This proposal comes out of the recommendations of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, which included encouraging teacher cooperation in order to improve STEM education across the country and retaining talented STEM teachers.

Read more about the President's plan here.

Meghan Covert Russell

Next Generation Science Standards Available for Review and Comment

The first public draft of the Next Generation Science Standards have been released.  The draft science standards are available for review and comment through June 1, 2012.

The Next Generation Science Standards is the result of collaboration between the National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve.  The Framework for K-12 Science Education was released in July 2011 and the final Next Generation Science Standards are expected to be released and ready for adoption in the fall of 2012.

To read the complete draft science standards, please visit the Next Generation Science Standards website here.

Meghan Covert Russell