STEM Learning exchanges

by Jason A. Tyszko^[1]

In 2010, as part of the State of Illinois’ Round 1 and Round 2 Race to the Top (RTTT) proposals, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) Programs of Study were identified as one of the key education reform initiatives that would help promote college and career readiness for all learners.  Originally developed and implemented as part of Career and Technical Education (CTE), Programs of Study serve as a model for bridging programs across P-20 education institutions and are demonstrated to improve academic achievement, increase graduation rates, and improve transitions to postsecondary education and employment. 

Aligned to the National Career Cluster Framework, Programs of Study enable the State’s education institutions to align their curriculum, assessments and career counseling with the State’s growing economic development sectors thereby ensuring successful transitions to employment and a stronger economy for Illinois.  The nine STEM cluster areas identified in Illinois’ RTTT application include: 1) Health Science; 2) Agriculture; 3) Information Technology; 4) Finance; 5) Architecture & Construction; 6) Transportation, Distribution, & Logistics; 7) Manufacturing; 8) Research & Development; and 9) Energy.^[2]  

Fundamental to the Program of Study approach is the ability to build education program capacity to provide opportunities for learners to choose and explore a program related to their academic and career interests while also providing opportunities to demonstrate real-world skills through applied learning.  In addition, Programs of Study provide a way to promote public-private partnerships between schools, communities, and business and industry as part of a larger P-20 talent pipeline.  Also, Programs of Study are designed to improve access and success for underrepresented populations in STEM fields, such as women, minorities, low-income, and disabled students.    

One of the key challenges to scaling up Programs of Study for all learners is addressing the capacity issues associated with increasing the number of opportunities available to students in any given district.  In smaller or more rural districts there are often resource constraints in terms of teacher training or curriculum and equipment.  In other districts a highly focused “college for all” strategy leaves little room in terms of elective opportunities to offer career cluster pathway course options.  Given these and many other constraints it was necessary to develop a parallel strategy in RTTT to assist districts with launching and implementing STEM Programs of Study.

STEM Learning Exchanges were envisioned as a solution for supporting capacity building and scaling up Programs of Study by forming open-collaborative, public-private statewide networks in the career cluster areas identified above.  Using best practices among agriculture partnerships in the state as a model, Learning Exchanges would help connect a network of P-20 education institutions and related education partners--including museums, federal laboratories, after school programs, and community-based organizations--with employers, industry associations, labor organizations, workforce development systems, and others.  Learning Exchanges would exist outside of government, business and education, but would provide a new infrastructure that mediates the relationship of all three sectors by voluntary association. 

The purpose of this network would be to reduce the transaction costs in identifying a wide range of partners in a given cluster areas as well as to share resources to assist with local implementation of Programs of Study.  The nine identified functions of the Learning Exchanges are identified below: 

• Provide e-learning
  curriculum resources, including on-line courses, assessments and feedback systems, reference materials, databases, and software tools.
• Expand access to classroom and laboratory space, equipment, and related educational  resources necessary to support programs of study through regional partnerships and other strategies.
• Support student organizations and their major activities, including conferences, internships and professional networking experiences, competitions, and community projects that build leadership, communication and interpersonal skills and provide professional and peer support networks.
• Provide internships and other work-based learning opportunities that connect students with adult mentors.
• Sponsor challenges and project management resources for students to work in collaborative teams addressing real-world interdisciplinary problems.
• Provide professional development resources for teachers and school administrators integrated and aligned across middle school, high school, and community college instruction, including STEM externships, support for web-based networks, and integrated professional development for academic and CTE instructors.
• Provide career development and outreach resources to expand awareness of STEM-related programs and careers to K-12 students.
• Provide tools and resources to assist students and schools with implementing personalized education plans and transitions to postsecondary academic and training programs, including establishing course articulation and dual credit opportunities.
• Review performance of STEM Programs of Study through assessments and work with school partners to continuously improve performance.

To assist with connecting cluster partners across the nine identified functions, the State proposed that STEM Learning Exchanges be integrated as part of the development of a statewide instructional improvement platform referred to as a Learning and Performance Management System (LPMS). The LPMS would house, in a cloud computing environment, integrated State and local data off of which applications can be efficiently built, innovations can quickly spread, and students and educators can access information and tools to improve student outcomes.  The LPMS would enable districts to focus their efforts on use of data rather than technology infrastructure. 

Originally envisioned as a K-12 system, the LPMS will now be designed to support P-20 education institutions and support both lifelong and lifewide learning.  The LPMS will be designed to support the personalization of student learning through full data integration based on interoperability standards and a common data infrastructure that enables students, teachers, administrators, and other learning partners to:

1. Access and Integrate the full array of commercial and non-commercial e-learning resources;
2. Use learner data from multiple sources to drive instructional improvement and education and career planning and management;
3. Participate fully in global open-collaborative communities (e.g. STEM Learning Exchanges) for student learning, professional development, and continuous improvement; and
4. Improve the business functions of education including financial, human resources, and information technology management.

Shortly after learning that Illinois would not be a recipient of RTTT funding, the State of Illinois announced that the application remains the State’s blueprint for education reform, including scaling-up Programs of Study, forming STEM Learning Exchanges, and implementing an LPMS instructional improvement system.  The State identified that in order to continue moving forward with scaling-up Program of Study opportunities, public-private working groups in each of the designated sectors would need to be formed in order to develop consensus around model P-20 Programs of Study based on industry clusters. 

The goal of the working groups is to develop a model course sequence within a designated STEM industry cluster area and provide a general model that reflects the P-20 components of a Program of Study.  This model is designed to help establish a series of expectations, assumptions and definitions that will support statewide networks and facilitate connections between public-private networks in each of the nine cluster areas identified through the Illinois STEM Reform Agenda.  In addition, the working groups will identify existing public-private support resources and review existing capacity and labor demand in their respective cluster areas.  

The product for each cluster area will form the foundation for convening the STEM Learning Exchange.  To the extent that a partner can match their local program or support activities to any of the clusters they will have access to a broad-based public-private statewide network in their cluster area. 

The State will be convening partners on April 28th in Chicago to review progress on the above mentioned STEM reforms.  It is estimated that the Program of Study working groups will submit their models by the end of June with Learning Exchanges forming in the second half of the year.  The initial cluster areas will be determined based on demand within the education and employment sectors, available resources through the public-private partners, and the degree of consensus regarding the governance and direction of the Exchange.  The State has also been developing a technical specifications report for the LPMS in partnership with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications based at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Jason A. Tyszko is the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) and can be reached at Jason.Tyszko@Illinois.gov.