Dive Brief:

• Chicago Public Schools, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and the Council of Chief State School Officers are among the 41 new organizations joining a national effort to prepare 100,000 STEM teachers by 2021.
• 100Kin10 — a nonprofit network that includes school districts, teacher preparation programs, foundations and businesses — will also work with new funding partners including the Grable Foundation, Infosys and the College Football Playoff tournament to make its “final push” toward the goal, according to a statement from Executive Director Talia Milgrom-Elcott,
• Teacher bonuses, scholarships, loan forgiveness programs for teachers and professional development are some of the strategies that will be implemented to recruit and retain STEM educators. 

​Dive Insight:

The same strategies are also among those highlighted in a report last year from the Learning Policy Institute on effective ways to fill teacher vacancies. The authors wrote that states need a “multipronged approach.” 

Even with over 68,000 STEM teachers trained through the network since former President Barack Obama issued the challenge in his 2011 State of the Union address, the demand for teachers in the STEM subject areas of science, technology, engineering and math continues.

Many districts still opened schools this fall with teacher vacancies. In Central Florida, for example, there were still 200 positions open leading up to the beginning of school. And some states continue to issue emergency credentials in order to fill positions. Even states where teacher strikes resulted in raises, such as Oklahoma, are still filling vacancies with teachers who are not fully certified.