On December 4, 2018 during an event at The White House attended by TIES, the National Science and Technology Council and The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the STEM five-year strategic plan, Charting A Course for Success: America’s Strategy for STEM Education.” TIES Founder and President Jan Morrison participated in the June 2018 federal STEM Summit hosted by Office of Science Technology and Policy (OSTP) at the White House, which was used to solicit input from stakeholders throughout the U.S. including educators, business and community leaders.
Acting on recommendations of top national education experts, the federal government prioritized STEM ecosystems as the pathway for improving STEM literacy, ensuring a strong workforce and global competitiveness for all, and an important means to support diversity, equity, and inclusion in a thriving STEM workforce.
STEM ecosystems unite stakeholders from a variety of community-based organizations — including formal and after-school education, higher education, business, government, philanthropy, and the non-profit sector — to cultivate, innovate and work for common goals and actions surrounding world-class STEM opportunities for all learners. TIES designed and continues to lead the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice
“The design of our communities as STEM Ecosystems ensures that STEM is central to children’s education both in- and out-of-school and that it is inextricably linked to workforce and a lifetime of solving our world’s grandest of challenges,” Morrison said. “We celebrate the fifty states’ vision and brilliance in focusing this report on the great value of bringing the work of STEM to all through STEM Learning Ecosystems.”