Read our new report “Shifting Courses: Achieving Equity in High School STEM.” (Access a Google Doc version here or a PDF/mobile-friendly version here). 

“Shifting Courses: Achieving Equity in High School STEM” identifies core challenges and outlines solutions for how leaders in education and beyond can focus their energy to ensure a range of thriving, career-ready STEM opportunities in high school, particularly for students of color (especially Black, Latinx, and Indigenous students). The report also identifies specific organizations and model programs already paving the way. 

We know that the future of the United States’ economy and our nation’s ability to thrive is rooted in solving STEM-based challenges, and we increasingly see the need for all young people today to develop strong, relevant, and applicable knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. STEM skills are needed to tackle critical opportunities in the sustainability of our planet, technological advancement, healthcare, and beyond. 

This emphasis on increasing the range and quality of high school STEM courses strategically builds on 100Kin10’s work to date, which began by responding to the call for 100,000 new STEM teachers in America’s classrooms and subsequently grew to include the Grand Challenges — an unprecedented map of the 100+ underlying causes of why it’s so hard to get and keep great STEM teachers in the first place. Based on this map, we then identified the most influential root causes—or Catalysts—that, if solved, would generate a domino-like effect and most improvement across the entire system.

This report is intended to lay a foundation for coordinated, collaborative action among 100Kin10 partners, our allies, and beyond. It is presented as a “living” document and designed to serve as a launching pad for ongoing work. As our collective work grows in the coming weeks, months, and years, we expect to augment this report with new insights and actionable ideas.