One Year After Science's Grand Challenges in Education: Professional Empowerment of STEM Teachers' Through Education Policy and Decision Making

Following up on a special issue of Science (August 2013) that identified several Grand Challenges in Science Education, this project proposes a convocation to more deeply explore those challenges that are particularly relevant for K-12 teachers and highlights the roles teachers can play on issues vital to the improvement of K-12 STEM education.

The convocation will: (1) pull together the evidence base on whether involving teachers in education policy and decision-making leads to improvements in policies; (2) identify the models of teacher engagement at the national, state, and local levels that currently exist; and (3) identify the kinds of communication efforts, resources and other activities that are needed to help policymakers better understand the role of teachers in these processes. The convocation addresses several important and timely questions: (1) how to help teachers engage in important education issues beyond their classrooms, and (2) what kinds of networks or mechanisms might be identified to accomplish that engagement.

Following the meeting, materials will be developed that will be available both in hard copy and as PDF files from the National Academies Press.