The Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education (CADRE) was funded by a cooperative agreement, beginning in 2008, as the resource network that supports the DR K-12 community in advancing the state of research and evaluation in STEM education, and furthering the goals of the DR K-12 program. As part of its work, CADRE annually conducts a review of the DRK-12 portfolio. The specific objectives of this review are to describe important characteristics of the projects in the DR K-12 portfolio; explore how grantees are working towards meeting the goals of the program; identify potential areas in which targeted thematic studies can be conducted to deepen, broaden, or advance the field’s understanding of specific aspects of STEM education; and inform the support activities developed for grantees. This report, a key product of the review, provides a descriptive overview of the DR K-12 portfolio.
The current report, which is the fifth and final portfolio overview to be prepared by CADRE, describes important characteristics of the first six cohorts of DR K-12 projects that received their initial funding from 2007 to 2012. It characterizes the development and research in STEM education—on resources, models, and technologies—funded by the DR K-12 program.