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WHY STEM++? There’s a simple answer, and a complicated one. Simple: It’s about Jobs. (See figure below) Complicated: It’s a key to the U.S. Economy, representing the growing disconnect between the skills that employers need in an increasingly technological world and the talent (lack) that the education system produces. It is a broad acronym that means science, technology, engineering and math. But as with lots of famous acronyms – NCLB, NASA – it has become codeword for a very important issue. The STEM++ challenge starts with toddlers and goes all the way up to literal rocket scientists. It’s as much about the decline of jobs in manufacturing as it is about inventing the next google glasses. In the job market today there are 2 – 3 million unfilled positions because the companies cannot find workers with basic technical skills. By 2020, the number will be up to 10 million. A two-year degree in a STEM field is worth more than a four-year liberal arts diploma. While jobs are the outcome, it all starts in the classroom. How do we train better teachers and leverage their skills with technology? How do we keep girls from dropping out of higher math and science classes? How do we keep minorities from steering away from it all together?


 * 1998–1999 State Department of Education Special Survey
 * Judy & D’Amico - Workforce 2020 report

20th-century conceptions of career and time have already begun to collapse. Yesterday, workers in industrial economies went to school from the age of 5-18, earned vocational certificates or degrees from 19-25, paid their dues from 25-35, rose through the ranks from 35-50, ascended to senior levels of management and business ownership from 50-65, and then retired. But in a knowledge-based society, workers will go to school throughout their careers, rise and fall within multiple organizations, work in virtual offices for virtual organizations, and be productive well beyond the age of 65. And given the looming demographic trends, older citizens will have to be more productive. By 2020 America's over-65 population will increase by 60 percent, its 18-44 population by only 4 percent.

Our task this summer will be to determine a wide range of strategies. How will we engage young students? How can technology better align educators with job creators and the skill sets required. What are effective ways to raise public awareness to STEM and the connection to jobs? What will be different starting the first day of school of the 2012/13 school year?