Executive Report 

Executive Office of the President

President’s Council of Advisors on 

Science and Technology (PCAST)

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 10

R EPORT TO THE PR ESIDENT

PR E PA R E A N D I N SPI R E : 

K-1 2 E DUC AT ION I N SCI E NCE , 

T EC H NOL OG Y, E NGI N E ER I NG , 

A N D M AT H (S T E M ) F OR 

A M ER IC A’ S F U T U R E
★ ii ★

ABOUT THE PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF 

ADVISORS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) is an advisory group of the 

nation’s leading scientists and engineers, appointed by the President to augment the science and technology advice available to him from inside the White House and from cabinet departments and other 

Federal agencies. PCAST is consulted about and often makes policy recommendations concerning the 

full range of issues where understandings from the domains of science, technology, and innovation 

bear potentially on the policy choices before the President. PCAST is administered by the White House 

Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP).

For more information about PCAST, including PCAST’s full report on K-12 STEM Education, see 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast.
★ iii ★

THE PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS 

ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Members 

Rosina Bierbaum

Dean, School of Natural Resources 

and Environment

University of Michigan

Christine Cassel

President and CEO

American Board of Internal Medicine

Christopher Chyba

Professor of Astrophysical Sciences 

and International Affairs

Director, Program on Science and Global 

Security

Princeton University

S. James Gates Jr.

John S. Toll Professor of Physics

Director, Center for String and Particle Theory

University of Maryland, College Park

Shirley Ann Jackson

President

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Richard C. Levin

President

Yale University

Chad Mirkin

Rathmann Professor, Chemistry, Materials 

Science and Engineering, Chemical and 

Biological Engineering, 

Biomedical Engineering, and Medicine

Director, International Institute for 

Nanotechnology 

Northwestern University

Mario J. Molina

Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry,

University of California, San Diego

Professor, Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the 

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

Director, Mario Molina Center for Energy and 

Environment, Mexico City

Ernest J. Moniz

Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics 

and Engineering Systems

Director, MIT Energy Initiative

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Craig Mundie

Chief Research and Strategy Officer

Microsoft Corporation

Ed Penhoet

Director, Alta Partners

Professor Emeritus,

Biochemistry and Public Health

University of California, Berkeley

Co-Chairs

John P. Holdren

Assistant to the President for 

Science and Technology

Director, Office of Science and 

Technology Policy

Eric S. Lander

President

Broad Institute of Harvard and 

MIT

Harold Varmus*

President

Memorial Sloan-Kettering 

Cancer Center
★ iv ★

William Press

Raymer Professor in Computer Science 

and Integrative Biology

University of Texas at Austin

Maxine Savitz

Vice President

National Academy of Engineering

Barbara Schaal

Chilton Professor of Biology

Washington University, St. Louis

Vice President, National Academy of Sciences

Eric Schmidt

Chairman and CEO

Google, Inc.

Daniel Schrag

Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology

Professor, Environmental Science 

and Engineering

Director, Harvard University-wide Center 

for Environment

Harvard University

David E. Shaw

Chief Scientist, D. E. Shaw Research

Senior Research Fellow, Center for 

Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 

Columbia University

Ahmed Zewail

Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and Physics

Director, Physical Biology Center

California Institute of Technology

Staff

Deborah Stine

Executive Director

Mary Maxon

Deputy Executive Director 

Gera Jochum

Policy Analyst

* Dr. Varmus resigned from PCAST on July 9, 

2010 and subsequently became Director of 

the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
★ v ★

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL OF ADVISORS ON SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20502

President Barack Obama

The White House

Washington, D.C. 20502

Dear Mr. President,

We are pleased to present you with this report, Prepare and Inspire: K-12 Education in Science, Technology, 

Engineering, and Math (STEM) Education for America’s Future, prepared for you by PCAST. This report provides 

a strategy for improving K-12 STEM education that responds to the tremendous challenges and historic 

opportunities facing the Nation. 

In preparing this report and its recommendations, PCAST assembled a Working Group of experts in curriculum development and implementation, school administration, teacher preparation and professional 

development, effective teaching, out-of-school activities, and educational technology. The report was 

strengthened by additional input from STEM education experts, STEM practitioners, publishers, private 

companies, educators, and Federal, state, and local education officials. In addition, PCAST worked with 

the Office of Management and Budget and the Science and Technology Policy Institute to analyze Federal 

programs in STEM education. 

As you will see, we envision a two-pronged strategy for transforming K-12 education. We must prepare 

students so they have a strong foundation in STEM subjects and are able to use this knowledge in their 

personal and professional lives. And we must inspire students so that all are motivated to study STEM 

subjects in school and many are excited about the prospect of having careers in STEM fields. But this report 

goes much further than that. It includes specific and practical recommendations that your Administration 

can take that would help bring this two-pronged strategy to fruition. These recommendations fall under 

five overarching priorities: (1) improve Federal coordination and leadership on STEM education; (2) support 

the state-led movement to ensure that the Nation adopts a common baseline for what students learn in 

STEM; (3) cultivate, recruit, and reward STEM teachers that prepare and inspire students; (4) create STEMrelated experiences that excite and interest students of all backgrounds; and (5) support states and school 

districts in their efforts to transform schools into vibrant STEM learning environments. 

We are confident that the report provides a workable, evidence-based roadmap for achieving the vision 

you have so boldly articulated for STEM education in America. We are grateful for the opportunity to serve 

you in this way and to provide our input on an issue of such critical importance to the Nation’s future.

Sincerely,

John P. Holdren Eric Lander

Co-Chair Co-Chair

★ 1 ★

Prepare and Inspire: K-12 Education in 

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math 

(STEM) Education for America’s Future 

Executive Report

The success of the United States in the 21st century – its wealth and welfare – will depend on the ideas 

and skills of its population. These have always been the Nation’s most important assets. As the world 

becomes increasingly technological, the value of these national assets will be determined in no small 

measure by the effectiveness of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education 

in the United States. STEM education will determine whether the United States will remain a leader 

among nations and whether we will be able to solve immense challenges in such areas as energy, 

health, environmental protection, and national security. It will help produce the capable and flexible 

workforce needed to compete in a global marketplace. It will ensure our society continues to make 

fundamental discoveries and to advance our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and the universe. 

It will generate the scientists, technologists, engineers, and mathematicians who will create the new 

ideas, new products, and entirely new industries of the 21st century. It will provide the technical skills 

and quantitative literacy needed for individuals to earn livable wages and make better decisions for 

themselves, their families, and their communities. And it will strengthen our democracy by preparing 

all citizens to make informed choices in an increasingly technological world.

Throughout the 20th century, the U.S. education system drove much of our Nation’s economic growth 

and prosperity. The great expansion of high school education early in the century, followed by an unprecedented 

expansion of higher education, produced workers with high 

levels of technical skills, which supported the economy’s 

prodigious growth and reduced economic inequality. At the 

same time, scientific progress became an increasingly important driver of innovation-based growth. Since the beginning 

of the 20th century, average per capita income in the United 

States has grown more than sevenfold, and science and 

technology account for more than half of this growth. In the 

21st century, the country’s need for a world-leading STEM 

workforce and a scientifically, mathematically, and technologically literate populace has become even greater, and it 

will continue to grow – particularly as other nations continue 

to make rapid advances in science and technology. In the 

words of President Obama, “We must educate our children 

to compete in an age where knowledge is capital, and the 

marketplace is global.”
★ 2 ★

Troubling signs

Despite our historical record of achievement, the United States now lags behind other nations in STEM 

education at the elementary and secondary levels. International comparisons of our students’ performance in science and mathematics consistently place the United States in the middle of the pack or 

lower. On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, less than one-third of U.S. eighth graders 

show proficiency in mathematics and science.

Moreover, there is a large interest and achievement gap among some groups in STEM, and African 

Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, and women are seriously underrepresented in many STEM 

fields. This limits their participation in many well-paid, high-growth professions and deprives the Nation 

of the full benefit of their talents and perspectives.

It is important to note that the problem is not just a lack of proficiency among American students; there 

is also a lack of interest in STEM fields among many students. Recent evidence suggests that many of 

the most proficient students, including minority students and women, have been gravitating away from 

science and engineering toward other professions. Even as the United States focuses on low-performing 

students, we must devote considerable attention and resources to all of our most high-achieving students from across all groups.

What lies behind mediocre test scores and the pervasive lack of interest in STEM is also troubling. Some 

of the problem, to be sure, is attributable to schools that are failing systemically; this aspect of the 

problem must be addressed with systemic solutions. Yet even schools that are generally successful often 

fall short in STEM fields. Schools often lack teachers who know how to teach science and mathematics 

effectively, and who know and love their subject well enough to inspire their students. Teachers lack 

adequate support, including appropriate professional development as well as interesting and intriguing curricula. School systems lack tools for assessing progress and rewarding success. The Nation lacks 

clear, shared standards for science and math that would help all actors in the system set and achieve 

goals. As a result, too many American students conclude early in their education that STEM subjects are 

boring, too difficult, or unwelcoming, leaving them ill-prepared to meet the challenges that will face 

their generation, their country, and the world.
★ 3 ★

National Assets and Recent Progress

Despite these troubling signs, the Nation has great strengths on which it can draw.

First, the United States has the most vibrant and productive STEM community in the world, extending 

from our colleges and universities to our start-up and large companies to our science-rich institutions 

such as museums and science centers. The approximately 20 million people in the United States 

who have degrees in STEM- or healthcare-related fields can potentially be a tremendous asset to 

U.S. education.

Second, a growing body of research has illuminated how children learn about STEM, making it possible 

to devise more effective instructional materials and teaching strategies. The National Research Council 

and other organizations have summarized this research in a number of influential reports and have 

drawn on it to make recommendations concerning the teaching of mathematics and science. These 

reports transcend tired debates about conceptual understanding versus factual recall versus procedural 

fluency. They emphasize that students learning science and mathematics need to acquire all of these 

capabilities, because they support each other.

Third, a clear bipartisan consensus has emerged on the need for education reform in general and the 

importance of STEM education in particular. The 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary 

Education Act, renamed the No Child Left Behind Act, established the importance of collecting data 

annually about students’ and schools’ progress in mathematics and reading and tied Federal education 

funding to progress. The Congress is currently working on reauthorization of this law, with modifications 

to improve it.
★ 4 ★

The Obama administration has made education 

reform one of its highest priorities. The American 

Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 established 

four broad “assurances” to improve the K-12 education system, and the administration has worked to 

fulfill these assurances through competitive grantmaking. A historic, state-led initiative – led by the 

National Governors Association and the Council 

of Chief State School Officers – emerged in 2008 

to forge clear, consistent, and higher standards for 

mathematics and English language arts education in grades K-12 that can be shared across states. These 

standards were recently released, and, as of the publication date of this report, 34 states and the District 

of Columbia had adopted them. There is also considerable interest in the adoption of similar standards 

for science, which will be essential for improving STEM education.

Purpose of this Report

In the fall of 2009, the President asked his President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 

(PCAST) to develop specific recommendations concerning the most important actions that the administration should take to ensure that the United States is a leader in STEM education in the coming decades. 

In responding to this charge, PCAST decided to focus initially on the K-12 level. (A subsequent report 

will address STEM education at community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities.)
★ 5 ★

There have been a number of important reports related to STEM education over the past two decades, 

including landmark reports that have called attention to the problem, reviews of the research literature, 

and recommendations concerning principles and priorities. Our goal is not to redo the work of these 

excellent reports – indeed, we have relied heavily on their research and findings. Rather, the purpose of 

this PCAST report is instead to translate these ideas into a coherent program of Federal action to support 

STEM education in the United States that responds to current opportunities.

The report examines the national goals and necessary strategies for successful STEM education. We 

examine the history of Federal support for STEM education and consider actions that the Federal 

Government should take with respect to improving leadership and coordination. Subsequent 

chapters discuss Standards and Assessments, Teachers, Technology, Students and Schools.

Many of the recommendations in this report can be carried out with existing Federal funding. Some of 

the recommendations could be funded in part through existing programs, although new authorities 

may be required in certain cases. Depending on these choices, the new funding required to fully fund 

the recommendations could reach up to approximately $1 billion per year. This would correspond to the 

equivalent of roughly $20 per K-12 public school student; or 2 percent of the total Federal spending of 

approximately $47 billion on K-12 education; or 0.17 percent of the Nation’s total spending of approximately $593 billion on K-12 education. Not all of this funding must come from the Federal budget. We 

believe that some of the funding can come from private foundations and corporations, as well as from 

states and districts.

Key Conclusions and 

Recommendations

While the report discusses a 

range of conclusions and recommendations, we have sought 

to identify the most critical priorities for rapid action. Below, we 

summarize our two main conclusions and our seven highest 

priority recommendations.

All of these recommendations 

are directed at the Federal 

Government, and in particular we focus our attention on actions to be taken by the Department of 

Education and the National Science Foundation as the lead Federal agencies for STEM education initiatives in K-12.

Achieving the Nation’s goals for STEM education in K-12 will require partnerships with state and local 

government and with the private and philanthropic sectors. The Federal Government must actively 

engage with each of these partners, who must in turn fulfill their own distinctive roles and responsibilities. In this context, we are encouraged by the state-led collaborative efforts and by the creation of 

private groups, such as the recently formed coalition, Change the Equation.
★ 6 ★

CONCLUSIONS 

TO IMPROVE STEM EDUCATION, WE MUST FOCUS ON BOTH PREPARATION AND 

INSPIRATION 

To meet our needs for a STEM-capable citizenry, a STEM-proficient workforce, and future STEM 

experts, the Nation must focus on two complementary goals: We must prepare all students, 

including girls and minorities who are underrepresented in these fields, to be proficient in STEM 

subjects. And we must inspire all students to learn STEM and, in the process, motivate many of 

them to pursue STEM careers.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS HISTORICALLY LACKED A COHERENT STRATEGY AND 

SUFFICIENT LEADERSHIP CAPACITY FOR K-12 STEM EDUCATION 

Over the past few decades, a diversity of Federal projects and approaches to K-12 STEM 

education across multiple agencies appears to have emerged largely without a coherent vision 

and without careful oversight of goals and outcomes. In addition, relatively little Federal funding 

has historically been targeted toward catalytic efforts with the potential to transform STEM 

education, too little attention has been paid to replication and scale-up to disseminate proven 

programs widely, and too little capacity at key agencies has been devoted to strategy and 

coordination.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. STANDARDS: SUPPORT THE CURRENT STATE-LED MOVEMENT FOR SHARED STANDARDS 

IN MATH AND SCIENCE 

The Federal Government should vigorously support the state-led effort to develop common 

standards in STEM subjects, by providing financial and technical support to states for (i) 

rigorous, high-quality professional development aligned with shared standards, and (ii) the 

development, evaluation, administration, and ongoing improvement of assessments aligned 

to those standards. 

The standards and assessments should reflect the mix of factual knowledge, conceptual understanding, procedural skills, and habits of thought described in recent studies by the National 

Research Council.

2. TEACHERS: RECRUIT AND TRAIN 100,000 GREAT STEM TEACHERS OVER THE NEXT 

DECADE WHO ARE ABLE TO PREPARE AND INSPIRE STUDENTS 

The most important factor in ensuring excellence is great STEM teachers, with both deep 

content knowledge in STEM subjects and mastery of the pedagogical skills required to teach 

these subjects well.
★ 7 ★

The Federal Government should set a goal of ensuring over the next decade the recruitment, 

preparation, and induction support of at least 100,000 new STEM middle and high school 

teachers who have strong majors in STEM fields and strong content-specific pedagogical 

preparation, by providing vigorous support for programs designed to produce such teachers. 

3. TEACHERS: RECOGNIZE AND REWARD THE TOP 5 PERCENT OF THE NATION’S STEM 

TEACHERS, BY CREATING A STEM MASTER TEACHERS CORPS 

Attracting and retaining great STEM teachers requires recognizing and rewarding excellence. 

The Federal Government should support the creation of a national STEM Master Teachers Corps 

that recognizes, rewards, and engages the best STEM teachers and elevates the status of the 

profession. It should recognize the top 5 percent of all STEM teachers in the Nation, and Corps 

members should receive significant salary supplements as well as funds to support activities 

in their schools and districts.

4. EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY: USE TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE INNOVATION, BY CREATING 

AN ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS AGENCY FOR EDUCATION

Information and computation technology can be a powerful driving force for innovation in 

education, by improving the quality of instructional materials available to teachers and students, aiding in the development of high-quality assessments that capture student learning, 

and accelerating the collection and use of data to provide rich feedback to students, teachers, 

and schools. Moreover, technology has been advancing rapidly to the point that it can soon 

play a transformative role in education. Realizing the benefits of technology for K-12 education, 

however, will require active investments in research and development to create broadly useful 

technology platforms and well-designed and validated examples of comprehensive, integrated 

“deeply digital” instructional materials. 

The Federal Government should create a mission-driven, advanced research projects agency 

for education (ARPA-ED) housed either in the Department of Education, in the National Science 

Foundation, or as a joint entity. It should have a mission-driven culture, visionary leadership, 

and draw on the strengths of both agencies. ARPA-ED should propel and support (i) the 

development of innovative technologies and technology platforms for learning, teaching, 

and assessment across all subjects and ages, and (ii) the development of effective, integrated, 

whole-course materials for STEM education.

5. STUDENTS: CREATE OPPORTUNITIES FOR INSPIRATION THROUGH INDIVIDUAL AND 

GROUP EXPERIENCES OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM 

STEM education is most successful when students develop personal connections with the 

ideas and excitement of STEM fields. This can occur not only in the classroom but also through 

individualized and group experiences outside the classroom and through advanced courses.

The Federal Government should develop a coordinated initiative, which we call INSPIRE, to support the development of a wide range of high-quality STEM-based after-school and extended 
★ 8 ★

day activities (such as STEM contests, fabrication laboratories, summer and after-school programs, and similar activities). The program should span disparate efforts of science mission 

agencies and after-school programs supported through the Department of Education funding. 

6. SCHOOLS: CREATE 1,000 NEW STEM-FOCUSED SCHOOLS OVER THE NEXT DECADE 

STEM-focused schools represent a unique National resource, both through their direct impact 

on students and as laboratories for experimenting with innovative approaches. The Nation 

currently has only about 100 STEM-focused schools, concentrated at the high school level. 

The Federal Government should promote the creation of at least 200 new highly-STEM-focused 

high schools and 800 STEM-focused elementary and middle schools over the next decade, 

including many serving minority and high-poverty communities. In addition, the Federal 

Government should take steps to ensure that all schools and schools systems have access to 

relevant STEM-expertise. 

7. ENSURE STRONG AND STRATEGIC NATIONAL LEADERSHIP 

Stronger leadership, coherent strategy and greater coordination are essential to support 

innovation in K-12 STEM education. Toward this end, the Federal Government should (i) create 

new mechanisms, with substantially increased capacity, to provide leadership within each of 

the Department of Education and the National Science Foundation; (ii) establish a high-level 

partnership between these agencies; (iii) establish a standing Committee on STEM Education 

within the National Science and Technology Council responsible for creating a Federal STEM 

education strategy; and (iv) establish an independent Presidential Commission on STEM 

Education, in conjunction with the National Governors Association, to promote and monitor 

progress toward improving STEM education.

PCAST believes that the Nation has an urgent need – but also, thanks to recent developments, 

an unprecedented opportunity – to bring together stakeholders at all levels to transform STEM 

education to lay the groundwork for a new century of American progress and prosperity.
★ 9 ★

PCAST K-12 STEM EDUCATION WORKING GROUP

Co-Chairs

Eric Lander*

President

Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT

Working Group Members

Bruce Alberts

Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics

University of California, San Francisco

Deborah Loewenberg Ball

Dean, School of Education

William H. Payne Collegiate Professor

University of Michigan

Dennis M. Bartels

Executive Director

Exploratorium

Rosina Bierbaum*

Dean, School of Natural Resources 

and Environment

University of Michigan

Linda Curtis-Bey

Deputy Chief Executive Officer

Integrated Curriculum and Instruction Learning 

Support Organization

New York City Department of Education

Jo Handelsman

Professor of Molecular, Cellular, 

and Developmental Biology

Yale University

Shirley Ann Jackson*

President

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tom Luce

Chief Executive Officer

National Math and Science 

Initiative

Stephen L. Pruitt†

Chief of Staff

Georgia Department of Education

Linda G. Roberts

Trustee, Sesame Workshop and 

Education Development Center

Barbara Schaal*

Chilton Professor of Biology

Washington University, St. Louis

Vice President, National Academy 

of Sciences

David E. Shaw*

Chief Scientist, D.E. Shaw Research

Senior Research Fellow, Center 

for Computational Biology and 

Bioinformatics

Columbia University

Bob Tinker

Founder

Concord Consortium

Philip “Uri” Treisman

Professor of Mathematics and 

Public Affairs

University of Texas, Austin

S. James Gates, Jr.*

John S. Toll Professor of Physics

Director, Center for String and 

Particle Theory

University of Maryland, College Park
★ 10 ★

Staff

Deborah Stine

Executive Director, PCAST

Harold Varmus*‡

President

Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Cancer Center

Patricia I. Wright

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Virginia Department of Education

Ahmed Zewail*

Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry 

and Physics

Director, Physical Biology Center

Professor, Chemistry and Physics

California Institute of Technology

Kumar Garg

Policy Analyst, Office of Science 

and Technology Policy

Writers

Bina Venkataraman

Senior Science Policy Adviser

Broad Institute

Donna Gerardi Riordan

Science Writer and Policy Analyst

Steve Olson

Science Writer

*PCAST member

†

Stephen Pruitt left the Georgia Department of 

Education to join Achieve as the Director of Science in 

July of 2010.

‡

Dr. Varmus resigned from PCAST on July 9, 2010 and 

subsequently became Director of the National Cancer 

Institute (NCI).

President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology

http://www.whitehouse.gov/ostp/pcast