Federal STEM 5-Year Strategic Plan 

Donald James
 NASA Associate Administrator
 

for Education 

NAC Ad Hoc Task Force
 

for STEM Education 

April 3, 2015
 
Welcome and thank you!
 

Welcome, and thank you very much for your willingness 

to serve on this Task Force and to help NASA with this 

critical topic that is of national importance. 

On behalf of the NASA Administrator, Charles Bolden, I 

would like to present you with your appointment letters 

for this Task Force. 

We look forward to working with all of you over the next 

two years. Thank you again. 
 

Federal STEM 5-Year Strategic Plan 

- Report from the Committee on STEM (CoSTEM) Education, National Science

 and Technology Council. Put into place May, 2013 

- Five Priority STEM Education Investment Areas 

- Throughout the plan there are strategic highlights and coordination approaches 

- Ellen Stofan, NASA Chief Scientist is NASA representative on CoSTEM Committee 

- Donald James, NASA AA for Education, co-chairs the subcommittee on Federal

 Coordination-STEM (FC-STEM) 

- NASA Education has representatives on all five STEM interagency working groups (IWGs) 

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Federal STEM Strategic Vision and Approaches 

Strategic Vision: A future where: 

- The United States has a well-qualified and increasingly diverse STEM 

workforce able to lead innovation in STEM-related industries and to fulfill 

CoSTEM agency workforce needs; 

- American students have access to excellent P-12, postsecondary, and 

informal STEM education and learning opportunities; and 

- Federal STEM education programs are based on evidence and 

coordinated for maximum impact in priority areas. 

Strategic Approaches: 

1) key outcomes for ways Federal agencies can contribute
 

2) areas to play lead roles increasing accountability
 

3) methods to build and share evidence
 

4)approaches for decreasing fragmentation
 

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Cross Agency STEM Goal Statement 

Improve STEM education by implementing the Federal STEM 

Education 5-Year Strategic Plan, announced in May 2013, specifically:* 

• Improve STEM instruction 

• Increase and sustain youth and public engagement in STEM 

• Enhance STEM experience of undergraduate students 

• Better serve groups historically under-represented in STEM fields 

• Design graduate education for tomorrow’s STEM workforce 

• Build new models for leveraging assets and expertise 

• Build and use evidence-based approaches 

* From the Cross Agency Priority Goal Quarterly Progress Update on STEM Education FY 15 Q1 

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STEM Vision and Urgency* 

Vision 

• The Federal STEM Education 5-Year Strategic Plan sets out ambitious national goals to 

drive federal investment in five priority STEM education areas toward which significant 

progress will require improved coherence and coordination across federal agencies with 

STEM assets and expertise and STEM education resources. 

Urgency 

• Advances in STEM have long been central to our nation’s economy, security, and ability 

to preserve the health of its people and the environment; enhancing U.S. students’ 

engagement and success in STEM disciplines is essential to the U.S. maintaining its 

preeminent position in the world. 

• We have considerable progress to make given that our K-12 system ranks “middle of the 

pack” in international comparisons. 

• Meeting the growing demand for STEM expertise and competency is important to the 

economy and our democracy. 

• Increasing opportunities in STEM for more Americans is critical to building a just and 

inclusive society. 

* From the Cross Agency Priority Goal Quarterly Progress Update on STEM Education FY 15 Q1 

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STEM Update and Examples* 

Federal Coordination in STEM Education (FC-STEM) updates: 

• FC-STEM finalized charters for the five Inter-agency Working Groups (IWGS). 

•	 Agreement that FC STEM will address coordination objectives as a whole. 

• New leads identified for the P-12, Graduate, and Engagement IWGs to replace people

 who have left. 

Cross-agency partnership/collaboration examples: 

•	 The Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) 

program is piloting collaborations with the National Park Service and the Institute of 

Museum and Library Services and is expanding its NASA collaboration to include 

additional sites and engineering challenges (Engagement Priority Goal). 

•	 In addition to the existing four agencies (Office of Naval Research, Smithsonian 

Institution, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Department of Homeland 

Security( DHS)), the Graduate Research Internship Program (GRIP) added two 

partners, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) (Graduate Priority Goal). 

* From the Cross Agency Priority Goal Quarterly Progress Update on STEM Education FY 15 Q1 

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Thank you again! 
 

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