shifting expectations
Bringing STEM to Scale through Expanded Learning Systems
There is widespread consensus that improving our nation’s
competitiveness in science fields urgently demands
improved science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM) education, particularly for underserved youth. As
a result, policymakers, funders, and educators have led a
call to stimulate the U.S. STEM pipeline. Recognizing that
schools can’t do it alone, they have called for “all hands
on deck” to boost STEM achievement, ignite passions
in science, and expose students—particularly female
and minority students—to STEM career possibilities.
Expanded learning opportunities, such as afterschool
and summer programs, are particularly well positioned
to help address the STEM education crisis (Afterschool
Alliance, 2011). A large percentage of youth
participating in afterschool programs are members of
groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM fields.
Additionally, the nature of these programs—featuring
low student-to-staff ratios and opportunities for handson
and project-based learning—makes them an ideal
environment for inquiry-based informal science education
(Friedman & Quinn, 2006). Nevertheless, highquality
STEM education does not seem to be happening at scale.
Science education is not typically expected of
programs in the way that art, music, and physical activity
are. As noted in a 2008 study from the Coalition for Science
After School (Chi, Freeman, & Lee, 2008) surveys
of frontline staff have revealed significant obstacles for
informal science education in afterschool, including lack
of staff buy-in, comfort, or experience in science; insufficient
staff training; and a lack of materials. To address
the STEM gap in expanded learning programs, expectations
of programs must change and frontline staff must
be supported with professional development in STEM.
A National Strategy to Build STEM
Education Systems
In an effort to prepare all children for post-secondary
success and a lifetime of science-based learning,
the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems
(CBASS) and TASC, with generous support from the
Noyce Foundation, have developed a national initiative
to institutionalize engaging, inquiry-based STEM
experiences in afterschool. In 2007, TASC set out to
stimulate a culture shift among afterschool leaders and
staff in order to increase the demand for and delivery of
high-quality informal science education in New York City
afterschool programs. This strategy, Frontiers in Urban
Science Exploration (FUSE), employs a twofold systemic
approach to bring about this culture shift and shape
practice. First, a “grasstops” strategy, led by local out-ofschool
time (OST) intermediary organizations, engages
leaders and staff of schools and afterschool programs,
along with government officials, science organization
leaders, policymakers, and funders, in building
enthusiasm and capacity for inquiry-based STEM learning
after school. Second, a “grassroots” strategy gives frontline
afterschool staff and supervisors who do not have STEM
backgrounds the content knowledge, instructional skills,
and confidence to facilitate STEM activities effectively.
CBASS is expanding the New York City work of FUSE in
six locations—Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Oakland (CA),
Palm Beach County, and Providence—to demonstrate
the feasibility of a systemic strategy to advance STEM
education and to identify promising practices to inform
policy and practice nationally. As of the submission of this
article, evaluations of the initiative had been conducted in
New York City, Providence, and Oakland; therefore, we
focus on those cities’ promising practices and grassroots
outcomes. Evaluations for the remaining four cities are
forthcoming.
The FUSE strategy is designed to be both flexible
enough to be effective across jurisdictions and focused
enough to result in similar shared effects. The strategy
builds on local assets while maintaining broad core
elements to support program success. Core elements
of afterschool STEM programs fall into two categories:
program and system (Table 1). Program-level elements
describe characteristics of high-quality afterschool
science education, while system-level elements describe
characteristics of well-coordinated systems that lead to
improved quality, scale, and sustainability.
Promising Approaches
Intermediary OST organizations in the cities where
FUSE has been implemented have tested approaches at
the grassroots and grasstops levels to foster the mindset
that frontline staff members, though not necessarily
trained in STEM disciplines, can effectively facilitate
informal science education. Though FUSE embraces a
holistic system approach targeted to frontline staff and
city leadership, 2010–2011 evaluation findings pointed
to a correlation among strong gains in staff and youth
outcomes and grassroots activities directed toward
frontline staff. These findings are preliminary; our future
evaluations will look more closely at the effect of the
grasstops strategy on sustainability and on culture shifts
at the program and city leadership levels.
Here we focus on promising practices from the
2010–2011 school year in New York, Providence, and
Oakland that have helped contribute to positive staff and
youth outcomes. The practices fall into three categories:
Experiential, Sequential Training Opportunities
When TASC set out to increase the amount of informal
science education in New York City afterschool programs,
it built on existing high-quality curricula rather than
creating its own. TASC’s criteria for high-quality science
curricula included that they: