K-12 Education Workgroup
STRATEGY - Creating equitable and diverse education-to-career pathways
LONG-TERM OUTCOME
Philadelphia K-12 schools, post-secondary institutions, and local employers work together to formalize diverse pathways that recruit, immerse, and inspire Black, Latinx and women Philadelphians to enter STEM fields.
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SHORT-TERM OUTCOMES
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Philadelphia schools have access to consistent frameworks to define and measure high-quality and culturally competent STEM programming.
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K-12 STEM Philadelphia school programs have access to culturally competent content.
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Black, Latinx, and women Philadelphia high school students have access to the pre-requisite classes necessary for students to enter STEM programs in college or directly into STEM careers.
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Philadelphia high schools and STEM employers collaborate to develop real-world and career-transferrable experiences that align to STEM careers
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MEDIUM-TERM OUTCOMES
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Philadelphia schools adopt consistent frameworks to define and measure high-quality and culturally competent STEM programming.
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K-12 STEM Philadelphia school programs across the city integrate culturally competent content.
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Philadelphia high school students successfully complete pre-requisite classes necessary to enter STEM programs in college or directly into STEM careers.
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Philadelphia school students enroll in real-world and career-transferrable experiences that align to STEM careers via high school/STEM employer collaborations
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Co-Chairs
Director of Outreach, Education & Research
Perelman school of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
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Executive Director ​
Curriculum & Instruction ​
School District of Philadelphia
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Community of Practice (CoP)
The goal of the CoP is to coordinate alignment and increase programming for all K-12 educators to provide high-quality, culturally competent STEM experiences. In this pilot project, our contact at Cramp Elementary worked with us toward a sustained and multifaceted relationship between the school and partners through improved communication and shared knowledge.
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The Workgroup leads for the CoP are Jamie Shuda and Maya Heiland. We couldn't do this without Community School Coordinator is Elias Corbin, the school principal and the many school teachers and staff.
Our partners in this project are:
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STEM Kickoff Event at Cramp Elementary
On February 2024, the CoP participated in the "STEM Kickoff Event" at Cramp Elementary. Parents and students were invited to visit the different partners' tables to get a bit of STEM information along with a fun activity. Students were given a "passport" to the different activities along with a few STEM task. To see the passport, please go HERE.
Philadelphia Geography Project
The purpose of this project is to create a publicly available Geographic Information System (GIS) tool which allows interested parties to identify locations in Philadelphia where STEM opportunities are most needed, desired, and where additional interventions and resources could make a meaningful impact. This data, provided in collaboration with the School district of Philadelphia’s (SDP) Office of Strategic Partnership, will be viewable in a variety of spatial categories, including feeder patterns, zip codes, census tract, school pipelines, and councilmanic district among others, that will allow advocates, funders, programs and educators target their STEM outreach in a way that will facilitate connecting with schools that need specific programing.
