BHEF Supports White House Effort To Boost U.S. STEM Achievement

Supports the administration’s goal of moving American students to the top of the pack in science and math success over the next decade

Washington, DC (November 23, 2009) — Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) Executive Director Brian K. Fitzgerald today attended a White House event during which President Obama announced a campaign to enlist companies and nonprofit groups to spend money, time and volunteer effort to encourage students, especially in middle and high school, to pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.

The campaign, called Educate to Innovate, includes more than $260 million in public-private investments by partnerships involving leading companies, foundations, non-profits, and science and engineering societies dedicated to motivating and inspiring young people across America to excel in science and math. The other parts of the campaign includes a two-year focus on science on “Sesame Street,” the venerable public television children’s show, and a Web site, connectamillionminds.com, set up by Time Warner Cable, that provides a searchable directory of local science activities.

“We are gratified that this administration is focusing much-needed attention on STEM education in America,” says Fitzgerald. “By making this a national priority, the president is extending a strong invitation to the corporate and education sectors, which have a considerable stake in the future of STEM, to take the lead in this area.

“BHEF, with its unique cross-sector of members from the corporate, academic and foundation worlds, will do all that is can to support this effort, as many of our goals closely mirror the administration’s. In fact, many of BHEF members’ organizations have already committed significant resources and developed innovative programs that directly support the President’s goals.”

Along the lines of President Obama’s goals, BHEF, through its “Securing America’s Leadership in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Initiative,” authored “An American Imperative: Transforming the Recruitment, Retention, and Renewal of Our Nation’s Mathematics and Science Teaching Workforce,” which lays out a comprehensive plan for creating a robust, world-class teaching workforce.

In addition, BHEF provides in an open-source environment the first-ever simulation and modeling tool for the U.S. STEM education system, stemnetwork.org, which enables researchers, policymakers, and educators to explore scenarios that can strengthen U.S. STEM education and workforce outcomes.

Separately today, BHEF signed on to a letter by the Tapping America’s Potential (TAP), a coalition of the nation’s leading business organizations, which announced that group’s renewed commitments to improving STEM education in the United States. Click here to read the letter.