Appendix A

Testimony Before the Committee on Equity in PreK–12 STEM Education

As was described in Chapter 1, the committee examined multiple sources of evidence in response to the charge and held five public open sessions with experts from relevant areas of research. In the first open session, the committee had a discussion with representatives from the organizations sponsoring the study, including Angela DeBarger from the Hewlett Foundation, Jolene Jesse from the National Science Foundation, Kristen Erickson and Lin Chambers from NASA, Michelle Freeman from the Samueli Foundation, and Jenny Irons from the W.T. Grant Foundation. They shared their goals for this type of report, and how they hope to use the upcoming report. The committee then heard from leaders of large-scale equity projects similar to this one, who described how their respective studies came to define equity and the following implications that followed on making that decision. The project leaders for this panel were Marie Bernard, Chief Officer for Scientific Workforce Diversity at the National Institutes of Health, Christopher Edley, representing the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee on Developing Indicators of Educational Equity, and Betsy Davis, Enrique Suárez, and Amy Stephens, representing the National Academies Committee on Enhancing Science and Engineering in Prekindergarten through Fifth Grade. Finally, the committee heard from Linda Jacobsen of the Population Research Group, who gave an overview on the current U.S. student population by region and how this population will likely change in the future.

During the second public open session, the committee heard from four panels over the course of two days. The first panel focused on how the legal

system historically and currently impacts education equity in the United States. Presentations were made by Dana Thompson Dorsey from the University of South Florida and Michael Rebell from the Teachers College/Columbia Law School. The second panel looked at STEM ecosystems, with presentations from Bronwyn Bevan of the Wallace Foundation and Nichole Pinkard from Northwestern University. The third panel featured students and educators who help run the Baltimore Algebra Project in Baltimore, Maryland. Speakers included Jay Gillen, Jon Gray, Ivan Roberts, Niyonu Fatiu, and “Mama” Victory Swift, who provided an overview of the mission and goals of this organization and how they work together to meet these goals. The fourth panel, featuring Sarah Woulfin from the University of Texas at Austin and Britney Jones from the University of Connecticut, looked at equity within the U.S. public education system and how different levels of the system could constrain or facilitate more equitable learning opportunities in STEM.

The third open session was a day-long public workshop with multiple panels. The first panel explored various efforts to address equity among state education systems. Claus von Zastrow from the Education Commission of the States provided a general overview on what states across the country are doing, while Tiffany Neill (formerly with the Oklahoma State Department of Education) and Megan Schrauben (with the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity) discussed what their respective states are working toward for their different equity goals. The second panel of the day looked at various efforts currently happening to address equity within school districts, with presentations from Dan Gallagher and Anne Beitlers representing the program Critical CS Education in Washington state, Rick Holt and Amy Fairbanks representing the Roaring Forks School district in Carbondale, Colorado, and Ho Nguyen and Lizzy Hull Barnes representing the San Francisco Unified School District in San Francisco, California. The final panel of the public workshop featured a diverse panel of scholars, who shared their vision for what STEM education and learning could look like in the future if equity was placed at the center. Alfredo Artiles from Stanford University, Bryan Brayboy from Arizona State University, Alex Mejia from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Fikile Nxumalo from the University of Toronto participated in this discussion.

The fourth public open session featured four sessions exploring a variety of topics. The first panel explored how equity and inequities can show up within the various STEM disciplines and featured Sara Tolbert from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, Victor Lee from Stanford University, and Liz de Freitas from Adelphi University. The second panel focused on community-centered models for STEM education and looked at how these programs work toward equity goals for STEM. Jeff Duncan Andrade from Roses in Concrete, Susan Letourneau from the New York Hall

of Science Preschool, and Anna Maier from the Learning Policy Institute participated in this panel. The third panel turned to STEM classrooms and the specific work of teachers with presentations from Tia Madkins from the University of Texas–Austin, Niral Shah from the University of Washington, and Jenny Langer Osuna from Stanford University. The final panel of this public session looked at how assessments may support or constrain progress toward equity in STEM education and featured Andrew Ho from Harvard University, Guillermo Solano Flores from Stanford University, Aneesha Badrinarayan from the Learning Policy Institute, and Scott Marion from the Center for Assessment.

Finally, the committee held an open session that explored special considerations that need to be considered in preK education when attending to STEM and equity. Presentations were made by Anna Lees of Western Washington University, Amy Parks from Michigan State University, and Andres Bustamante from the University of California, Irvine.

In addition to the public sessions, the committee also commissioned two short papers to help synthesize existing evidence in the field and help frame the report. First, we asked Manuel Espinoza from the University of Colorado, Denver, as well as Adria Padilla-Chávez and Spencer Childress to develop a paper that looked at the law, education, and the implications of STEM and possibilities in legal efforts to secure meaningful educational opportunities. We also asked Noah Weeth Feinstein from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, to compose a paper that explored the relationship between STEM education and democracy as it relates to equity.

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