Cognitive Acceleration through Science Education (CASE) on the Sunshine Coast is growing rapidly. It has expanded from one inaugural Year 8 class in 2012 to the current state of play with the involvement of over 3,000 CASE students from eleven Sunshine Coast State High Schools. It is being taught by more than seventy CASE teachers with…

In response to a report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, President Obama issued a challenge to the U.S. education system to create more than 1,000 new STEM-focused schools, including 200 high schools. Inclusive STEM-focused high schools--which focus their efforts on females, minorities, and students who are…

The STEM Achievement in Baltimore Elementary Schools (SABES) program is a community partnership initiative that includes both in-school and afterschool STEM education for grades 3-5. It was designed to broaden participation and achievement in STEM education by bringing science and engineering to the lives of low-income urban elementary school…

The purpose of this study was to develop, scale, and validate assessments in engineering, science, and mathematics with grade appropriate items that were sensitive to the curriculum developed by teachers. The use of item response theory to assess item functioning was a focus of the study. The work is part of a larger project focused on increasing…

This report builds upon our previous study, which described five patterns of why college graduates join National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded diversity-focused Postbaccalaureate Research Education Programs (PREP). A 2015 report from the NIH showed that a high fraction of PREP participants matriculate into PhD and MD/PhD programs. This current…

This article examines the Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement (MESA) program and investigates its impact on underrepresented student populations. MESA was started in California during the 1970s to provide pathways to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics careers for underrepresented students and represents an exemplar model…

St Michael's RC School aims to develop in its students an understanding of the importance of scientific knowledge through the delivery of a more diverse but appropriate scientific curriculum: a curriculum that is enriched and accessible to all students, regardless of ability; a curriculum that will encourage them to continue the study of both…

The activities presented in this paper, which are addressed to elementary school, are focused on the pioneering work of the Portuguese King Carlos I in oceanography and involve the exploration of the exhibits belonging to two different science museums, the Aquarium Vasco da Gama and the Maritime Museum. Students were asked to study fish…

In 2012, WestEd received a "Development" grant from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) competition to develop and implement Internet-based Reading Apprenticeship Improving Science Education ("iRAISE"). "iRAISE" was implemented in Michigan and Pennsylvania and was provided to over 100…

Innovation and ingenuity have long been hallmarks of the U.S.' economy. Our competitive strength is built on the legacy of great innovators--from Alexander Graham Bell and Lewis Latimer to the Wright brothers and Steve Jobs. The U.S. has prized its status as a leader in developing creative thinkers and entrepreneurs, but by many estimates, it is…

This special issue of "Advances in Engineering Education" explores recent developments in P-12 Engineering Education. It includes papers devoted to research and practice, and reports some of the most exciting work in the field today. In our Call of Papers, we solicited two types of papers: Research papers and Practice papers. The former…

The authors evaluated the effects of P-SELL, a science curricular and professional development intervention for fifth-grade students with a focus on English language learners (ELLs). Using a randomized controlled trial design with 33 treatment and 33 control schools across three school districts in one state, we found significant and meaningfully…

STEM--science, technology, engineering, and mathematics--has become a fixture of the education debate, and much effort already has been put toward improving student performance. Yet troubling statistics persist: On the latest round of testing for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), only 40 percent of fourth graders nationwide…

Launched in 2006 to address issues of national competitiveness and equity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, the National Science Foundation-funded Model Replication Institutions (MRI) program sought to improve the quality, availability, and diversity of STEM education. The project offered technical assistance to…

This study was inspired by the final regulations for the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) indicating that each state has the option to develop a new assessment for students whose disabilities have kept them from obtaining proficiency. Sets of high school science achievement items were enhanced for the new test. A 3-by-2, within subjects,…