The Philadelphia Regional STEM Teacher Talent Development Coalition

About Our Coalition

Co-Chairs
Greer M. Richardson, Victor J. Donnay, Stacy Olitsky

Established by PRISE, the Philadelphia Regional STEM Teacher Talent Development Coalition is a Workgroup of the Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem (PSE). The Coalition consists of STEM stakeholders from K-12, higher education, government, industry, out-of-school time (OST), and community organizations for the expressed purpose of strengthening the STEM teacher pipeline by increasing the number of diverse STEM educators serving Philadelphia students.

The work of the Coalition addresses two recommendations from the report, Citywide Strategy for Diverse and High-Quality Teachers, with a particular focus on STEM teacher candidates. Specifically, the Coalition will (1) articulate pathways to teaching and (2) facilitate early exposure to teaching for two identified high priority groups, namely high school and college students.

Through a PA Department of Education grant, PRISE and St. Joseph’s University are lead partners in the Coalition. In addition, the Coalition partners with the Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem, Philly Works, The Citywide Talent Coalition, The Mayor’s Office on Education, The School District of Philadelphia and several higher education and STEM-focused institutions.

Work agreements have been established with Temple University, the Community College of Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute, the Women in Natural Sciences at the Academy of Natural Sciences, and the TGR Foundation to support Coalition pathways activities.

Programs Successes

• Established a robust STEM Teacher Talent Development Coalition with 25–40 people participating in bi-monthly meetings.
• Developed a STEM landscape analysis that surfaced promising practices, challenges, and gaps in the STEM teacher pipeline.  See Landscape Analysis Report.
• Established working groups in which stakeholders have developed plans for initiatives to address the challenge of recruiting more high school and college students into STEM teaching. 
  • Early STEM teaching experiences for high school students 
  • Early STEM teaching experiences for college students 
  • Career and pathway information for STEM teaching careers for high school and college students
  • Sustainability of the Coalition. 

Contact [email protected] to join a working group.

• Established 6 work agreements with institutions of higher education, workforce development and OST community stakeholders to help meet the goals set forth by the Coalition.
• Created proposals for funding to support (1) high school and college student early teaching experiences and (2) STEM teacher certification pathways that are aligned with Coalition proposed goals and solutions.

The Coalition has been funded by a PA Smart- A2E Grant.  The Final Technical Report can be found here.