The Philadelphia Regional Institute for STEM Educators (PRISE) at Saint Joseph’s University has been awarded a planning grant from the PAsmart Advancing Grants for Career and Technical Education program.  The Career Connected Pathways for STEM Teacher Education (C2 STEP) initiative will  continue building the Philadelphia Regional STEM Teacher Talent Development Coalition, a workgroup of the Philadelphia STEM Ecosystem  which was initiated under a  previous PAsmart grant. 

The project’s theory of action is that explicit STEM teaching career pathways that foster early experiences will eliminate barriers for high school and college students to pursue STEM teaching as a career. Increased interest and knowledge of career options enables greater diverse student participation, in turn increasing the number of diverse STEM educators serving students. 

Through a robust cross-sector collaboration from K-12, two and four-year higher education, workforce development, and dual enrollment programs to out-of-school Time (OST) STEM and other regional education organizations, C2 STEP will design an explicit STEM Teacher Education career pathway in which students engage in STEM teaching internships and other aligned regional Career and Technical Education (CTE), dual-enrollment, pre- and apprenticeships, and teacher preparation program (TPP) credentialing programs in the Philadelphia region.

C2 STEP initiative engages 14 Coalition partners who are interested in leveraging their existing programs to increase opportunities for the diverse students that they already serve to explore STEM teaching. C2 STEP will also leverage existing program infrastructures and networks to align area internships, CTE, dual enrollment, pre- and apprenticeship, OST and TPP programs so that the experiences students have in any one of these areas will count for credit/credentials in other areas. To articulate STEM teacher education pathway opportunities explicitly, C2 STEP will design a robust STEM teaching career information campaign. The initiative will also develop a regional STEM teacher education hub to support the development of  Future STEM Teacher Clubs for high school and college students.

Delaware County Community College

Temple University College of Education and Human Development

Temple University College of Science and Technology

Elevate 215

LearnEd Potential

Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA)

Philadelphia Works