Burbio School Tracker 2/11: STEM & CTE Edition

1. Burbio's School Board Meeting Tracker captures school board meetings covering over 60% of the PreK-12 school population. CTE and STEM initiatives are both frequently and highly specifically discussed. The charts below show the percentage of school districts that mention the referenced term at least once in the 12 month period ending 9/30/24: 

Below is a list of highly specific terms that appear a bit less frequently but are highly meaningful when they do:

2. Burbio has just launched a School Bond dataset as part of our PreK-12 Intelligence Hub. School bond information is available via a sortable dashboard, a searchable keyword map, and as part of each District Profile. Our bond dataset features such elements as bond amount, coverage summary, vote date, approval status, document links, and more. CTE and STEM initiatives are a frequent part of bond projects.  

We have a growing database of bonds up for consideration in the coming months, many of which reference STEM and CTE. Examples include:

• In March, Caldwell-West Caldwell Public Schools, NJ will vote on a $23 million bond proposal for middle and high school infrastructure upgrades that features media center (STEAM) upgrades for elementary schools and computer science and wood shop upgrades for the high school.
• In May, Lamphere Public Schools, MI will vote on an $85 million bond that includes updating and adding STEM classrooms across all elementary schools and creating a district-wide robotics space.
• Later this month Wichita Public Schools, KS, will vote on a $450 million bond proposal that provides "essential updates to STEM labs, classrooms, and career and technical training spaces," including a new "construction trades FutureReady center" as part of the spending. 

 Below are examples of recently passed bonds with investments in STEM and CTE: 

• Last May, Arlington Central School District, NY passed a $179 million bond that includes the addition of STEM rooms, science labs, and a library media center in the district.
• In November, 2024, Antelope Valley Union High School District, CA, passed a $398 million bond that included initiatives to "improve classrooms, labs and technology for science, engineering, math, robotics and aerospace instruction," and to "improve vocational and career technical education classrooms and labs."
• Also in November, Lexington-Richland School District Five, SC passed a $240 million bond that includes "the additions of a Construction & Infrastructure Workforce Development Lab . . . a Small Business Incubator & Student Center . . . and a Digital Solutions & Artificial Intelligence Lab . . . "

3. Burbio's database of strategic plans covers over 70% of PreK-12 enrollment. Academic initiatives are frequently discussed with specificity in these plans. Below is the percent of related keyword mentions in strategic plans and LCAPs published since 2022: 

4. Burbio's State-Level Funding Tracker features state-specific grants for PreK-12 schools offered by all state agencies and departments, as well as Federal grants where states can tailor the criteria. Burbio has identified over 1,500 grants, and the database is growing daily. CTE and STEM grants total over $6 billion. Suppliers of STEM and CTE services use the grant database to alert districts to the opportunities shortly after they are announced.    

Here are some recent examples that focus on computer science: 

• Virginia's Advancing Computer Science Education Grant awards up to $20,000 and is designed for schools to promote and expand access to AP Computer Science courses.
• New Jersey's Expanding Access to Computer Science High School Courses grant offers up to $40,000 to  develop and  implement one or more new advanced computer science courses.
• Michigan's Educator PD for Computer Science and Computational Thinking grant  is a competitive grant only for districts to develop and implement teacher professional development programs for computer science courses and content that will reach new and existing teachers with little to no computer science background.  A total of $4 million is available.
• Georgia's Computer Science Teacher Equipment and Community Grant offers up to $10,000 per district  for up to five teachers per district to join a professional organization for computer science education, attend conferences, and purchase computers and equipment.