Growing Opportunity-A Two-Year Update on the Opportunity Equation: Transforming Mathematics and Science Education for Citizenship and the Global Economy

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The release of the Opportunity Equation report in June 2009 heralds a turning point in the nation’s understanding of STEM education. The report presented Americans with a vision for excellent, equitable science,
technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning that would reach all U.S. students and prepare them for full participation as citizens and as workers in
an increasingly global economy. For the United States, the report explained, the challenge must be to graduate all young people to be “STEM-capable,” equipped for adult life with a broad foundation of STEM knowledge and
a set of crucial skills that come from rigorous STEM learning.

To achieve that vision, the report argued, schools and school systems must change fundamentally: STEM learning must become exciting, accessible, and challenging for all students, not just those who attend certain schools or who
aspire to work in STEM-related jobs or earn advanced STEM degrees. Further,STEM learning must be infused across the whole curriculum, not reserved solely for science and math classes. STEM teaching must change, too,
requiring changes in the way teachers are prepared and the supports they get to keep their skills sharp.