NEF CyberLearning National Grant Initiative Sets Up 14 New STEM+ Academies in 11 States

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Cyber Learning

Aug 20, 2013, 19:45 ET


Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) August 20, 2013 -- The National Education Foundation (NEF), the national non-profit leader in STEM+ education, announced today that it is partnering with the State University of New York, TEKSystems, Pearson Education and Skillsoft to advance STEM+ education in 14 school districts during the 2013-14 school year.

The selected school districts are: Salida and Garvey (CA), Wendell (ID), Merrillville (IN), Kansas City (KS), Fort Meade (MD), Center Line and Mesick (MI), Canton (NY), Tri-Valley (PA), Williamsburg (SC), Dallas and Laredo (TX), and Seattle (WA). All these school districts are in high poverty areas and are classified as disadvantaged by the US Education Department.

The goal of this initiative is to close the STEM+ (science, technology, engineering, math, English, social studies, SAT/ACT, IT and business) skills gap in the United States. By creating an effective school-nonprofit-university-business partnership, NEF can more effectively provide 21st century STEM+ education to disadvantaged K-12 students. The initiative also focuses on supporting the larger American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) to keep the United States competitive in critical STEM-related fields.

The innovative academy program advances a student one grade level in a subject in 20-30 learning hours by providing personalized learning, teacher stipends, learning management system, mentoring, motivational rewards for students and parents, teacher training and tech support.

“U.S. is ranked 25th out of 34 countries in math and 17th out of 34 countries in science”. NEF has been advocating school-college-business partnerships to improve the critical STEM+ education in our nation’s schools since 2012. President Obama advocated such a partnership in the 2013 State of the Union speech. We hope to expand our STEM+ initiative significantly in the coming years,” states Dr. Appu Kuttan, founder and chairman of NEF.

About NEF
The National Education Foundation (NEF) is the national non-profit leader in bridging the academic and job skills divides by providing world-class STEM+ (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, English, test prep, digital literacy, IT, business and management) education to millions of disadvantaged students and adults. See http://www.cyberlearning.org.

Appu Kuttan, Cyber Learning, http://www.cyberlearning.org, +1 (703) 823-9999, [email protected]