Federal STEM Educator Professional Development Programs: a discussion of funding, approaches, and implementation

Effective professional development is vital to training the next generation of quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers. I will discuss approaches used to improve educator professional development under the Higher Education Act and Elementary and Secondary Education Acts. I will examine how federal funding is currently being allocated and summarize some of the programs that are being implemented whose aim is to improve content knowledge and provide disciplinary specific pedagogy in professional development. The recent proposed reorganization of STEM education programs in the FY 2014 budget sparked significant debate among policy-makers; however the issue of quality K-12 instruction has remained important to the physics societies. I will provide an update on these discussions and on the status of federal STEM teacher training programs in the FY 2015 budget proposal.