United Way's BoSTEM

Engaging all Boston middle school youth in meaningful STEM experiences that improve career aspirations, 21st century skills, and academic achievement.

With over 45% of new jobs being in technology, pharmaceutical other STEM industries, the City of Boston faces a significant challenge in the interest and achievement of K-12 students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subject areas. Launched by United Way of Massachusetts Bay & Merrimack Valley (United Way), BoSTEM is a coalition of high performing nonprofits and local corporations who are committing time, expertise and resources to close achievement and opportunity gaps for students who are traditionally underrepresented in STEM learning, by providing out-of-school (OST) time experiential learning opportunities, with a goal of engaging all 10,000 Boston Public Schools middle school students by the year 2022.

In particular, BoSTEM focuses on high-needs middle school students because Boston eighth graders report that their favorite subject is math or science at half the rate reported by fourth graders, and 0% of Boston Public Schools (BPS) eighth graders earned a top score on the Science, Technology, and Engineering portion of the 2017 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, the state’s standardized achievement test.

Furthermore, it has been found that science achievement correlates with attitudes toward science, and positive perceptions of science are lower among older students than younger. In light of these studies, middle school students who do not maintain a positive orientation toward STEM may not prepare for and enter those fields later on.

United Way’s BoSTEM initiative seeks to drive change through partnerships with the public schools, OST partners, and the corporate sector using a two-pronged approach.

First, BoSTEM uses validated tools to measure strengths and areas of improvement among program partners, and provides targeted professional development and coaching to programs to improve quality and capacity.  Due to the diversity of the population we serve, it is imperative that we weave culturally-responsive practice into our professional development of educators, which we provide regularly and jointly with Boston Public School teachers to align school and OST programs. Our focus for program improvement is threefold: increase youth interest in STEM, cultivate 21st century skills that are essential to success in college, career, and life, and lastly to improve academic achievement of the youth we serve.

Our second approach through BoSTEM is career exploration. BoSTEM connects OST programs to corporate partners for workplace field trips, and mentoring from STEM professionals to the students we serve. Our goal is to give students a better idea of what it means to work in the STEM field, and develop strong relationships between student and professional for the purpose of developing a STEM identity and increasing aspirations towards STEM careers.

BoSTEM has the potential to be scaled across the world to anywhere that has STEM organizations. Through our continuous improvement model, we will have tools that can easily be replicated in other regions. By using the same data instruments, we would also be able to act on national trends with more coordinated effort and impact. We plan to disseminate all resources and lessons learned, and provide framework around educator training and professional develop that.

The is an innovative process for solving the workforce pipeline in STEM fields. We utilize data to identify the needs of Out of School Time programs, and provide them with support in those areas in a continuous feedback loop. This data-informed approach is both individualized to the program, and allows BoSTEM to respond to aggregate trends within the Ecosystem.

Specifically for educators, this allows us to provide targeted professional development and coaching based upon their specific needs at no cost to the program.

Technology is integral to our solution primarily on the level of our agency partners. The OST agencies all approach STEM in a different way, and use technology to achieve their learning goals. For example, our partner Latino STEM Alliance is a robotics program, and utilizes LEGO Robotics over the course of a year to develop robots that can solve a challenge, culminating in a competition at the end of the year.

BoSTEM’s use of technology is primarily around data collection and analysis. We use a tool called CitySpan to collect all data, which allows us to track students year over year.

Over the next 12 months we plan to develop individualized action plans for the OST agencies and staff we partner with, and provide at least four individualized professional developments, and two coaching sessions. We will also be holding quarterly communities of practice. These outputs will lead to better outcomes for youth in academic achievement, social and emotional growth, and STEM career aspirations.

We are also developing “externship” opportunities, whereby educators shadow employees at STEM companies for a day, and learn about what skills or knowledge are needed, which can be translated into the classroom or OST.

Our vision over the next 3 to 5 years is to expand beyond Boston into Cambridge, Somerville and other surrounding areas. These programs will all utilize the same data tools, and be provided data and opportunities for quality improvement.

We also have plan to convene both the corporate and education sector to improve pathways from K-Career by connecting the needs of the industry to what is occurring both in school and Out-of-School through professional development, externships, and coaching.

One of our customers are the students we serve. Through the continuous feedback loop of data and support, we will improve staff skills with a focus on engagement of youth. This will assist programs in better recruiting for enrollment and retaining educators. Through their participation in BoSTEM, programs can better market themselves to improve reach and retention.

Our second customers are corporate volunteers, who we retain by providing high quality volunteer experiences. We reach corporations through United Way’s existing relationships, and our BoSTEM Committee, which includes high-level employees at companies.

We served approximately 1300 middle schoolers this past year through our agency partners’ OST programs. All of the students attend 22 different Boston Public Schools, and the majority are African American or Latino. A significant number of the students are high needs, and many are english language learners. They are directly affected by our solution through the hard work of our OST partners, who provided almost 3,000 hours of programming over the course of the year.

BoSTEM is a strong coalition of representatives that are passionate about both STEM, and the success of our youth. We are able to effectively convene these representatives for collective impact. We also have expertise in youth development, and leveraging data to improve the quality of programs that can lead to social and emotional growth and increased interest in STEM for the youth we serve.