School District Wants To Grow STEM From Bottom Up
Miami-Dade County’s hiring department may get 1,000 applications for an elementary school teacher position.
But when the nation’s fourth-largest district is looking for a high school chemistry teacher, it’s lucky to get 20.
In the race to educate more students in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — a major obstacle is finding enough qualified teachers.
Perhaps the most promising initiative is taking place at Florida
International University, which educates 35 percent of
Miami-Dade’s teachers. In 2014, the university started FIUTeach,
a chapter of a widely-recognized STEM teacher training and
recruitment program that has shown incredible success across the
country.