100Kin10 Announces 49 New Partners

KQED among the 49 new partners to join 100Kin10’s network of 275+ partners working to train and retain 100,000 STEM educators in the U.S. by 2021

100Kin10, a national network coordinating and accelerating efforts to bring 100,000 new excellent science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers into schools by 2021, announced today the addition of 49 new partner organizations, including KQED, Girls Who Code and Harvard Graduate School of Education. The national network now includes over 280 of the country’s top businesses, nonprofits, foundations, and academic institutions working towards this common goal.

Existing 100Kin10 partners have made great strides towards this goal, training over 28,000 STEM educators for our nation’s schools in the first four years of the effort, while supporting tens of thousands more to improve their skills and stay in the classroom longer. The incoming class of partners, the organization’s largest to date, comes at a pivotal point in 100Kin10’s growth as they reach a halfway mark since President Obama’s call for 100,000 more and better STEM educators in his 2011 State of the Union address, a charge recently echoed in the White House’s “Computer Science for All” initiative.

“STEM is at the core of the most pressing challenges of the 21^st century. To solve them, we need to activate all the brainpower and diverse experiences of our nation’s most precious natural resource: its people. Without excellent STEM teachers inspiring all of our nation’s youth, this challenge will continue to allude us,” said 100Kin10 co-founder and Executive Director Talia Milgrom-Elcott. “100Kin10 partners are bringing their individual passion, strengths, ideas, and resources to create solutions and together forge a path forward to reach the goal of 100,000 excellent STEM teachers.”

100Kin10 partners have access to exclusive research, learning, innovation, and funding opportunities, all designed to foster collaborative problem-solving and support partners to fulfill their ambitious commitments and overcome the system-level challenges to achieving 100Kin10’s shared goal.

“Training and recruiting CS teachers is one of the biggest challenges -- and opportunities -- that our nation faces today. Girls Who Code is thrilled to join 100Kin10 to bring top teachers to the classroom and give our students the computer science education they deserve” said Girls Who Code Founder & CEO Reshma Saujani.

“We are honored to have been selected into the 2016 class of 100Kin10 partners. The opportunity to learn from other leading programs and share from our own expertise is incredibly exciting. The College of Education at Purdue is thrilled to be a new partner in 100Kin10 and looks forward to tackling shared challenges through the network” said Maryann Santos, Dean of the College of Education at Purdue University.

Organizations are accepted as 100Kin10 partners following a rigorous vetting process conducted by a team of partner reviewers and a national selection panel of experts in education and STEM. Applicants are considered for partnership based on their organizational strength and STEM and teaching expertise; clear, meaningful commitments toward the 100,000 STEM teacher goal; and dedication to building the 100Kin10 movement.

About KQED Education
Education is central to the mandate of public media. KQED Education engages with community and educational organizations to broaden and deepen the impact of KQED’s award-winning media. KQED Education addresses the needs of educators in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math), arts and news by creating cutting-edge learning media, providing training in digital learning tools and distributing public media content to classrooms in the Bay Area and beyond via the KQED website, PBS LearningMedia and iTunes U.

About 100Kin10
100Kin10 is an organization committed to recruiting, training, and retaining 100,000 excellent science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teachers by 2021. 100Kin10 encourages multi-sector collaboration and provides the vision and resources to help nonprofits, foundations, academic institutions and businesses meet their ambitious commitments to educate the next generation of innovators and problem solvers. More information is available at www.100kin10.org.