SB239:

STEM+C; included in Standards of Learning.

Bill Summary:

STEM+C; Virginia STEM Education Advisory Board.
Adds science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computing
(STEM+C), which includes real-world, interdisciplinary, and computational
instruction and preparation of students in STEM+C, to the list of
topics that shall be included in the Standards of Learning for the
Commonwealth. The bill also directs the Virginia STEM Education Advisory
Board to develop and submit to the Board of Education (i) a rubric
that shall be used by the Board of Education in setting out what
factors permit a school to be defined as a STEM school and (ii) recommendations
for the Board to create a measurement for quality of STEM programming
in general education instruction. The bill also directs the Virginia
STEM Education Advisory Board to draft and report to the Department
of Education proposed common language and terminology that better
defines the basic literacies employed in STEM+C as methodological
approaches to solving universal human challenges and, as essential,
generalizable and transferable literacy toward the application of
skills and content needed to solve those challenges. The bill also
directs the Department of Education, based on such proposed language
and terminology and no later than December 1, 2022, to recommend
finalized language and terminology to the Board of Education.