Scientific and Engineering Practices in K-12 Classrooms: Understand a Framework for K-12 Science Education
In this article, Rodger W. Bybee presents the science and engineering practices from the recently released A Framework for K–12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (NRC 2011).

What is engineering? Elaborating the nature of engineering for K‐12 education
What is engineering? What do engineers do? How is engineering related to, but distinct from, science? These questions all relate to the nature of engineering (NOE), and as engineering is incorporated into K‐12 education across the United States, the NOE is becoming increasingly important for students and teachers. This paper presents key dimensions of the NOE via a framework synthesized from studies of the engineering discipline from philosophical, historical, and sociological perspectives, as well as perspectives from within the engineering field.

The Dawn of System Leadership
The purpose of this article is to share what we are learning about the system leaders needed to foster collective leadership. We hope to demystify what it means to be a system leader and to continue to grow as one. It is easy when we talk about exemplars like Mandela to reinforce a belief that these are special people, somehow walking on a higher plane than the rest of us. But we have had the honor to work with many "Mandelas," and this experience has convinced us that they share core capabilities and that these can be developed. Although formal position and authority matter, we have watched people contribute as system leaders from many positions. As Ronald Heifetz has shown in his work on adaptive leadership,2 these leaders shift the conditions through which others—especially those who have a problem—can learn collectively to make progress against it. Most of all, we have learned by watching the personal development of system leaders. This is not easy work, and those who progress have a particular commitment to their own learning and growth. Understanding the "gateways" through which they pass clarifies this commitment and why this is not the mysterious domain of a chosen few.

Communities of Transformation and Their Work Scaling STEM Reform
For the past 20 years, countless reports have been issued calling for reform of undergraduate STEM education to improve student learning and success for both majors and non-majors. Recent reports describe the need to focus on creating more student-centered learning environments that use the most eff ective research-based teaching, learning, and assessment strategies (American Association for Advancement of Science, 2011; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, 2009; National Academies, 2010; National Science Foundation, 2010). All of these reports call attention to a set of problems in undergraduate STEM education: 1. Few students choose to be STEM majors; 2. Traditionally underrepresented groups have extremely low participation in STEM fi elds; 3. STEM majors face low graduation rates; and, 4. Th ere are broad skills that graduates lack as they complete STEM majors (e.g., teamwork, writing) and non-STEM majors (e.g., quantitative reasoning, analytical thinking), making it diffi cult for them to meet workplace needs in our technology-based knowledge economy. While experts across the country generally agree on the nature of the problems and on some of the interventions needed, there is less agreement about how to create widespread change. Some emerging evidence suggests that current approaches are ineff ective (Fairweather, 2009).

NGSS Appendix F: Science and Engineering Practices
The Framework expresses a vision in science education that requires students to operate at the nexus of three dimensions of learning: Science and Engineering Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Disciplinary Core Ideas

Recruiting Teachers in High-Needs STEM Fields: A Survey of Current Majors and Recent STEM graduates
The United States faces persistent shortages of appropriately trained middle and high school STEM teachers in high-needs fields, particularly physics, chemistry, and computer science. The American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, Computing Research Association, and Mathematics Teacher Education Partnership surveyed over 6,000 current and recent majors in our disciplines. Our goals were to: *Investigate the attitudes and opinions of undergraduate majors and recent graduates from high-needs STEM fields towards teaching. *Identify incentives that are both feasible and likely to be effective based on the responses of students showing some interest in teaching. *Develop recommendations for the professional societies and disciplinary departments.

Engineering in K-12 Education: Understanding the Status and Improving the Prospects
In 2006 the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council Center for Education established the Committee on K–12 Engineering Education to begin to address questions on how to implement engineering into K-12 education. The committee also commissioned an analysis of existing K–12 engineering curricula; conducted reviews of the literature on areas of conceptual learning related to engineering, the development of engineering skills, and the impact of K–12 engineering education initiatives; and collected preliminary information about a few pre-college engineering education programs in other countries.

The NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering
With input from people around the world, an international group of leading technological thinkers were asked to identify the Grand Challenges for Engineering in the 21st century. Their 14 game-changing goals for improving life on the planet, announced in 2008, are outlined here. The committee suggested these Grand Challenges fall into four cross-cutting themes: SUSTAINABILITY, HEALTH, SECURITY, and JOY OF LIVING.

Constructing 21st-Centruy Teacher Education
Much of what teachers need to know to be successful is invisible to lay observers, leading to the view that teaching requires little formal study and to frequent disdain for teacher education programs. This article argues that we have learned a great deal about how to create stronger, more effective teacher education programs. Three critical components of such programs include tight coherence and integration among courses and between course work and clinical work in schools, extensive and intensely supervised clinical work integrated with course work using pedagogies that link theory and practice, and closer, proactive relationships with schools that serve diverse learners effectively and develop and model good teaching. The article also urges that schools of education should resist pressures to water down preparation, which ultimately undermine the preparation of entering teachers, the reputation of schools of education, and the strength of the profession.

Washington State Regional Educational Needs Assessment
A report summarizing the needs in each ESD in WA state that can be fulfilled by K-12 and postsecondary institutions. Needs are based on employers in the region, economic trends, and other factors in the community.