STEM literacy implies an interdisciplinary area of study that is comprised of four areas of integrated knowledge--science, technology, engineering, and math.  STEM does not mean that these are solo strands of studies or that a student is achieving literacy in these four areas in isolation.  Instead it bridges the four areas into the integrated curriculum and focuses toward exploring and analyzing the interrelated facets of the real world. 

In 2007, Virginia has received a $500,000 grant from the National Governors Association  (NGA) Center for Best Practices to improve STEM education in the state. These STEM center grants  have been made possible to Virginia and 6 other states by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Intel Foundation.  Along with the grant funds from NGA, the Workforce Investment Act is matching federal spending funds for this initiative. The grant proposal for improvement identifies CTE as an avenue for developing STEM literacy and other 21st century workplace readiness skills. STEM literacy will prepare students for high demand, high skill, and high paying careers in Virginia; likewise changing the previous stereotypes about vocational education.  Vocation education has currently evolved into career and technical education.  To date, the first initiative created six Governor's Career and Technical Academies across Virginia. All of the academies will be partners with business and industry, the public school divisions, community colleges and applicable universities, and local governments. The Virginia Department of Education is responsible for the administration of the Governor's Career and Technical Academies.  A second initiative of this grant program is to build public support for Virginia's STEM efforts with parents of both middle and high school students and school counselors.  Parents especially need to understand the role that CTE can play in achieving this competency level for students needing  academic, technical, and workplace readiness skills.

The most recent release from the Association for Career and Technical Education taken from the Washington Post on 1/6/2010 is that President Obama "will announce a $250 million public-private effort to improve STEM instruction, aiming to help the nation compete in key fields with global economic rivals." This funding seeks to prepare more than 10,000 new math and science teachers over the next 5 years and on-the-job training opportunities for another 100,000 individuals in science, technology, engineering, and math.  If this funding becomes available, it will be a team effort of high tech businesses, universities, and foundations along with the federal government.   

Attached are two STEM literacy lesson plans integrated into the Education for Employment curriculum. Both lessons correlate with the American Diploma Project (ADP) college and workplace benchmarks for math.  These benchmarks found on the web site, http://www.achieve.org, are organized into 4 strands.  The strand which most closely relates to the specialized career-focused Education for Employment course is Mathematic Benchmark I:  Number Sense and Numerical Operations, because this is the cornerstone of math in everyday living.  Emphasis on the study of math is also an exercise in reasoning and higher order thinking skills.  As employees or college students in their post-secondary transition, the Education for Employment students will need to use math in contexts different than the procedural skills used in the high school classroom.  They will need to make judgements about the problem that needs to be solved and which mathematical operations and procedures will apply to reach a solution.