STEM Academy Partners with Texas A&M to Establish STEM Teaching Certification Standards

PEORIA, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The STEM Academy, a national non-profit status organization dedicated to improving STEM literacy for all students, announced today a strategic partnership with Texas A&M University to establish national certification standards for STEM teaching and will offer STEM instructor training online through Aggie STEM at Texas A&M University.

“This partnership is defining and establishing instructional standards that will prepare educators to drive student achievement in all STEM subjects and improve the quality of education nationwide. We’re pleased to announce our collaboration with The STEM Academy.”

Through this partnership, educators from across the country can pursue a STEM instructor certificate online through Texas A&M, earning up to nine introductory level graduate credits through the STEM 101 professional development program.

"It is exciting to partner with a university to create a national standard for authenticating powerful STEM instructor teaching and learning capacity,” said Russell Mickelson, CEO of The STEM Academy. “The partnership with Texas A&M University will allow instructors throughout the United States to validate STEM competency and advance their careers."

The certificate program was created to allow for expansion into other universities through licensing agreements with Texas A&M and STEM Academy, effectively establishing this program as the national standard for STEM instruction.

"STEM education has been in the spotlight across the country without any particular consensus on what teaching programs should look like,” said Dr. Jim Morgan, director of Aggie STEM at Texas A&M. “This partnership is defining and establishing instructional standards that will prepare educators to drive student achievement in all STEM subjects and improve the quality of education nationwide. We’re pleased to announce our collaboration with The STEM Academy.”

For more information on the STEM teaching certificate program through Aggie STEM at Texas A&M University, visit www.stem101.org.

About The STEM Academy

The practices, strategies and programming utilized within The STEM Academy (K-16 Program) were developed from identified national best practices by the National Academy of Engineering and National Science Foundation. Curriculum features dual-credit agreements with over 180+ post-secondary institutions. Instructors may earn up to nine graduate school credits through the STEM 101 professional development program.

About Aggie STEM at Texas A&M University

Aggie STEM at The Texas A&M University provides high quality, research-based professional development to academies, schools and districts across Texas. Aggie STEM specializes in professional development training for secondary teachers that includes Project Based Learning (PBL), technology for teaching and learning, engineering design, Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and STEM related multicultural awareness and STEM Equity.