Chapter 6: Administrative Support of STEM Culture

New schools focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have become more prevalent over the last decade. As districts and other groups consider starting a new school, or consider converting existing schools to a STEM model, they have a mandate to rethink what “school” looks like. If schools (STEM focused or otherwise) are to serve a different purpose, what structures and practices need to exist in these schools? How do school leaders go about developing those new sets of structures and practices?

This chapter will explore the experiences of one such STEM school over its first 3 years of existence. We will discuss four different tenets of the school that have contributed to its early success: equity and access to rigorous curriculum; project- and inquiry-based learning; teacher autonomy; and designing experiences for students with both rigorous content and qualities that transcend any one discipline, such as communication, creativity, or persistence. Throughout each section, we offer recommendations to help school leaders promote these types of activities through formal structures of the school, as well as more informal actions that help develop a culture among the adults that carry out the important work in schools.