The Juneau STEM Coalition has been advocating for a district STEAM position since our inception as an organization in 2017, when several of us were invited to join the committee to more closely align the district’s science curriculum with national Next Generation Science Standards. The revised curriculum encouraged (and continues to!) active, place-based experiences for students and listed many resources and connections. Unfortunately, the district did not have adequate infrastructure to support the teachers in using those resources. In 2019 an Elementary Integration Specialist position was approved by the school board to address that gap, but so late in the year that it couldn’t be filled. Elizabeth Kent inaugurated the position in the 2020-21 school year. The position was transformed to an Elementary STEAM Specialist for the 2021-22 year and Susan Moore replaced Elizabeth for SY23.
The existence of the STEAM Specialist position three years ago was a game changer. That Elizabeth Kent and Susan Moore both made different and yet important things happen in that position, attests both to its value currently and the potential value of expanding it (in some magical world of lots of money) to multiple positions to work with more teachers, up through high school.
In SY23, the Specialist position met weekly with the STEM Coalition in planning the three annual events (SEE networking for teachers and community STEAM experts; Curiosity Unleashed for families and educators; State of STEAM Summit). Her connection to teachers was invaluable; she knew what the teachers used and what they wanted and how to communicate and engage with them, so that the Coalition could much more effectively tailor our new and continuing projects and communication with teachers. We were especially excited for the first time that the STEAM Specialist figured out how to encourage teachers to come to Curiosity Unleashed, see the wide range of expertise and interest about place-based education within the community, and then 1) report back to their colleagues and 2) delineate how we could help facilitate teachers expand upon those connections within their classrooms. One of those extensions has already happened: STEAM at Sayeik – the first teacher-organized and community-driven all-school STEAM event during school hours, so that all teachers and students could participate, benefit and be inspired.
In addition to the specialist’s time coordinating school and community events with the STEM Coalition, and developing curriculum with community STEM organizations (e.g., the planetarium), we know that individual teachers relied on her extensively for teaching and co-teaching opportunities, particularly around engineering and coding. We heard, for example, one teacher – already a confident STEAM teacher – say how much she loved having the specialist “around” to try out teaching lessons that she, on her own, wouldn’t have tried because they seemed too complicated or difficult for a class to manage; time and again, the students rose to the challenge.
For the upcoming, 2023-24 school year, because of increased essential expenses, decreased federal Covid revenue, a smaller student body, and 10 years of flat funding from the state, JSD was not able to include the Elementary STEAM Specialist position in their draft budget in early Spring. There was some hope that some of the additional funds that the Alaska legislature had approved in May might be used for that position. In June, though, Gov. Dunleavy cut those additional funds in half. JSD was not able to fund the STEAM Specialist and had to make additional difficult cuts to other positions