100Kin10

Whether it’s climate change, food shortages, or economic inequality, almost all the world’s most pressing problems require STEM (science, tech, engineering, and math)-based solutions. Yet only a tiny fraction of our population has the STEM knowledge to even be at the table solving them. So it’s no surprise we haven’t solved these challenges yet.

To solve them, we need all of tomorrow’s problem-solvers to be equipped with STEM skills and inspiration. And tomorrow’s problem-solvers need excellent STEM teachers today to guide them. In his 2011 State of the Union, President Obama issued a call for adding 100,000 excellent STEM teachers to our nation’s schools over the coming decade.

100Kin10 emerged in 2011 to activate the country to respond to that urgent call and to accelerate and coordinate the resulting effort. With 28 founding partners, today 100Kin10 brings together over 300 of the nation’s top academic institutions, nonprofits, foundations, companies, and government agencies to train and retain 100,000 excellent STEM teachers over 10 years. With those organizations taking the lead, we aim to fuel the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.

Our approach is unique: More than just a coalition, 100Kin10 enlists the right mix of diverse and powerful organizations to make strong commitments; amplifies their capacity and impact through collaboration, learning, and funding; and catalyzes solutions to large-scale problems by leveraging the strength of the network and its resources. Together, this leads to the systemic change needed to overcome the challenges of providing all students with high-quality STEM learning.

100Kin10 has experienced significant success to date: Partner organizations are on track to meet the full 100,000 STEM teacher goal by 2021. They have already trained more than 30,000 new, excellent STEM teachers in the first four years of the effort and have supported tens of thousands more to improve their skills and stay in the classroom longer. Alongside that, we have grown by ten-fold, spurred dozens of collaborations, launched two intensive human-centered design fellowships focused on major challenges, and raised $90 million through an innovative funders’ collaborative.