In order to increase the number of students completing degrees in the high-demand, high-impact fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and other high-demand, anticipated-shortage fields such as the health care-related professions, and to help develop and guide the implementation of a comprehensive plan for higher degree attainment in these fields, the Secretaries of Education and Finance, in cooperation with the House Committees on Appropriations and Education and the Senate Committees on Finance and on Education and Health, shall cause to be formed a public-private partnership comprised of private-sector leaders, distinguished representatives from the scientific community (including retired military personnel, government scientists, and researchers), educational experts, relevant state and local government officials, and others as they deem appropriate. The partnership shall advise on, and may collaborate with public and private entities to develop and implement strategies to address, such priority issues as (i) determining the need for additional high-demand degree enrollment, capacity, and resources at the Commonwealth’s public and private institutions of higher education; (ii) incentivizing greater coordination, innovation, and private collaboration in kindergarten through secondary school STEM and other high-demand degree initiatives; (iii) determining and refining best practices in STEM instruction and leveraging those best practices to promote STEM education in both the Commonwealth’s higher education institutions and its elementary and secondary schools; (iv) enhancing teacher education and professional development in STEM disciplines; (v) strengthening mathematics readiness in secondary schools through earlier diagnosis and remediation of deficiencies; (vi) providing financial incentives to increase STEM enrollment and degree production at the Commonwealth’s public and private colleges and universities; (vii) providing assistance to the Commonwealth’s public and private colleges and universities in the acquisition and improvement of STEM-related facilities and equipment; (viii) providing STEM incentives in early college and university pathway programs and in the community college transfer grant program; (ix) assessing degree programs using such economic opportunity metrics as marketplace demand, earning potential, employer satisfaction, and other indicators of the historical and projected economic value and impact of degrees to provide useful information on degrees to students as they make career choices and to state policy makers and university decision makers as they decide how to allocate scarce resources; (x) aligning state higher education efforts with marketplace demands; and (xi) determining such other issues as the partnership deems relevant to increasing the number of students completing college and university degrees in STEM and other high-demand fields.

History

2011, cc. 828, 869.