Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance, Inc.

Our specific organizational objectives, derived from our strategic plan, include:

Youth:
• Each year, increase access to high-quality STEM experiences for underserved and historically excluded communities by 25%.
• Each year, 75% of youth participating in TRSA events indicate they feel safe at TRSA events to engage in and pursue their STEM passion.
• Each year, 75% of youth participating in TRSA events indicate they are career aware, have access to career pathways & opportunities, strengthen their STEM identity, and see STEM role models who look like them.

Educators:
• Engage 750 unique educators in professional development experiences and/or usage of TRSA educator resources (STEM Shoppe, STEM in a Bag, grants, etc.)
• Educators participating in professional development experiences will report feeling more confident in the relevant STEM content area and increase their knowledge of STEM practices and implementation strategies.
• 50% of educators participating in TRSA professional development will serve students from underserved or underrepresented populations.
• 10% of educators have not attended a TRSA PD before.

Ecosystem:
• Each year through TRSA-provided evaluation services, 5 (new) partners have a sense of their impact and opportunities to improve.
• Implement the first pilot of the digital badging initiative, gather and evaluate data, and use that data to inform future iterations of the digital badging system.

YOUTH IMPACT GOALS:
Increase access to high-quality STEM for underrepresented communities; create a safe environment for learning; and increase STEM career awareness, access to career pathways, strength of STEM identity, and opportunities to engage with STEM role models who look like them.

STRATEGIES:
Improve youth access to impactful STEM out-of-school time (OST) opportunities by strengthening programs offered by our community partners through use of the STEM Playbook. We offer funding for OST program supplies, professional development for program leaders, and evaluation services to gauge impact and opportunities for continual improvement.

Improve youth access to OST opportunities via North Tulsa and Central Tulsa STEM Hub programming through collaboration with our community partners.

Expand Me & My Math Mentor (M4) program, which pairs STEM professionals as mentors to elementary students and improves math fluency through game play.

Increase opportunities for youth to interact with STEM professionals through initiatives like Space Week, Women in STEM, and See It Be It.

Increase student passion for and sense of belonging in STEM through competitions.

EDUCATOR CAPACITY GOALS:
Engage educators in PD experiences and use of TRSA resources; improve educator confidence in STEM implementation; and ensure engagement with educators serving marginalized students.

STRATEGIES:
Host or partner to provide impactful STEM professional development experiences for educators.

Provide grant funding for classroom resources, professional development opportunities, and STEM programming to ensure educators have the basic necessities for implementing STEM in the classroom.

Continue promoting our STEM lending library, the STEM Shoppe, and adding resources for educators to borrow.

ECOSYSTEM STEWARDSHIP GOALS:
Provide evaluation services to community partners to encourage focus on strengthening impact and improving program quality; pilot the digital badging initiative and gather data to inform future iterations.

STRATEGIES:
Provide PEAR (Partnership for Education and Resilience) evaluation services to community partners. PEAR provides trainings and assessment tools that inform educators about program quality, youth social-emotional development, and academic engagement.

Work with a cohort of community partners to pilot the first iteration of digital badging. Collect and analyze data after the pilot program to determine next steps.

Thanks to our incredible partners in STEM education - more than 110 of them currently - TRSA has the great fortune to lead a rich and complex network of partners committed to engaging and inspiring the next generation of innovators. Working with these partners has allowed us to develop strong relationships built on trust and common vision that is improving access to high-quality STEM professional development for educators and experiences for students every year. We also incorporate the vast expertise, resources, passion, voice and wisdom of each of our Advisory Council members to help inform our strategies and programs. Similarly TRSA leans into the needs and experiences of our business partners, informal and formal educators, generous funders, and higher education partners to direct our work.

At TRSA, we are proud to be a team of people passionate about high-quality and equitable educational opportunities - and many of our team members have made education their life's work. Our team is comprised of former educators from elementary, middle, and high school and informal educators, too. Combine this experience and expertise with the team's volunteer engagement, program development, and operations skills, and we're well-equipped to support a thriving STEM ecosystem in northeast Oklahoma and beyond.

In 2022, TRSA worked with 113 community partners to create nearly 122,000 STEM experiences for students in and around Tulsa. 599 educators from 78 Oklahoma school districts participated in our extensive professional learning opportunities, equating to 4,529 professional development hours earned. We gave away $420,000 in grants to educators and community partners to purchase supplies and materials, attend or host professional development events, and support out-of-school time initiatives. We also saved schools more than $200,000 through our STEM Shoppe lending library.

In addition to these access measurements, we are proud to say that, in 2022, nearly half of students surveyed who attended a STEM program reported a statistically significant positive change in believing they are a person who can do STEM and belong in STEM. While we still have work to do, these results show we are on the right track to truly changing young lives!

In the first quarter of 2023, we impacted more than 13,000 students across northeast Oklahoma through TRSA-led programs and educator/partner professional development experiences. We hosted four unique professional development experiences, engaging 45 educators in 85 hours of learning. And through our STEM Shoppe, we provided 31 educators from 11 school districts with supplies they may not have otherwise been able to access, saving them more than $60,000 and enabling them to provide impactful STEM opportunities for the kids in their programs.

For more details, view our 2022 Impact Report online at tulsastem.org/about.