Bellevue Public Schools Project STEM Insights, Year 2

Bellevue Public Schools (BPS), located in eastern Nebraska, instituted Project STEM (Student, Teacher, Engaging Minds), a five-year program to expand STEM opportunities for military-connected elementary school students with a $1.25 million grant from the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA).

The goal of Project STEM is to increase student achievement in math and science across all elementary schools within the district. The program began in the 2018-2019 school year and will complete at the end of the 2022-2023 school year. BPS identified three strategies to meet the grant’s program goals: in-class curriculum support, in-class technology support, and extra-curricular activities. The district partnered with Discovery Education and Edmentum to meet these goals.

GrantProse, Inc. was contracted to conduct an independent program evaluation of the Project STEM grant. GrantProse produced a report on Year 2 implementation and another report comparing staff attitudes toward STEM instructional practices from 2019 and 2020 surveys. This document summarizes key insights from both reports.