Tulsa science, technology, engineering and math education experts were part of a national discussion held Thursday at the White House.
Tulsa Public Schools STEM Coordinator Julie Hasfjord said Tulsa was held up as an example of collaboration in education.
"The businesses have really stood up and supported everything that's going on in STEM," Hasfjord said. "So, for funding, for partners, for providing mentors."
Through the STEM Ecosystems initiative, leaders from 27 local and regional networks got together with national education officials to talk about what's working for them. The Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance was selected for the initiative in September.
Hasfjord said a point of agreement was the need for continued investment.
"We have this amazing vision, and we need people to fund STEM projects so that we can turn those vision into a reality," Hasfjord said.
A New York school superintendent shared her perspective about testing becoming more rigorous.
"We've increased the rigor in our testing on a 19th century type of test," Hasfjord said, quoting the superintendent. "We really need to start thinking about how we're going to assess students for 21st century learning."
The Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance joined networks from cities like Boston, Chicago and New York at the meeting.
