Achieving STEM education success against the odds

Australia’s STEM school education strategy (Education Council 2015) aims to improve STEM education in response to a growing need for STEM skilled employees and STEM literate citizens, and a concomitant nationwide decrease in student STEM enrolments and achievement. The strategy highlights several groups particularly at risk of not developing required STEM-related skills due to particularly poor performance in STEM education, including students from low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds, and those living outside metropolitan areas. While it is certainly true that many students from rural and low SES schools perform less well in STEM education than other schools, this is not the case for all of these schools. This article shares findings from a study of four relatively low SES, rural schools from Victoria, an Australian state, that consistently achieved STEM success, where rural schools include those located outside of metropolitan Melbourne and other large regional cities. The paper examines the curriculum practices of these high STEM performing rural schools and uses these findings to make recommendations for similarly disadvantaged schools hoping to achieve STEM success.