June 2026
By Okhee Lee New York University June 5, 2026
Okhee Lee is Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. An AERA Fellow since 2009, she has advanced research, policy, and practice that promote science and language learning for all students, particularly multilingual learners. She received the AERA Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award in 2019.
At a moment when the future of federally supported education research is increasingly uncertain, I find myself reflecting on the arc of STEM education research over the past three decades—how it evolved, what it has achieved, and what now is at risk. Having served the National Science Foundation (NSF) in various roles since 1992, ranging from a principal investigator to a member of multiple advisory committees, I am deeply concerned about recent developments. I am especially mindful of early-career researchers who have been navigating “the double pandemic” of COVID-19 and ongoing political and policy uncertainty. I also find myself reflecting on my team’s research—what it has contributed and where it may lead.
Our work on culture and language in science education began in 1992. It grew not from deliberate planning, but from the serendipity of moving to Miami, Florida, where cultural and linguistic diversity shaped everyday life. Rather than treating that diversity as a context for research, I made culture and language the focus of study. Common reactions included, “What do culture and language have to do with science?,” “science is science,” and “science is universal.” During the 1990s, our work involved conceptualizing the role of culture and language in science education.
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and, later, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 mandated academic standards, high-stakes assessments, and accountability in the education system. The first generation of science standards was initiated in the 1990s and widely implemented under these federal mandates. From the 2000s through the mid-2010s, our work focused on scaling up science education interventions with a focus on multilingual learners. Using an experimental design, we examined how to promote science inquiry and language development while helping fifth-grade students, including multilingual learners, succeed on Florida’s high-stakes science assessments. Our interventions produced statistically significant and practically meaningful results with teachers and students. As the work was scaled up across four large urban school districts in Florida, I experienced how education policy shapes research and practice.
In the footsteps of the Common Core State Standards in English language arts and mathematics in 2011, the second generation of science standards was initiated. A Framework for K-12 Science Education laid the foundation for the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. I served on the NGSS writing team and led the NGSS diversity and equity team. At the same time, I served on the steering committee for the Understanding Language initiative, which brought together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners across content areas and multilingual learner education. Through these initiatives, I contributed to education policy shaping research and practice.
Our current work began in 2015 by conceptualizing contemporary approaches to science and language integration with multilingual learners and all students. To provide equitable learning opportunities, we engaged students in “doing science, using language” as scientists and engineers do in their professional work. This work progressed into an intervention consisting of curriculum and professional development. Using a quasi-experimental design, the intervention produced statistically significant and practically meaningful results with teachers and students. Recently, this work was recognized with the International Society for Design and Development in Education Prize for Excellence in Design for STEM Education.
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 exposed injustices in the U.S. education system, broader society, and the global community, with minoritized groups, including multilingual learners, disproportionately impacted. It brought attention to other societal challenges, such as climate change and pollution. It also underscored the need for multidisciplinary approaches to constructing explanations and designing solutions centering justice for minoritized groups. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an example, our latest work engages middle-school students in science, data science, computational thinking, and engineering alongside expansive views of language use. Our aim is to contribute to a potential third generation of science or STEM standards.
The evolution of our work illustrates several key features of building a STEM education research program. First, it evolves in its perspectives, theories, and methods. With regard to perspectives, our work has evolved from diversity, to equity, and to justice. Second, it takes time. Our work has been developed over three decades and continues today. Third, it requires sustained funding. Our work has been supported primarily by the NSF since 1992. Finally, it needs to bring research, policy, and practice together to reach all students, especially minoritized student groups, in the education system. Our work illustrates how to do that, with a focus on multilingual learners.
Yet the very conditions that made this work possible—long-term investment; stable funding; and structures that connect research, policy, and practice—are now under unprecedented strain.
New priorities at the NSF are disrupting the foundation of STEM education research. First, the administration is requesting $4.86 billion for NSF’s 2027 fiscal year, less than half the agency’s funding level in recent years. Such a reduction would significantly diminish the nation’s capacity to support STEM research, cultivate future scientists and scholars in STEM disciplines and STEM education, generate the innovations that contribute to economic competitiveness and national security, and foster informed and responsible citizenship. Second, a year after advisory committees for most NSF directorates were disestablished “effective immediately” on April 15, 2025, and the appointments of 24 members of the National Science Board were terminated “effective immediately” on April 24, 2026, the NSF now has no governing body or independent advisory body. Third, the Office of Management and Budget published a proposed rule on May 29, 2026, that political appointees make final decisions on awards and that grants can be terminated at any time.
STEM educators are responding to this moment of uncertainty collectively and individually as well as politically and intellectually. It is especially critical to support early-career researchers, whose careers were already disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and who now face an increasingly uncertain funding and policy environment. For my team, it is uncertain whether our current work on science and language integration with multilingual learners will have an opportunity to be scaled up or whether our latest work on justice-centered STEM education will contribute to a potential third generation of science or STEM standards.
Yet uncertainty does not diminish the importance of this work. Across the country, STEM educators and researchers remain committed to advancing knowledge, preparing future generations of scholars, and expanding learning opportunities for all students. The challenges are significant, but so too is our collective resolve to sustain and strengthen the research enterprise on which our future depends.