We, now more than ever, need to do more to support anti-racist teaching and learning. Far too often, students of color are viewed as inferior or broken by our education system. They have labels placed on them such as "at-risk" or "behind" and are segregated into specific classes or programs that are supposed to "fix" something about them. They rarely have an opportunity to participate in a rigorous and equitable learning experience. They are punished, removed from class, and subject to harsh and unfair discipline. The brilliance of these students is rarely acknowledged, their gifts are not valued, and their ideas are ignored.

We need to challenge these and other racial injustices in our education system. One way to do that is to do everything we can to provide more learning experiences that highlight social injustices in our communities and show all students how they can use the core ideas and practices of science, mathematics, and engineering to make sense of them. We also must do everything possible to ensure that every student inside a classroom feels like their ideas and participation are valued because they have unique life experiences and ways of talking or thinking that are useful for figuring out how or why something happens or to develop a solution to a problem. We must help all students see themselves as knowers and doers of science, mathematics, or engineering rather than cultivating the false perception that science, mathematics, and engineering are only for a select few who look and act a specific way.

We have worked hard over the last eight years to make the teaching and learning of science, mathematics, and engineering more rigorous and equitable by developing new instructional models and helping educators learn how to use them. We, however, want to do more. Our plan is to develop more instructional materials that focus on social justice issues so more people have an opportunity to learn about them. We are going to be more intentional in our efforts to help schools and educators be more inclusive and anti-racist. We are going to do our best to bring people together to share their ideas about how to address the long-standing inequities in our educational system. This will be our focus as we continue to work to make the teaching and learning of science, mathematics, and engineering more rigorous and equitable. We hope that you will join us in this challenging but important work.