Journal of Mathematics Education © Education for All June 2019, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 1-5 https://doi.org/10.26711/007577152790000 Special Editorial Team Introduction: The Foundation of STEM is Mathematics Education Robert M. Capraro Mary Margaret Capraro Julia E. Calabrese Texas A&M University Assembling a special issue concerning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for the Journal of Mathematics Education required the team to consider several important factors; however, none were more paramount than keeping mathematics as a central theme for the issue. All too often, the term STEM is used as code for “fun activities” that mitigate the true learning of real content in mathematics and science. In addition, STEM educators rarely consider a clear or precise definition aside from the long-form translation of the acronym itself. For this special issue, the following definition of STEM clearly situates the included articles in terms of how we, the guest editorial team, believe they contribute meaningfully to the literature in mathematics education. Moreover, the definition clearly situates the works, in which mathematics is the linchpin, within a broader and more applied context. To engage in STEM education, one must not mitigate or subjugate any of the subjects. Each subject has to be integrated into a unifying whole where specific content knowledge is taught and then integrated to build new more powerful knowledge affording students the ability to do something they could not do before in ways they never before imagined. A classroom should be student centric, where learning happens within individuals, dyads, small groups and interactive discussion moderated by the teacher within a safe and challenging work world experience. (Capraro, 2018, p. 107) To foreground the relevant research context for the reader, it is essential to interpret some of the research surrounding STEM to date and identify what appear to be patterns or what might be on the surface interpreted as contradictory information. There are several published studies in which authors examined the impact of STEM school designation (Franco & Patel, 2017). Although the research base can be contradictory on a superficial level, researchers examined distinct key variables and controlled for differing background variables. These distinctions are a pathway to defining theoretical constructs that at some point can be tested through a robust study. However, even with these various studies in which different results were reported, the