CHARLOTTE, NC – 06/11/2025 – (SeaPRwire) – California’s San Bernardino City Unified School District (SBCUSD) has become one of the most closely watched K–12 ecosystems on the West Coast—not because the district is chasing fads—but because its long-term academic modernization strategy is deeply intentional, data-calibrated, and tied to a 2030 horizon line instead of short-cycle budget years. This week, the district signaled that its transformation agenda is entering a new operational phase: SBCUSD confirmed that it has expanded its partnership with Discovery Education, increasing from 10 schools to 21 schools the number of campuses deployed with the company’s flagship digital learning platforms. For external education observers, this is not merely a procurement update. It reflects a real shift in how the district expects instruction to work: STEAM learning is no longer something only magnet academies or pilot classrooms can have—it is becoming structural across the district.
SBCUSD serves nearly 50,000 students in San Bernardino, a diverse, high-growth Inland Empire city where the demand for upward mobility and post-secondary readiness is intensifying rapidly. The district’s multi-year Vision 2030 strategy—its internal compass for redesigning teaching and learning—explicitly links equity, safety, belonging, and community partnerships to academic rigor and future employment skill-paths. This is not a branding narrative. SBCUSD is investing in mechanisms that normalize innovative teaching strategies for all schools, not only high-visibility sites.
One of the most critical pillars in Vision 2030 is STEAM—Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. The district’s STEAM framework is built on a single premise: creative problem solving is now the new literacy. The program is engineered to advance inquiry-based thinking, creative experimentation, design thinking, and real-world contextual learning that aligns with the skill formation patterns emerging in industry, higher education, and advanced career technical education.
To operationalize this, the district launched a new evaluation cycle for digital resources that could expand interdisciplinary STEAM access. After reviewing multiple options, the academic and curriculum teams elected to expand Discovery Education Experience—the company’s core cross-curricular digital platform—into 11 more campuses, doubling the number of schools using Discovery Education from 10 to 21.
Discovery Education Experience is designed to be the “daily companion” for teachers rather than a siloed content library. It offers ready-to-teach modules, grade-banded strategies, standards-aligned multimedia, career exploration content, flexible assessment tools, and new AI-enabled capabilities released earlier this year. SBCUSD is not starting from zero: two Discovery Education solutions—Discovery Education Science Techbook and Mystery Science—were already in active use across the district. Expanding Experience now gives SBCUSD a more unified ecosystem for digital learning delivery.
“Students need STEAM instruction that is cognitively demanding and also anchored to real-world contexts,” said Caitlin Arakawa, STEAM Program Specialist at SBCUSD. “This expansion allows more classrooms to access digital tools that accelerate curiosity, creativity, and future-ready thinking.”
Importantly, this is not a hardware-only expansion. Every educator that uses these Discovery Education tools will receive professional development directly from Discovery Education’s team. PD is a key factor for SBCUSD—because the district is trying to ensure technology does not become an unused line item, but instead fuels pedagogy, classroom engagement, and real academic growth. Educators will also be able to participate in the Discovery Educator Network (DEN), the 20-year global community of educators who exchange implementation strategies, instructional ideas, and classroom innovation methods.
“Discovery Education is proud to support San Bernardino City Unified School District’s work to create a world-class STEAM program,” said Rachel Merten, Discovery Education Account Executive. “This partnership expansion amplifies the high-impact work already underway.”
More information about Discovery Education’s PreK-12 solutions can be found at www.discoveryeducation.com, along with the company’s social channels on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook.
About Discovery Education
Discovery Education is a global edtech leader providing digital learning solutions for PreK-12. Through award-winning multimedia content, instructional supports, and classroom tools that are simple to use, the company helps millions of educators deliver high-impact learning experiences. Discovery Education supports roughly 4.5 million educators and 45 million students in over 100 countries and territories.