The National Institute for STEM Education

What The National Institute for STEM Education does

The National Institute for STEM Education (NISE) is an online, competency-based professional learning platform that certifies K-12 educators and school campuses in STEM instruction. Founded in 2016 in Houston, Texas as a division of Accelerate Learning, Inc. in partnership with Rice University, NISE issues the National Certificate for STEM Teaching (NCST) to individual teachers and the National Certificate for STEM Excellence (NCSE) to school campuses, with supplementary Micro Certificates including STEM Essentials and Teaching Online Essentials. The platform's curriculum is built on a proprietary framework of 15 STEM Teacher Actions organized across three competency domains — Creating an Environment for Learning, Building Scientific Understanding, and Engaging Students in Science and Engineering Practices — originally developed through thousands of hours of research at Rice University.

NISE's core technology combines a competency-based online learning environment with academic coach-led instruction, where participants construct digital portfolios demonstrating proficiency across the 15 actions rather than completing time-based coursework. The platform also includes the STEM Observation Protocol, a classroom walk-through tool that assesses instructional practice against 27 program indicators across the campus certification process. NISE monetizes through three pricing tiers: $625 per teacher for NCST, $12,500 per campus for NCSE site licenses, and $39 per three-hour Micro Certificate course. University partnerships with American College of Education (ACE) and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) enable certificate holders to earn up to six graduate credits toward accelerated master's and doctoral degrees in STEM education, embedding NISE credentials in formal degree pathways. Distribution is entirely direct — self-enrollment through webstore.nise.institute for individuals and B2B sales to school and district administrators for NCSE implementations.

NISE's go-to-market targets two primary customer segments: individual K-12 teachers seeking recognized STEM credentials and school campuses or districts pursuing systemic STEM transformation. The company has accumulated third-party validation including multiple EdTech Cool Tool Awards, a 2023 Gold Stevie Award in Professional Learning Solution for Education, a 2019 EdTech Breakthrough Award (Online Education Solution Provider of the Year), and state-level endorsements such as the Alabama TEAMS Act approval (November 2022) and the Nevada OSIT pilot (January 2023). Operating with 11–50 employees as a private subsidiary of Accelerate Learning — whose sole disclosed institutional capital is a $10M Series A from Owl Ventures in May 2016 — NISE reports 400+ cumulative NCST graduates and has documented NCSE certifications across multiple U.S. states including Texas, Colorado, Georgia, Ohio, New Mexico, and Iowa.

Name

The National Institute for STEM Education

Legal name

The National Institute for STEM Education

Website

https://nise.institute

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The National Institute for STEM Education (NISE) is an online, coach-led certification platform that credentials K-12 teachers and school campuses in STEM instruction through a competency-based portfolio system developed with Rice University.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

K-12 STEM Educator Certification Services

NAICS

Professional and Management Development Training (611430), All Other Schools and Instruction (61169)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Teacher Professional Development & In-Service Training Institutes (EDAHAFAM)

akta.pro secondary industry

Science & STEM Instruction (School-Delivered) (EDAJAFAH)

Keywords

• STEM teacher certification
• K-12 professional development
• Competency-based certification
• Educator online learning
• Campus STEM certification

Headquarters

HQ city

Houston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Teacher Certification (NCST): Individual teachers pay $625 for the National Certificate for STEM Teaching (NCST), a competency-based certification program delivered entirely online with a dedicated academic coach over several months with a minimum of 40 hours of learning.
2. Campus/District Certification (NCSE): Schools and campuses purchase a site license for $12,500 for the National Certificate for STEM Excellence (NCSE), which includes up to five enrollments in the NCST for individual teachers at the campus.
3. Micro Certificate Courses: Individual three-hour online courses priced at $39 each. Teachers who complete two courses in a specific area earn a Micro Certificate. These are self-paced, fully online courses completed anytime.
4. University Partnership Graduate Programs: NISE partners with American College of Education (ACE) and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) to provide graduate degree pathways. NISE certification grants access to accelerated, low-cost master's and doctoral programs in STEM education. This drives enrollment revenue for partner universities with NISE as a credential pathway.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

The National Institute for STEM Education (NISE) delivers competency-based STEM teaching certification through an online learning platform. It certifies individual teachers via the National Certificate for STEM Teaching (NCST) and certifies school campuses via the National Certificate for STEM Excellence (NCSE), supplemented by Micro Certificates and graduate-degree pathway partnerships. Educators build digital portfolios demonstrating proficiency across 15 STEM teacher actions, supported by dedicated academic coaches.

Product overview

NISE offers a comprehensive professional learning platform for STEM educator certification, built around its two core certification programs: the National Certificate for STEM Teaching (NCST) for individual teachers and the National Certificate for STEM Excellence (NCSE) for school campuses. The platform is supplemented by Micro Certificates including STEM Essentials and Teaching Online Essentials for specialized skill development. NISE partners with American College of Education (ACE) and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) to offer graduate degree pathways, and conducts STEMposium professional development events. All programs are delivered through an online learning platform with academic coaching support, focusing on 15 STEM Teacher Actions across three competency domains.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• NCST: National Certificate for STEM Teaching - certification program for individual educators
• NCSE
• STEM Essentials Certificate
• Teaching Online Essentials

Products and services

• National Certificate for STEM Teaching (NCST) A competency-based online certification program for individual K-12 teachers, priced at $625 per teacher, that guides participants through developing a digital portfolio demonstrating proficiency across 15 STEM teacher actions organized within three competency domains, supported by a dedicated academic coach.
• National Certificate for STEM Excellence (NCSE) A campus-level certification program for K-12 schools priced at $12,500 per campus site license, transforming school STEM culture through a three-phase Plan, Implement, and Sustain process addressing 27 program indicators, with STEM Leadership Coach support and a requirement of at least five teachers completing the NCST.
• Micro Certificates Program A suite of self-paced, fully online three-hour courses priced at $39 each covering foundational STEM teaching competencies (STEM Essentials) and virtual teaching skills (Teaching Online Essentials); completion of two courses in a specific area earns the teacher a recognized Micro Certificate, including Alabama TEAMS Act professional development credit eligibility.
• STEMposium Events Two-day professional development events for K-12 leaders and educators to strategically plan for and support STEM initiatives, featuring keynote speakers and networking opportunities.

Quantifiable outcome

• Student assessment scores at St. Agnes Catholic School went 'through the roof' on Kansas state tests and NWEA MAP assessments after teacher Gena Schleimer completed NISE certification
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Nevada Governor's Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2023The Nevada Governor's Office of Science, Innovation and Technology (OSIT) partnered with NISE to launch the OSIT NCST Pilot Cohort. 35 educators and leaders working in collaborative groups from five districts across Nevada are engaged in high-quality STEM professional learning to positively impact Nevada students' success. This is a government-backed pilot program to enhance STEM instructional capacity statewide.
• Alabama State Department of EducationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 11 November 2022NISE Micro Certificates and online courses were approved by the Alabama State Department of Education for the Teacher Excellence and Accountability for Mathematics and Science (TEAMS) Act. Alabama educators can apply NISE Micro Certificates toward the four professional development days required under TEAMS contracts, enabling teachers to earn TEAMS Act credit for their NISE coursework.
• Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 18 September 2019NISE partnered with Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) to create unique job-embedded, online graduate programs directly connecting to K-12 teachers' classroom experiences and the STEM curriculum they are already using. These original graduate programs with a focus on STEM Instruction incorporate professional learning from NISE, STEMscopes curriculum from Accelerate Learning, and SNHU's knowledge of research-based practices in transformational adult learning.
• Rice UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 30 March 2016NISE was founded in conjunction with Rice University, with STEM professional development and curriculum originally developed through thousands of hours of research and educational leadership at Rice University. The NISE STEM certificates integrate the most recent research and best practices in STEM, 21st Century Learning, and professional development, evolving from STEM professional development created at Rice University.
• American College of Education (ACE)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerNISE partners with American College of Education (ACE) to provide STEM-focused graduate program and doctoral options. The NISE STEM certificate (NCST) grants access to accelerated, low-cost master's and doctoral degrees in STEM education at ACE. The partnership enables educators to earn graduate credits through the NCST program that count toward ACE degrees. The online Master of Education in STEM Leadership and related doctoral programs incorporate NISE certification coursework as credit toward degree completion.
• Accelerate LearningcoreOthersAccelerate Learning, Inc. is the parent company of NISE. Founded in conjunction with Rice University, Accelerate Learning provides the STEMscopes digital science curriculum and other STEM education resources. NISE operates as an institute under Accelerate Learning, with copyright and intellectual property held by Accelerate Learning, Inc. (Copyright Accelerate Learning, Inc., 2007).

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Discovery Education: Discovery Education is a large incumbent K-12 digital content platform providing STEM videos, lesson content, and PD resources to districts. It competes indirectly with NISE by bundling STEM instructional support into broader content licenses and uses its scale to offer PD at lower marginal cost.
• Carnegie Learning: Carnegie Learning provides K-12 math and STEM instructional software plus teacher professional development. It overlaps with NISE in the STEM-instruction and teacher-training space, but its primary offering is core curriculum, with PD sold as an adjunct.
• Coursera for Educator Programs: Coursera offers online professional development courses and certificates for educators, including university-issued credentials. It overlaps with NISE's micro-credential and partner-university graduate pathway model and competes for teachers seeking online, university-backed PD.
• PBS LearningMedia: PBS LearningMedia is a free, public-media-funded K-12 digital resource library that includes STEM content and PD resources. It competes with NISE primarily through free STEM instructional content that reduces teachers' willingness to pay for paid PD alternatives.
• National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: NBPTS is the premier national teacher certification body in the U.S. While not a direct competitor in STEM specifically, it sets the bar for teacher credentialing and overlaps conceptually with NCST as a nationally recognized teacher certification pathway.

Direct peers

• BetterLesson: BetterLesson delivers personalized K-12 teacher professional development through coaches and virtual workshops. It targets the same buyer (district PD leaders and individual teachers) as NISE and overlaps heavily on coaching-led STEM and instructional improvement services.
• Edthena: Edthena is a video-based teacher coaching and PD platform that supports educator reflection cycles and structured feedback. It competes with NISE for teacher and campus professional learning budgets and shares a focus on competency demonstration and instructional improvement rather than content delivery.
• KnowAtom: KnowAtom provides K-12 STEM curriculum and teacher professional development built around phenomena-based, NGSS-aligned instruction. It targets the same school campuses and district buyers as NISE and is the closest direct competitor in K-12 STEM instructional improvement, with overlapping teacher training offerings.
• Teaching Channel: Teaching Channel is an online professional learning platform for K-12 teachers featuring video-based courses and PD. It targets the same individual teacher and campus buyers as NISE's Micro Certificates and NCST programs and competes for PD budget allocation.
• Advancement Courses: Advancement Courses offers online self-paced PD courses for K-12 educators that often satisfy state continuing education requirements. It mirrors NISE's Micro Certificate model at a similar price point and is purchased by the same individual teacher buyer seeking flexible, accredited PD.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/NISE_STEM
• Facebookfacebook.com/NISE.STEM
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/national-institute-for-stem-education

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The National Institute for STEM Education