STEM School Will Benefit Kids, Dayton

Wright State University and its myriad partners are doing something big. But it will be a while before the payback starts rolling in.

Earlier this month, Dayton and Cleveland each won $600,000 grants from the state to start a new STEM high school.

STEM is short for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Ohio is making a big push to turn out more college grads in these areas because jobs in the industries are high- paying; companies are crying out for workers in the specialities; and Ohio is undereducated in these professions.

Reaching down into high school is seen as a way to nurture talent early.

Recognizing these realities, Gov. Ted Strickland, Gov. Bob Taft before him, and lawmakers are dumping money into various science and math initiatives.

In Dayton, Wright State is particularly involved because it’s loaning space to the high school, which will open in the fall of 2009.

Initially, space won’t be an issue. The school is starting small, with just 80 students. But within four years, the plan is to have 600 students in sixth through 12th grade.

And the hope is that evenutally they’ll be in a new $18 million school.

But first things first. Money for a facility will come — provided the educational initiative itself lives up to its billing.

Various schools, businesses and organizations have pledged $2.2 million in money or in-kind services for the effort. The school will have close links to the Air Force Research Labs at Wright- Patterson, which employ 3,500 scientists and have a research budget of close to $2 billion.

That connection — and the offers from other local businesses to be deeply involved — was an important attraction when the state was passing out money.

Though any student in Montgomery, Greene or Clark counties can apply, the Fairborn, Huber Heights, West Carrollton and Xenia school districts, and the Miami Valley Career Technology and Greene County Career Centers, are getting in on the ground floor.

They’ve wisely concluded that maybe not a huge number of students, but some, will want to take advantage of a specialized school that offers opportunities that are hard to create at a comprehensive high school.

This is an enlightened way of looking at the world. When students leave their home schools, the money the state provides for their education will follow them. In short, doing what’s right for kids will take money out of the districts’ coffers.

Another operating rule is that the school won’t be open only to the best and brightest. Yes, students will have to make commitments and show interest in the sciences and math.

But the class selection will be done by a lottery if there’s more demand than there are spaces for qualifying students.

STEM high schools are something of a rage around the country. Teachers like the fact that kids are being captured, so to speak, early, before someone tells them that math and science are hard, boring or just for boys.

And they’re proving to be a tremendous opportunities to implement hands-on learning.

The state’s evaluators sent Columbus and Cincinnati, among others, back to do more work on their grant proposals. That’s a testament to the fact that the state isn’t passing out $600,000 checks to everyone who has a big idea.

And it assuredly wasn’t lost on the evaluators that Dayton’s STEM initiatives include more than just having a high school.

This community’s consortium also competed for, and has received, a $500,000 grant from the National Governors Association to help local teachers in traditional schools improve their teaching in science and math.

In the end, a new high school near Wright State may be the most visible piece of this economic development effort. But it’s just the bricks and mortar in a smart and bigger plan.

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