OPED: Schools should consider accomodating STEM
Submitted By: Jeff Sacco, Jeffco Energy Education Partnership, Inc.
Jeffco Public Schools has released a draft version of various options being considered to more efficiently balance facility capacity and enrollment, an excellent idea given the district’s decade long declining enrollment. The district is holding four meetings through November 18th to get feedback from the community on the options under consideration (including closing or consolidating schools). Please see their website – www.JeffcoPublicSchools.org – to download the draft, and for meeting dates and times.
An additional consideration, which I’ve not heard addressed, is Jeffco program options. Most notably, Jeffco, the largest district in the state, does not have a STEM school (science, technology, engineering, math), although this is clearly the educational emphasis for which businesses and universities are clamoring. I’d like to see the Board and the Facilities Usage Committee expand their horizons, and consider not only balancing bodies in classrooms, but also planning for the addition of high value/high demand programs, such as STEM schools.
Jeffco should be the leader in results-oriented educational innovation, and the commitment and planning needs to begin now. There are incredible, established models that can be replicated (such as Denver’s School of Science and Technology), and a veritable cornucopia of “best practices” which can be assembled for dramatic improvement in students’ knowledge base, problem-solving and motivation (test scores, too). Community groups such as Jeffco Energy Education Partnership, Inc. (http://JEEPedu.org) are exploring innovative, STEM-emphasis programming for schools, and are working to bring these new success models to the community’s students. If it really is about the children, isn’t it about time we start dedicating our resources to making their success our first priority?
Bottom line: Schools aren’t just facing financial challenges, a too-large bulk of their “product,” a work-force or college-ready population, isn’t making the grade. Crises offer hidden opportunities, and the district right now has the opportunity to be forward thinking in its programming needs as it evaluates resource optimization. I urge everyone who supports STEM schools and education innovation to write the Facilities Usage Committee and the Board, and start with the question, Where’s the STEM?
