'Big footprints' of Ohio STEM schools blazing trails across state lines

The development of STEM schools in Ohio was never about creating self-contained programs for a few hundred students at each site, says Steve Krak. It was, he says, always about systemic change.

Today, less than five years after Metro Early College High School opened in Columbus, the presence of Ohio STEM schools is being felt as close to home as surrounding school districts and as far away as places like Tennessee and New York.

Krak, who is Battelle's program manager for the Ohio STEM Learning Network (OSLN), says that is the goal.

"We insisted that each new STEM school give us, in their designs, their big footprint in their region," he says. "Because the big footprint design was how they were going to impact other schools in their region."

Indeed, STEM schools are making an impact within their communities and beyond. The National Inventors Hall of Fame School . . . Center for STEM Learning -- OSLN's only STEM middle school -- was designated as the professional development center for all of Akron Public Schools' middle schools, Krak notes.

"So teachers are coming from across the district to get professional development at that school," Krak explains. Not just that, but the middle school's success has resulted in plans for a STEM high school in Akron.

In Cleveland, MC²STEM High School's expertise is being tapped as part of the Cleveland Municipal School District's transformation plan, which includes the conversion of several schools to STEM -- including six K-8 schools.

"The project manager has been directed by the district to turn to MC²STEM Principal Jeff McClellan and the leadership of MC²STEM to provide guidance on how to do the conversion of those schools," Krak says.

And Metro -- Ohio's STEM pioneer -- assisted in the conversion of Linden-McKinley High School into Linden-McKinley STEM Academy. In turn, the transformation of Linden-McKinley has put that school in the key role of helping feeder schools prepare younger students for entry into Linden.

"Now, Columbus City Schools is saying 'we really like what's happened at Linden,'" Krak says. "'We're ready to move over to the next slice of Columbus City Schools,' which is called West, 'and we want to start working on K12 and start turning that region too.'"

Krak notes that "traditionally, you do education grants like the ones we've done and everybody wants to know how much money you spent and how many kids were affected," Krak says. "That works really well when you're talking about a program that starts and stops. But this program, all along, has been designed to enable system changes. And so our goal is that the number of kids impacted doesn't stop, it just keeps on moving out there and having kind of a wave effect."

Those waves now lap across multiple shores, as states like Tennessee, North Carolina and New York build new STEM networks patterned in part after the Ohio STEM Learning Network.

The Empire State STEM Learning Network in New York is one example. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Columbus-based Battelle, the network was formed about a year ago "and is still in formation," says Margaret Ashida, the network's director.

"Battelle was very involved with us right up front," Ashida says. "And we are part of the multistate network comprised of Ohio, Texas, California, Washington, North Carolina and New York that is working with Battelle and the Gates Foundation in getting networks up and running."

The Empire State network is patterned after Ohio's model, in which platform schools anchor regional STEM networks that, in turn, connect to all the other schools or networks.

Delegates from New York have visited Ohio to learn what has worked in Ohio and what hasn't, Ashida says. Educators -- sponsored by business partners like Cisco Systems and Siemens -- have visited Ohio STEM schools to see those schools in action and to ask questions.

"The STEM tours have been extremely powerful," she says. "Educators could truly see in action the partnership with the community and business organizations on contextual learning, on problem-based, project-based learning, the differences in the way they approach units of time and the philosophies. And being able to see and engage with the students who led the tours really reinforced for both groups how great these approaches to 21st century learning can be."

OSLN continues to be a collaborator and resource for the New York network says Ashida, a fact echoed by Anne Pope, executive director of the new Tennessee STEM Innovation Network.

In February, Battelle was chosen to manage the new Tennessee network, bringing resources and expertise gained by working with Ohio networks and those in other states. Tennessee has also tapped OSLN for key lessons learned , Pope says.

"There's a very rich interaction on multiple levels and it's continuous," Pope says. Not only have STEM educators from Tennessee participated in Ohio STEM tours, but "people from OSLN have come down and looked at Tennessee and I expect they will be mentors of the schools and the hubs and the network as we go forward."

The list of those flocking to Ohio to see what is happening with STEM is almost endless, say those who prepare for visitors at their schools, from as far away as Indonesia and as close to home as an adjacent school district.

Alison White, grant communications coordinator for the OSLN's Akron Hub, says the school sets aside the first and third Thursdays of every month for visitors and reports that "we are pretty much booked."

Diana Wolterman, Battelle project manager in residence at Metro, says that school has visitors almost every day.

Both White and Wolterman cited similar reasons why folks come to visit: Educators often come to learn how to form partnerships with businesses and higher education, how to start a STEM school from scratch, how to develop project-based learning, and how to approach professional development and other aspects of Ohio's STEM ecosystem, but others come because they are simply curious.

Sometimes the feedback from those visitors is a telling reminder of how STEM impacts not just educational systems, but the young people they serve.

In 2009, Metro hosted a visit by author Susan Jacoby, who had just written a book called The Age of American Unreason. The book examines the downward slide of American intellectualism and argues that settling for mediocrity and intellectual laziness has cost our country dearly.

"I put out a call to all the language arts teachers asking who would be interested in having her speak to their class," Wolterman remembers. The answer surprised her: a "recovery" class for strugglers.

"They were not our shining star students," Wolterman says. "And, shame on me, I thought I can't put these kids in front of this woman who's talking about how we're not intellectual anymore and don't even try."

When the day came, Jacoby sat in a circle with those struggling students, who had prepared by reading excerpts of her book.

"And they questioned her about her book, and they challenged her," Wolterman remembers. "And they were amazing. And I took Susan Jacoby from that little meeting over to Battelle, and she spoke at a lunch-and-learn-type thing, and the first thing she said was this:

"'I just came from your high school, and I want to tell you if there were more schools like that, I wouldn't have had to write this book.'"