Adel Vazquez (Photo: Submitted )
“It’s a shame the school doesn’t give them a space to do research,” said Maria Escalona, a fourth-grade teacher at the school. “We should have more children studying STEM, because my daughter is going to college. A lot of these kids don’t want to take a STEM class because they don’t think they should, but the STEMs are taking them.”
With a STEM workforce of over 70,000, the state is well ahead of the rest of the country, according to a 2016 research report by the Partnership for a New Ohio. There’s even a recent STEM job boom in the western quadrant of Cleveland, the data shows. By 2024, the state’s STEM job growth is expected to be 17 percent higher than last year.
There are still some students in low-performing schools who aren’t going to college, said Mary Ellen Shaver, executive director of the organization.
“It’s too early to tell how this is going to change in school,” she said, “but it’s great that there are so many different ways to get involved. It’s great to see that STEM schools are starting to catch on.”
CLOSE More than 400,000 people are working and going to school in northern Ohio, but for the most part they are finding employment without advanced degrees. An Associated Press analysis found that, at last count, more than 11.2 million people in Ohio do not have the formal educational background to work in science, technology or other technical professions. (August 13, 2016) Video by John T. Greilick
Linda O’Neil teaches the high school science course. She came to the academy because she couldn’t find a STEM class on the Columbus campus.
O’Neil said she’d love to see more STEM classes in the next few years, but it doesn’t come without its challenges.
“There’s not enough staff, and there are a lot of children that are not ready,” O’Neil said. “It does take some commitment.”
Kathryn Boonstra, executive director of the Ohio Alliance for Science Education, agreed, and a similar situation exists in the schools currently participating.
“If we want to reach the goal of more women, more black, more minority students,” Boonstra said, “we’re going to need to do a lot more to get