People in Kentucky and across the country increasingly realize the importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes. “STEM” is a popular buzzword these days, but one national group is actually doing more than talking about it, here in Kentucky and elsewhere.
Project Lead The Way (PLTW), a 501(c)3 organization, provides rigorous and innovative STEM education curricular programs for secondary and middle schools. More than 4,200 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia are currently offering PLTW courses.
PLTW’s comprehensive curriculum has been collaboratively designed by teachers, university educators, engineering and biomedical professionals and school administrators. Its focus is developing critical thinking, creativity, innovation and real-world problem-solving skills in students.
To engage easily bored students, the curriculum is hands-on and project based. It exposes them to areas of study that they typically would not pursue. It is also designed to provide them with a foundation and proven path to future success in higher education and the workforce.
In Kentucky, Project Lead The Way operates within the College of Engineering at the University of Kentucky. Of the state’s approximately 250 public secondary and 250 public middle schools, 109 offer PLTW classes.
Dianne Leveridge serves as the state’s affiliate director. A former electrical engineer now retired from Lexmark, she enjoys working now in education. Her job is “an honor and a privilege,” she said, and provides “an opportunity to build that STEM pipeline.”
Leveridge said she enjoys visiting PLTW schools to see students so excited about and involved with learning.
“It’s not the sage on the stage,” Leveridge said. “Students are solving the problems.”
Middle and high-school teachers attend summer programs at UK to become certified by PLTW to teach classes in biomedical or engineering tracks in their schools. After taking the three or four PLTW courses and passing rigorous exams, high school students can earn college credit from UK.
Kentucky’s PLTW program has hosted the Gateway Academy, a week-long pre-engineering day camp for matriculating seventh graders, but future sessions are uncertain because of UK’s budget cuts. The MARS Rover Challenge Competition, held on a Saturday in March, draws fifth-graders from across the state.
Franklin County’s school system is a model for PLTW, according to Leveridge. Teachers with the program have received national recognition and the PLTW methods have even been added to some elementary school classes.
Middle and high-school students can participate in PLTW STEM classes only at schools within a certified school district, but there are exceptions; sometimes students can attend school in another, certified district. Apollo High School in Owensboro allows even home-schooled students to attend its PLTW courses.
Scott County and Woodford County school districts have adopted PLTW. Fayette County, however, has opted out, due to cost.
“Although we have been unable to participate in Project Lead the Way in the past, we are currently exploring ways to partner with area businesses to enable the district to join the initiative,” said FCPS Superintendent Tom Shelton.
“Our district currently uses the Engineering by Design [EbD] curriculum for teaching STEM education in our technical education classes,” said James Hardin, Fayette County Public Schools’ coordinator of career and technical education. “Since the EbD curriculum is provided at no cost to all school districts throughout the state, and with the continuing reduction in Perkins funding from the federal government, this seemed to be the most logical and best stewardship of the funding resources.”
Among the Kentuckians who are concerned about the academic weak points of recent high-school graduates are members of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers (KAM). The organization has a clear insight into how unprepared young Kentuckians are to land or keep skilled jobs in STEM fields. As jobs go unfulfilled for lack of qualified workers with strong STEM backgrounds, the economy grows at a slower rate.
That situation is reflected in an October 2011 survey conducted by Deloitte for the National Association of Manufacturers’ Manufacturing Institute. (See “The Manufacturing Skills Gap” on page 11 of this edition.)
Recently KAM members decided to endorse Project Lead The Way (PLTW) as a valid solution to reduce the high level of remediation that high-school graduates currently need as they try to continue their education or acquire selective work skills.
Greg Higdon, KAM president and CEO, said that his organization “fully endorses PLTW as a highly effective, nationally recognized program that is already having a significant impact in developing the talent pool we need now and in the future to compete in the global economy.”
Higdon described PLTW as “a great asset to our commonwealth [that] is helping develop the high-performance workforce that is critical to facilitating the transformation of Kentucky’s manufacturing community from traditional to advanced.”
In fact, KAM believes so strongly in STEM education’s importance to the state’s economic future that in January 2012 the organization prepared a white paper on the subject titled “Remediation Reduction: A Pathway for Postsecondary Readiness.”
The paper explains the high cost of remedial education in lost jobs and opportunities, and it argues for the expanded STEM education opportunities that PLTW offers.
“We are pleased with our partnership with the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers to provide students of the commonwealth access to STEM choices they may otherwise have overlooked,” Leveridge said. “Today’s manufacturing jobs in Kentucky, as well as the nation, depend upon highly developed critical and analytical thinking, and problem-solving skills.”
PLTW’s President and CEO Vince Bertram said that the organization “is proud to be endorsed by the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers.”
He noted that PLTW works “to prepare students for the global economy, and that means preparing them for postsecondary and workforce experiences in STEM fields, including advanced manufacturing.”