7/1/09

Suburban News

Khalila Perrin

As thousands of Central Ohio students bask in their summer break, local leaders already are looking forward to the end of the coming school year at Metro Early College High School.

That’s when the four-year-old school — the brain child of leaders at Ohio State University, Battelle Memorial Institute and the Franklin County Educational Council — will graduate its first cohort of seniors at the science, technology, engineering and math-based school.

About 78 students are on the fast track to becoming the school’s first graduating class. As full-time students at OSU 11 of the 78 made the university’s spring quarter dean’s list and some have completed their high school graduation requirements. On average this year’s seniors took an about 18 credit hours a piece over the course of the school year while maintaining an average 3.5 gpa.

“They’re doing very well. They’re hardwrokers,” Metro principal Marcy Raymond said.

Evolution isn’t just a scientific term. It’s a good way to describe what’s been going on at Metro since it welcomed its first students in the fall of 2006, said Rich Rosen, Battelle’s vice president for education and philanthropy.

That evolution is one key reason some 14,000 students statewide now are enrolled in science, technology, engineering and math-based schools like Metro.

“Metro as a school continues to exist but its footprint of building awareness about STEM is clearly growing as we see other schools start to adopt their own versions of STEM,” Rosen said.

Those schools are located in Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, Dayton and Akron.

Metro has even influenced the creation of STEM schools outside the state. Battelle has partnered with Washington State University and several Washington school districts to create Delta High School, a small public STEM school.

Locally as schools like Linden McKinley in the Columbus City School district and Reynoldsburg schools develop their own STEM curriculum, Metro finds itself at a “transition point,” Rosen said.

Hillard City Schools recently opted not to fund any additional students to Metro as it establishes its own STEM curriculum.

Hilliards five allotted seats will go into a general lottery for other districts to use.

Metro’s funding comes from districts whose students attend the school as well as the Ohio Department of Education and the KnowledgeWorks Foundation.

In a sense, moves such as Hilliard’s are a part of the bigger picture of STEM education in the state, Rosen explained.

“We’re much more interested in Linden McKinley being very successful in its own STEM program and Reynoldsburg … and any other district that wants to create (its) own because that’s the way we’ll gain the capacity that Columbus needs and the nation needs.”

Students from 16 Franklin County school districts are eligible to attend Metro. Each district has a set number of open seats based on each district’s size. Student tuition is about $6,400 per year.

Despite the changing demographics, Metro’s efforts are still geared toward improving public education and the outlook is bright, OSU President Gordon Gee said.

“As others follow the Metro model we ought to be creating new and different approaches that would further enhance the qualitative growth of public education. So this demonstration school should continue to be on the cutting edge of opportunity,” Gee said.

Broadening Metro’s enrollment won’t be a part of the new and different approach in the coming years, however.

Metro was designed as a 400-student school — 100 at each grade level. While it would be feasible to open the school to more counties, officials don’t plan to go that route, Rosen said. About 280 students made up the student body during the 2008-09 school year and about 160 new students applied for the 2009-10 school year.

“The goal has always been to not go for the expansion of a single school, but to create a model and a system that would create more of these types of experiences all across the region and the state,” Rosen said.

“The goal has always been to not go for the expansion of a single school, but to create a model and a system that would create more of these types of experiences.”

–Rich Rosen