The eStem Goal
Job requirements have changed in the past 35 years. And it is not just for the college bound student. Now, even technical manuals for trade professionals are often written at reading levels higher than college textbooks.
Maintaining U.S. scientific and technological leadership is essential to the future of our country. In fact, during the next decade, U.S. demand for scientists and engineers is expected to increase at four times the rate of all other occupations. However, because today’s high school students are not performing well in math and science, and fewer of them are pursuing degrees in technical fields, the United States is facing a critical talent gap in science, technology, engineering and math. Simply put, we are not keeping pace with foreign competition.
Consider these facts:
• By 2010, if current trends continue, more than 90 percent of all scientists and engineers in the world will be living in Asia.
• South Korea, with one-sixth of our population, graduates as many engineers as the United States.
• The number of engineering degrees awarded in the United States is down 20 percent from the peak year of 1985.
• Although U.S. fourth graders score well against international competition, our students fall near the bottom or dead last by 12th grade in mathematics and science, respectively.
• In Arkansas, only 22 percent of 8th graders scored at or above proficient in math in 2005.
eStem schools are for the study of the economics related to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. The schools have been designed to address, in a small way, a critical shortage of American citizens able to both fill jobs in the Stem fields and create jobs in the Stem fields. The school is designed as a complementary component of an e-Stem curriculum. Though each operates as a stand-alone school, the e-Stem Elementary, e-Stem Middle and e-Stem high schools are designed to flow together.
School Management Model
In addition to preparing our students for economic opportunities in the 21st century, the eStem schools hope to become a model school program with an additional focus on:
• Increased instructional effectiveness
• Cost efficiency
• Operational transparency and accountability
• Maximization of shared resources
Our goal in this aspect is to develop a model system where program effectiveness plus program efficiency are dynamically related to resource allocation and alternative compensation plans. Using student assessment analysis results coupled with cost analysis is the key to making critical institutional decisions for education reform efforts.
The challenge is to construct a system that allows us to permeate the barrier between program effectiveness data and program efficiency data. Only then can we know not only what is working, but also how much it is costing.
We have in mind a technology based system that will allow us to know not only how much academic gain each student has made, but what it cost to produce that gain in his class, and how much it cost to produce the same gain in the class next door, across town, or across the country. That system does not currently exist anywhere in the country. However, a pilot research project, dubbed the Murphy Commission Model pilot has been initiated by the Arkansas Charter School Resource Center. If granted a charter, the e-Stem schools will become a member school.