Investing in Mentors for Oregon High SchoolsThe Program: The Oregon Pre-engineering and Applied Science Initiative (OPAS), an effort of the Oregon Engineering and Technology Industry Council (ETIC), has secured funding to pilot a new youth program: eCHAMP (Engineering CoacH And Mentor Program). This new pilot program will partner with Oregon high schools to provide stipends to local school engineering coaches or "champions," who would lead extracurricular after-school engineering-based activities for Oregon students.
Why?: OPAS leaders are working to increase after-school opportunities for Oregon students to experience real, hands-on engineering to meet the future work force needs of Oregon's economy in high tech and other sectors.
Background: OPAS leaders are working to increase after-school opportunities for Oregon students to experience real, hands-on engineering to meet the future work force needs of Oregon's economy in high tech and other sectors.
The engineering and technology sector is a strong component of Oregon's economy, and computer or technological expertise is critical to many or most Oregon industries. However, Oregon high school student interest in engineering and applied technology university degree programs has been flat in engineering, and has shown a significant decline in computer science. This is of critical concern to local industry leaders, who rely on the skills, knowledge, and innovations of college graduates, and to public and educational advocates, who are working to increase the educational attainment and opportunities for all Oregonians to contribute and succeed in an increasingly global-based economy.
Through their work with K-12 teachers and administrators, OPAS leaders identified that high school students do not have sufficient opportunities to explore the hands-on excitement of engineering and applied science careers. While Oregon schools are focusing on increasing rigor in high school math and science requirements, these efforts in college preparation can be strengthened by extracurricular programs providing hands-on engineering-based learning. Extracurricular engineering activities can give the experience of "aha!" moments that come with engaging in real-world problem solving. These hands-on engineering activities can also make meaning and context for the foundations learned in classroom lessons, and foster preference for engineering and technical careers.
A Common Model: Schools have long been offering stipends (i.e. coaching salaries for other extracurricular programs including athletics, band, mock trial, debate, choir, drama, and others. A number of state and national engineering challenges, competitions, and exhibitions are available for schools to participate in, but the lack of competitive teacher stipends for engineering activities is limiting the number of school-sponsored teams.
Funding: OPAS has proposed a program to match school funds in establishing engineering coaching stipends, provided that the schools agree to pick up full funding after 3 years. The attached chart (A) shows how seed funding of $200K per year is expected to grow into a sustainable funding structure after 6 years. ETIC has included funding for this proposal to seed stipends for Oregon schools, as part of a 2009-2010 Oregon Biennium Policy Option Package, pending approval by the Governor and Legislature. If approved as requested under this funding model, OPAS projects that over 2,000 students could benefit from this program by 2015 (see Chart B).
A five school, $50K pilot program has been funded for the 2008-2009 school year to fine-tune and test this ETIC Policy Option Package, and to answer procedural questions as how best to administer funding and maximize the effectiveness of the program. Five schools have obtained stipend matching commitments from their schools and teachers are coaching engineering teams and clubs. OPAS is currently collecting names of teachers and schools who would be interested in applying for seed matching grants contingent on funding from the Oregon Biennium or other sources.
Info: Copies of the complete ETIC proposal and Pilot program are available upon request. Please contact: