Brocton Central Schools honored as STEM Merit Award Recipient

May 20, 2018

National Education Foundation (NEF), the national nonprofit leader in K-12 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) education solutions, has announced Lehighton Area School District (PA), as a winner of its 2018 STEM Leadership Merit Award for excellence.

Somerton Schools, AZ was honored as the overall winner of the 2018 STEM Leadership award for academic excellence and implementation. Brocton Central School District (NY), Lehighton Area Schools (PA) and Martins Ferry City Schools (OH) have all been selected as 2018 Merit STEM Leadership Award recipients. All these school districts have been recognized for their distinguished achievements in STEM. The Merit Awards carry monetary rewards from NEF.

The STEM Awards celebrates the exemplary implementation of the NEF-SUNY (State University of New York) STEM education solution including personalized learning, teacher stipends, student rewards, teacher and parent training.

According to Brocton’s Superintendent Jason Delcamp, “Our partnership with NEF has proven to be a huge success. In less than 8 months, the vast majority of the cohort of students have already met their learning targets, and other classes are now asking to be part of the pilot. Through the total systems solutions approach of NEF, we have structured our program and have chosen a dynamic director to lead our STEAM vision. It is absolutely awesome to see students engaged in their own personalized learning, setting goals and feeling success and gratification in doing so. Than you NEF for partnering with our District!”

NEF Chairman Dr. Appu Kuttan and NEF national STEM academy director Prof. Anthony Betrus of the State University of New York at Potsdam stated, “NEF is concerned that the US is ranked 27th out of 34 countries in math and science. Our world-class STEM Academies across the nation will help students of disadvantaged schools improve their STEM skills, and better prepare them for jobs in the highly competitive 21st-century global economy.”

Brocton’s success stands out as a clear example of how to cost-effectively improve student achievement by involving and motivating all the stakeholders–students, teachers, parents, and administrators.

Through NEF’s STEM+ and Adopt-A-School grant initiatives, NEF has created the most cost-effective and high-quality STEM+ education solution in the U.S, mapped to every state’s standards.

NEF has STEM+ Academies in 20 states and in several major cities with ultimate goal is to provide STEM+ education to students in most disadvantaged school districts in the U.S. by 2020.

For information about NEF’s grant programs for students, job seekers, teachers, and veterans, contact NEF at 703-823-9999 or visit www.stemgrant.org.