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Battelle Center introduces effort to help states bolster STEM education

The Ohio State University’s Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy and The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) have unveiled a new project that will develop powerful new analytic tools designed to help states strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education across the pre-kindergarten through graduate-school pathway. 

The STEManalytics Project is designed to help states develop and use modeling and other analytic tools to identify policies that can help achieve state goals for STEM education, workforce quality, and economic growth.  This effort will benefit policymakers and educators in examining state-based STEM education reform initiatives and their links to state economic and workforce goals.

Ohio is serving as the initial pilot for the development of the STEManalytics suite.

 “The heightened focus on STEM education across the nation comes from keener recognition by elected leaders that student STEM achievement plays a vital role in growing a state’s innovation capacity and improving economic competitiveness. This initiative aims to provide policymakers with more powerful tools to examine and understand the key driving factors and linkages that tie together education, workforce and economic policy agendas,” says Battelle Center Director Kathryn D. Sullivan.  “We’re delighted to take on this challenge with our partners at Battelle and the Business-Higher Education Forum.”

OSU’s president Gordon Gee and Battelle Memorial Institute’s president Jeffrey Wadsworth will lead the project, which will work with regional STEM partnerships across the state.

The Ohio project builds on the STEM education model produced by Raytheon and gifted to BHEF and is financially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland kicked off a STEM public awareness campaign followed by a workshop on Ohio State’s campus to introduce the new project. As one of the original six National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) STEM states, the event highlighted Ohio’s efforts as well as other efforts of the other NGA STEM Centers in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Virginia.


Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy

Housed at the John Glenn School of Public Affairs, the Battelle Center for Mathematics and Science Education Policy supports Ohio’s education leaders and policymakers, strengthening their capacity to deliver high-quality, high-impact education for all students and to make Ohio a national leader in effective science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.  Since its inception, the Battelle Center has focused on two areas of work:  studying the role of public-private networks in STEM innovation and bringing potentially transformative analytic tools to bear in education research and policy.

» To learn more about the Battelle Center go to battellecenter.org

» To learn more about the Business-Higher Education Forum go to bhef.com