Make STEM Core, Not Extra

In turnaround work, you learn quickly that what looks “extra” on paper is often essential in practice. STEM education is one of those things.

Somewhere along the way, STEM became categorized as enrichment. A nice to have. An add on. A bonus if you can afford it. A reward model if students behave or if the schedule has room. I will say this as plainly as possible from the messy middle of school turnaround work: at the middle school level, STEM is not extra. For many of our students, STEM is the hook.

We are in a national attendance and truancy crisis. We can talk policy, enforcement, incentives, and consequences. Those matter. We also have to talk about desire, urgency, and relevance. The reason a student chooses to get out of bed and show up.

You can hear the difference when STEM is embedded in the culture of a school.I can’t miss school. We are flying drones today. I have to be there. My robot is not ready for the competition. We are testing our prototype. My team is counting on me.

That is not compliance. That is commitment.

In turnaround spaces, especially in communities where dropping out of high school is common and disengagement starts early, we cannot afford to treat engagement as fluff. High interest electives are not schedule decorations. They are attendance strategies. They are relationship builders. They are identity shapers. They are often the first place a student feels competent, needed, and successful.

I will be honest. It is frustrating to have to keep justifying STEM to leadership while simultaneously trying to figure out how to support these classes with little to no funding. It is exhausting to defend what you see working right in front of you. When you watch students who struggle in traditional academic settings come alive while building, coding, designing, testing, failing, and trying again, the value is not theoretical. It is visible.

STEM does more than build critical thinking, collaboration, and problem solving, though it absolutely does all three at high levels. It builds productive struggle. It normalizes iteration. It reframes failure as feedback. It gives students a reason to persist when something does not work the first time. That mindset transfers directly into math, literacy, and life.

STEM classrooms are often the only places where students experience all of the following at once:

• Real time feedback instead of delayed grading

• Visible progress instead of abstract scores

• Team accountability instead of isolated work

• Applied math instead of worksheet math

• Purposeful reading instead of disconnected passages

• Communication with a real audience instead of just the teacher

Students are not asking, “When will I ever use this?” They are already using it.

For adolescents, especially those who have already decided that school is not “for them,” relevance is oxygen. STEM provides relevance in a way few other structures can. It connects learning to careers, to technology, to real world problems, to tangible outcomes. It helps students see a future version of themselves as engineers, designers, technicians, programmers, pilots, creators, and builders.

In communities where generational poverty and dropout patterns exist, that vision matters. Exposure matters. Early success experiences matter. The moment a student says, “I’m good at this,” can become the moment they reconsider their trajectory.

At our school, high interest electives, including STEM pathways, are not side programs. They are a significant part of our attendance and engagement plan to reduce chronic absenteeism and truancy. We track it. We see it. Students show up. Students stay.

Turnaround is not only about raising test scores. It is about rebuilding belief. STEM helps rebuild belief. Belief that school can be meaningful. Belief that effort produces results. Belief that intelligence is not fixed. Belief that the future is buildable.

Before we talk about schedules, credits, and compliance, we have to talk about engagement. In turnaround schools, engagement is not a side strategy. It is a core lever for attendance, achievement, and long term student persistence. When students see learning as active, relevant, and connected to real skills, they show up differently. High interest STEM electives are not extras on a master schedule. They are strategic engagement drivers that give students a reason to be present, to participate, and to persist through challenge. They build confidence through doing, create visible success moments, and connect learning to future pathways that feel real and reachable. If we are serious about reducing chronic absenteeism and disrupting dropout patterns, then we must be equally serious about offering hands on, purpose driven STEM experiences. Below are a list of the classes we have implemented or were unable to implement due to restrictions on funding or support.

Examples of High Engagement Middle School STEM Classes

Drone Flight School (current class offering)

Students learn the fundamentals of drone operation, safety, and flight through hands on experience. The course covers responsible piloting, basic regulations, and drone maintenance while students develop real flying skills. Activities include obstacle courses, flight challenges, and team competitions that build precision, focus, and technical understanding.

STEM Problem Solving (current class offering)

Students tackle real world challenges using the engineering design process and structured problem solving strategies. Through collaborative, hands on projects, they design, test, revise, and improve solutions that integrate science, technology, engineering, and math. This course builds strong foundations in teamwork, design thinking, and applied STEM skills.

Sustainable Solutions

Students apply advanced STEM thinking to authentic community and environmental challenges. Working like real design teams, they create and present eco friendly, practical solutions for real or simulated clients. The course emphasizes innovation, collaboration, sustainability, and impact driven design.

Sustainable Home Design (current course offering)

Students explore architecture, engineering, and environmental sustainability by designing cost conscious, energy efficient container homes. They research materials, energy use, and community needs, then build a detailed scale model home with functional features such as lighting. The course blends design, engineering, and environmental awareness.

Robotics and Intelligent Systems

Students design, build, and program robots to complete tasks and challenges. They learn basic coding, mechanical design, sensors, and troubleshooting while working in teams. Through iterative testing and competition challenges, students develop persistence, logical thinking, and systems design skills.

Solving Something Small in a Big Way (current class offering)

Students design and build complex chain reaction machines that complete simple tasks in elaborate ways. This course emphasizes creativity, physics concepts, sequencing, and iterative testing. Students learn how small design decisions affect large system outcomes while practicing patience and precision.

Innovation Lab and Prototype Studio

Students identify everyday problems and invent practical solutions through rapid prototyping and testing. Using simple materials and maker tools, they sketch, build, test, and improve working models. The focus is on creativity, user centered design, and learning through productive failure and revision.

Photography and Visual Storytelling

Students learn the fundamentals of photography, composition, and visual storytelling while exploring how images communicate ideas and emotion. Using digital cameras, students practice lighting, framing, perspective, and editing techniques through hands on projects and themed photo challenges. The course blends art and technology while building observation skills, creativity, and media literacy, culminating in a curated photo showcase or portfolio.

We should not be asking whether we can afford to support STEM in middle schools. We should be asking whether we can afford not to. The harder truth, and one that many turnaround schools quietly carry, is that even when students raise their hands and choose these courses, even when schedules are built and interest is high, some of these classes never launch. Students are then funneled into more traditional electives (art, physical education, music) that don't spark their interest.

We have had to pull back on planned STEM classes after student selection because funding for supplies was denied or unavailable. That is not a failure of student interest or teacher capacity. It is a resource reality, and it is not unique to our school. Across high need communities, high engagement STEM opportunities are often the first to be cut and the hardest to fund, even though they are among the strongest drivers of attendance, connection, and future readiness. If we are serious about engagement and long term outcomes, then funding hands on STEM learning cannot remain optional on paper while being essential in practice.

When students feel like they are missing something important if they are absent, attendance stops being a rule and starts being a choice. That is when real change begins. If they aren't at school, they are missing out on so much more that STEM.

What STEM programs are you implementing? What are your funding sources? How are you fighting to get these programs into your schools? We would love to know what other leaders are doing to make this happen in their schools.