Twelve years of growth and success at Douglas L. Jamerson elementary school center for mathematics and engineering

Abstract

Douglas L Jamerson Jr. Elementary School (DLJ) opened as a U.S. Department of Education Magnet School in August 2003 in the 26th largest public school district in the country with over 75 elementary schools. Utilizing a three-year Magnet School grant, DLJ established a Center for Mathematics and Engineering to developed and then implement its integrated, whole school curriculum with engineering as the core and the connector. The results of this careful planning and meticulous attention to details produced an elementary school environment that fosters student creative thinking with the expectation of quantitative metrics to gauge that creativity. The merit of this total emersion of engineering into an elementary curriculum is reflected in student scores on standardized test as well as a plethora of awards and acknowledgements for the school including being named the top elementary STEM program in the nation by the 2015 Future of Education Technology Conference, (http://www.pcsb.org/jamerson-es). This paper promotes the school's accomplishments and provides insight into the DLJ educational philosophy. It presents the structure of the program, discusses impediments to its success, reviews student scores on statewide tests, and indicates the schools ranking in comparison to other elementary school within their district over the last five years.