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During a regular breakfast meeting with industry leaders, Dr. Joe Hairston, Superintendent of the 104,000-student Baltimore County Public Schools (BCPS), had a “light bulb” moment. With leaders from Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Johns Hopkins University, University of Baltimore, Breakaway Games, and TrainingPort Strategies at the table, Hairston brainstormed about forming an innovative partnership to align the goals of industry with the goals of the district to boost STEM – science, technology, engineering and math education – in the Baltimore County Public Schools.
When the breakfast was over, Hairston had a commitment for a ground-breaking partnership and aggressive one-year timeline to bring state-of-the-art simulation technology into his district. With an emerging district emphasis on 21st century skill development, the partnership would serve as an opportunity to test new pedagogical approaches. Hairston did not simply want to teach children about technology, he wanted to use technology to engage students in the curriculum.
To kick things off, Hairston decided to build a high school virtual learning lab that would run software simulations already under development at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education (CTE). An evolution of a federal grant-driven prototype for testing the use of gaming and simulation in education at Johns Hopkins, the simulations – for environmental science, biology, and chemistry subjects – would be retooled to fit the needs of the curriculum in Baltimore County as specified by Dr. Hairston and his team. The team proceeded with strict adherence to the curriculum. “This is not about educational games,” said Hairston. “It is about games that educate.”
For Hairston, the partnership had to start with the school and the students most in need of investment from the community. He decided to pilot the virtual learning lab at Chesapeake High School, a struggling school in the district. Chesapeake, like many other failing urban high schools across the U.S., had a history plagued with problems. During Hairston’s 10-year tenure, Chesapeake had seen three principals come and go. BCPS had converted Chesapeake High from a comprehensive high school to a STEM Academy with specific career paths and an infusion of high-level and advanced placement classes, but they had not yet succeeded in changing the culture. The previous year, the school lost 150 students to magnet and private schools. It was a school from which both students and staff were walking away in droves. Historically, many parents of Chesapeake students worked in manufacturing jobs, but these jobs were declining in numbers and would likely not be available to their children. Chesapeake’s location on the eastern side of the county made it ideal for partnership with defense contractors, which were located and expanding in this part of the county, but the graduates of Chesapeake needed different skills to make their way in a highly competitive job market.
For industry leaders, the possibility of the partnership’s bringing them a more skilled workforce had great appeal. Their own expansion plans called for a workforce that required a different set of skills and goals than the prior generation possessed. To deliver this workforce, Chesapeake needed more than technology. The school needed an infusion of goals and aspirations. Hairston, a staunch believer in the power of public education, believed that a partnership could deliver both the technological advances as well as the community investment required to raise expectations and aspirations at Chesapeake. He believed it would stop the flight from Chesapeake to private and district magnet schools by giving students a good reason to stay.
