Future-proof the economy with K-12 STEM programs

Our youth don’t have the luxury of waiting for post-secondary to develop STEM competencies

It’s fine for political leaders to project general visions of Canadian excellence in a future that’s suddenly shorn of American friendship and protection. But national excellence, prosperity and security will depend on the size of our talent pool, especially in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. The pool could be vast, but it isn’t.

A May 2024 Leger poll commissioned by the think-tank SecondStreet.org found that 55 per cent of Canadians believe public education has gone in the “wrong direction” in the last 20 years — up from 51 per cent in 2023 and 32 per cent in 2020. The teaching of math is one commonly stated concern.

Evidence bears out these parents’ perceptions. Due, arguably, to “discovery” learning, a reigning theory among math pedagogues, in which pathways to solutions are eschewed in favour of students figuring them out independently, 50 per cent of Ontario’s Grade 6 students don’t meet the provincial standard in mathematics. (If it’s any comfort, Harvard University has, for the first time in its history, launched a course for incoming students to supplement poor foundational algebra skills.)

Artificial Intelligence and robotics are no longer the future. They are the present. Elsewhere, that is. Israel, for example, teaches robotics in kindergarten. In 2022, in a groundbreaking achievement for Israel’s space program, a constellation of research nano-satellites was launched into space from Cape Canaveral, Fla., aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. They were constructed by junior high students.

It’s not my habit to curse the darkness without pointing to a candle. We have a model for what can be accomplished — and what a high-wattage candle it is.

Calgary’s STEM Innovation Academy (SIA), which serves students in grades 7 through 12, is one of Alberta’s many successful charter schools. It was co-founded by Lisa Davis, whose background is in commercial real estate, and Sarah Bieber, a counsellor and therapist. Long involved in public education at the school board level, Davis came to the SIA project with an intimate understanding of the public system’s deficits.

In an interview, Davis told me that when COVID hit, she realized we were in the midst of a “once-in-a-generational shift” to an advanced, technology-driven economy, and that our schools were “woefully unprepared to teach innovative subjects in this area.” Her real-estate background helped her put together the SIA deal in 2023 with the Alberta government, which has led the way in its support for charter schools.

Today, SIA occupies 70 per cent of the 2,000 spaces in a charter hub facility, according to Davis. SIA courses include biomedical sciences, digital media and design (both 2D and 3D), coding, robotics, clean tech, cryptocurrency and game design.

Davis is justly proud of SIA’s swift upward trajectory. In September, they expect to have 1,800 students in Calgary and 500 in a “sister” school in Edmonton. Davis says SIA has “turned away thousands,” adding that its rate of growth at the upper grade levels “has never been achieved in the history of (education) choice.”

Davis ticks off SIA’s laurels: First in Alberta for math among schools that do not select their enrolment, even beating a private school charging $25,000 a year in tuition. First in science achievement in Alberta. Where the rest of Alberta has an 83 per cent “acceptable” and a 38 per cent “excellence” rating in biology 30, SIA boasts ratings of 100 per cent “acceptable” and 74 per cent “excellence,” according to Davis. Similar disparities hold for English and social studies.

Entrance to the tuition-free SIA is done by lottery, so these outcomes are plausibly linked to student interest in the content and the school’s exemplary teaching — no time is wasted on counter-productive educational or social-justice theories.

The school is also developing online courses, which will be available to any Alberta students and will meet Alberta accreditation standards. SIA benefits from a technology advisory committee, comprised of senior STEM experts in industry and universities, who provide insights into global STEM trends and direction for curriculum content.

Education is a provincial responsibility, but it is natural for premiers to think parochially, not nationally. In 2023, Ontario Premier Doug Ford put $224 million into training centres to boost skilled trades. That’s commendable, but it won’t produce a national, wealth-producing innovation economy. (Although Davis and her colleagues would welcome their interest, not a single education minister from the other provinces has requested an opportunity to visit STEM Innovation Academy.)

It is up to the federal government to provide a coherent national strategy for upping our innovation game. Will Canada become known as a startup nation or remain a get-in-line nation, with our security dependent on other nations’ political self-interest? If we choose the former, our youth don’t have the luxury of waiting for post-secondary to develop STEM competencies.