Education Partnership With Battelle is a Partnership with Ohio, Too

One of the focuses of Tennessee’s Race to the Top application is strengthening the way science and math are taught. A key piece of the proposal is a partnership with science and technology firm Battelle – and with another state.

In Tennessee, Battelle manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory and works with the University of Tennessee.

The company’s headquarters are in Ohio, and a partnership with that state has lead to a network of education programs in what’s called the STEM* disciplines: science, technology, engineering and math.

Governor Phil Bredesen says the plan is to build a similar network in Tennessee that’s joined, in some ways, to the one in Ohio.

“Exchanging teachers, exchanging students. If we develop great ways of teaching this or lab techniques in Tennessee, show them in Ohio and vice versa.”

The partnership does not depend on Tennessee winning a Race to the Top grant. However, the size and scope of the program does.

The federal grant application outlines plans to create new STEM academies in the Knoxville and Metro Nashville school districts, an online math and science high school, regional hubs with resources for teachers, and programs to enhance math and science teacher training at the state’s universities.