Ansonia, CT, like many communities across America, had a rich and vibrant manufacturing history. In 1930, Connecticut had more patents issued per capita than any other state. Across the United States, the US Patent and Trademark Office issued one patent per three thousand population. Connecticut inventors were issued one patent for every 700–1,000 residents. These patents and products helped propel Connecticut into a manufacturing boom.
A Manufacturing Leader
In the early to mid-1800s, Connecticut was a leader in the manufacturing of quality firearms (Colt, Winchester Repeating Arms, Sturm, Ruger & Company, and Mossberg & Sons), clocks, timepieces, watches (Eli Terry, Seth Thomas, Ansonia Clock Company, Waterbury Clock Company, Bridgeport Clock Company, General Time, New England Clock Company, and Timex), metal goods (American Brass, Ansonia Copper and Brass, Waterbury Brass Company, International Silver Company), and hardware/tools (Stanley Works, Sargent Manufacturing, Yale Lock Company).
In the 1920s, Connecticut became a hub of military manufacturing from shipbuilding (Electric Boat) to helicopter (Sikorsky) and aircraft construction (Pratt and Whitney). During this time of tremendous growth and production, education and industry worked symbiotically to ensure we had a workforce for our growing economy. Public education ensured that the curriculum met the needs of the growing workforce and our thriving local economy.
College Education: Necessary or Not?
In the 1980s, the need for college-educated workers increased (for high-paying jobs). The supply of college-educated workers slowed to 2 percent. Conversely, the demand showed we needed a supply over 3 percent of college-educated workers to meet industry needs. Americans were led to believe that if they wanted their child to have access to high-paying jobs, college was a must. If their child and school system didn’t push a pathway to college, school districts were doing the community and the child a disservice.
In the 2000s, Connecticut saw high-paying jobs and large corporations leaving the state (General Electric, UBS, and Aetna). As jobs and businesses moved out or closed, many communities haven’t found a way to reinvent themselves. Public education needs to be the catalyst to spawn the next Renaissance or Risorgimento. The focus of education should be forward-thinking, and STEM education is linked to our educational rebirth for college or career.
Community and Implementing STEM
Understanding my community dynamics and expectations in Ansonia, Connecticut, was imperative to me as a school leader. Especially when implementing a focus on STEM education. Committing to a STEM focus has been a process, especially while managing pandemic concerns. Systemic change can only occur if there is trust, understanding, and ongoing communication with community partners. Ansonia, Connecticut, is a small, tight-knit, manufacturing community. STEM education is not a big leap. The readiness level of the community and the deep history helped support the incorporation of STEM education. Many saw STEM as the next step in our evolution as a school system and community.
When our community saw Ansonia High School students receive summer internships at Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin, a large aerospace and defense company, stakeholders took notice and wanted to see more partnerships. Through working with our community partner—Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin— Ansonia Public Schools was able to offer externship opportunities to Ansonia High School teachers and guidance staff. These externships were mutually designed by the district, staff, and aerospace company. To ensure we got a true picture of our students, we conducted a study to see if this interest survey coincided with our community partnerships. As a district, we spent time reviewing statistics from the Department of Labor. This helped us determine what courses needed to be updated and what courses needed to be reviewed.
A Deep Dive
We took a deep dive into our antiquated requirements. We re-evaluated if we needed to eliminate a course offering or offer it to students as an independent study. This study was done to determine if the needs and interests of our students coincided with our new pathways. Additionally, we needed to know if our pathways reflected and reinforced our district’s commitment to STEM education. Ansonia Public School’s commitment to STEM education, community partnerships, and the need for our students to have greater options have helped us develop college and career pathways in the areas of allied health, manufacturing, and cybersecurity.
These community partnerships in STEM education have renewed students’ interest in course offerings. They have also made teachers excited to teach content that students are passionate about. The full embrace of STEM education from elementary to high school has been a community effort. The all-levels approach is our best effort to make our students more competitive in the global marketplace.
Being forward-focused is critical to the success and evolution of public education. However, this is not without its challenges. Curriculum revision is a daunting and expensive undertaking for any school district. Then, add the next layer of informing teachers that they need to incorporate STEM into their everyday instruction. Teacher overload is real. We need to make STEM part of everyday instruction, not see it as one more thing we need to do.
Enlisting a Community
To assist in this effort, we enlist your learning community. Utilizing our private, public, and community colleges has transformed STEM. Districts have planned for digital learning, but having a true STEM focus district-wide takes planning, training, qualified staff, and resources. Some districts are fortunate to have staff trained explicitly in STEM education. However, many other districts have limited funds and resources and spend their time trying to fill and retain staff. This has been a real challenge because it has become harder to recruit and retain staff during the pandemic and the national teacher shortage.
Understanding staff limitations and available resources, school leaders look toward technology and online resources to help bolster STEM education. The teacher shortage cannot prevent school districts from finding ways to give students the best opportunity for success. How other communities have partnered with online STEM programming has made a considerable difference in providing high-quality STEM education. Districts often decide which students will receive the benefits of STEM education. Our district made a promise to provide STEM to all learners. We ensured that most underrepresented students in STEM education (low-income, female, and minority students) had the same level of access.
A Call to Action
The day I heard Barack Obama tell Congress and the nation that STEM education “is our generation’s Sputnik movement” was a call to action. I was compelled to do more with STEM education because I kept reading about companies moving out of state or country. After all, they wanted to be closer to their workforce. We clearly needed to step up our game in education and work with our business partners to ensure that companies, skilled jobs, and career opportunities remained part of the local community.
Our approach to STEM education is to make it available to all students, dispel STEM stereotypes, and make STEM learning available at all hours (online) and accessible to our afterschool partners as well. We are by no means where I would like to see our district in STEM education. However, we are much further along than I could have ever dreamed. It is a hope of mine that rather than seeing STEM as separate content areas, we will be able to seamlessly blend content in a manner consistent with STEM education, and students will build the skills and abilities to be a force in the global marketplace.
About the Author
DR. JOSEPH DIBACCO
Ansonia 2.0—creating a rebirth in a “manufacturing belt” community is what Superintendent of Schools Dr. Joseph DiBacco is doing in Ansonia, Connecticut. DiBacco’s district has been highlighted multiple times on WTNH “What’s Right With Schools”, highlighting a middle school woman in engineering partnership with Sikorsky and recently showcasing Ansonia High School’s STEM career pathways in engineering, allied health, and cyber-security. DiBacco’s work with the Teamsters and Sikorsky has helped create summer engineering internship opportunities for high school students. Dr. DiBacco’s passion is infectious, and it wasn’t a surprise that he was asked to deliver the commencement speech at Quinnipiac University School of Education, Class of 2021, on May 9, 2021. Dr. DiBacco is a leader dedicated to creating opportunities and fostering community and business connections that will allow his students to have opportunities they never saw possible.
