OSU & Battelle Open a New Kind of High School

The Dispatch is running this very interesting article about a new type of high school opening this year, which will be the first of it’s kind in Ohio.

A new high school? Big deal.

But this high school has the backing of Battelle and Ohio State University, behemoths that will put muscle behind its math and science focus. It will be small, free and open to students in the 16 Franklin County public school districts.

And there’s nothing like it in Ohio, and few if any comparisons in the country.

The Metro School will open this fall to ninth-graders and add a grade each of the next three years. Only 100 students will be admitted in each grade.

“It’s an unprecedented partnership,” said Brad Mitchell, CEO of the Educational Council, a consortium of the Franklin County school districts. “It’s a unique public-private partnership. This will help make high school more relevant, successful, rigorous.”

Education leaders nationally and in Ohio have said schools need to produce more students skilled in science, technology, engineering and math — the socalled STEM disciplines, which are viewed as being important job-generating fields.

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