Oak Ridge Schools is the first district in Tennessee—and only the second entire district in the world—to earn district-wide STEM certification from AdvancED, officials said Friday. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The picture above includes administrators from Oak Ridge Schools and Oak Ridge High School. (Photo by Oak Ridge Schools)

Oak Ridge Schools is the first district in Tennessee—and only the second entire district in the world—to earn district-wide STEM certification from AdvancED, officials said Friday. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Oak Ridge High School received STEM certification from AdvancED on Friday, making the Oak Ridge school district the first entire district in the state to be STEM-certified by AdvancED, a press release said.

“Oak Ridge High School is also the first comprehensive high school in the state to earn this distinction as an entire school, as opposed (to) certifying a single STEM program area,” the press release said.

The release said that AdvancED implements a research-based framework and criteria for the awareness, continuous improvement, and assessment of the quality, rigor, and substance of STEM educational programs. [Read more…]