What Can the Gatton Academy Do for Kentucky?

1. Prepare Kentucky to Compete in a Knowledge-Based Economy
Ensure that Kentucky embraces the new knowledge economy – and reverses the downward trend in national ranking (from 39th to 42nd in the last three years). Get Kentucky off the 47th ranking for the number of scientists and engineers in the state.

2. Stop The Brain Drain
Provide appropriately challenging educational opportunities for high school juniors and seniors which will encourage them to stay in the state rather than to flee to find a challenge.

3. Eliminate the Achievement Gap
Realize that for highly talented young people who are interested in mathematics and science, the achievement gap to be eliminated is between the learning opportunities available and their potential to learn at exceptionally high levels.

4. Create Higher Paying Jobs
Create jobs for scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in Kentucky so that our talented young people will choose to spend their adult lives in our Commonwealth.

5. Be the Beacon of Excellence
Serve as the catalyst for raising achievement and interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics at all educational levels.

The U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century says in its report, Road Map for National Security: Imperative for Change (February 15, 2001): “Second only to a weapon of mass destruction detonating in an American city, we can think of nothing more dangerous than a failure to manage properly science, technology, and education for the common good over the next quarter century ... The capacity of America’s educational system to create a 21st century workforce second to none in the world is a national security issue of the first order. As things stand, this country is forfeiting that capacity.”

Kentucky’s Science and Technology Corporation recently conducted the Kentucky Survey of Critical Technologies (2004) “which studied teacher awareness levels in twenty-five scientific concepts shaping the face of modern science – as well as Kentucky’s competitive standing in the knowledge-based economy. This survey brought strategic attention to the implications of science teachers not being aware of, nor teaching, many of these new technologies.”

The final report by The National Commission on the Senior Year, Raising Our Sights (2001), outlines “the need to raise our sights to prepare more students for college and an increasingly complex world of work, to enroll more students in rigorous academic programs, to provide greater economic returns, and to ensure that our democracy continues to flourish.” A recommendation by the Commission in its final report is to “greatly expand the opportunity for high school students to experience the challenges of college-level work and increase the number of ‘middle college’ options for older students in the last two years of high school.”

North Carolina can well attest to what an academy can do for a state – and they’ve known it for 26 years! The North Carolina School for Science and Mathematics (NCSSM) was established in l980. According to the National Science Foundation, North Carolina increased its number of scientists and engineers by 125% from 1980 to 1990. NCSSM reports that 66% of their students stay in-state to finish their degrees and 57% stay or return to live and work.

Kentucky juniors and seniors in high school who have exceptional interest and ability in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics need opportunities to learn at the highest levels possible and many high schools cannot meet their needs for advanced learning. The Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky will enable Kentucky’s exceptional young mathematicians and scientists to learn in an environment which offers advanced educational opportunities, preparing them for leadership roles in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

“When in my sophomore year one of my teachers brought to my attention an escape from the barriers to my learning, I was filled with a desperate eagerness. There was actually a program where I could go and finally be rewarded to try to find my potential instead of being chained down by others – a school meant for young kids to learn at a college level and earn college credit. In public school I was constantly searching, but had no means to really find what my limits were. I might now be able to find them and push them with the renewed vigor of getting visible results. It will be hard to move so far from home, but the pursuit of knowledge is more important than a limit such as distance.”

Tony Montemayor,
Bowling Green, KY, student who left as a sophomore to attend St. Simon’s Rock College in MA through early admission