Acomprehensive focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) will dramatically benefit our local public school students.

It’s a new focus for public schools and one that presents quite a challenge, but also an opportunity for Hawaii businesses to make a positive impact. The National Assessment of Educational Progress for Hawaii released in January, and the most recent Hawaii Statement Assessment test scores in the STEM fields, indicate a less than 25 percent proficiency for fourth- and eighth-graders in science and a less than 50 percent proficiency in mathematics for public school students statewide.

Couple that with the tens of millions of dollars needed to upgrade the science labs and classrooms at our middle and high schools, and the challenge becomes one of bringing together a new type of curriculum and a large financial need, against the backdrop of a huge budget deficit.

The Public Schools of Hawaii Foundation (PSHF) is a community-based organization focused on fostering a high-quality teaching environment that positively impacts student development. We believe in and support the benefits of partnership, alignment, collaboration and all that other good stuff. For 25 years, we’ve preached the virtues of having a board of trustees with business, community and educational leaders and have built a strong and loyal support group in the community. And now is the time to take the lessons that have been learned and leverage them; take what works in our select circle and move it to a larger stage.

The foundation recently embarked on such a partnership with Roosevelt High School, and we encourage other local business and government leaders to ask themselves how they can follow this lead:

» Part 1: A new science lab at Roosevelt High School built within six weeks at a cost of $250,000.

» Part 2: Math and science teacher training for teachers within the Roosevelt complex. These include teachers at the elementary and middle schools that feed into Roosevelt High School.

» Part 3: PSHF’s Good Idea Grant program that offers annual grants to teachers to promote innovative learning in the classroom.

Price tag: $500,000-plus, all funded by the Public Schools of Hawaii Foundation.

The sum of all the parts is too large in terms of effort and cost for any organization to implement at all of the public school complexes in Hawaii, as a renovation of science labs statewide alone will run in the tens of millions of dollars. But if one business together with the state Department of Education could adopt a school complex, along with PSHF’s supporting Good Idea Grant program, the enormous task becomes manageable.

As a state, we have DOE’s commitment to STEM, and schools are ready to make the commitment to succeed. The science labs are on the list of items to be delivered by Santa, preferably via government funding and, if not, an alternative would be a combination of public and private funding.

The high tech and science communities Hawaii has started to build can provide mentoring and guidance while sharing their expertise. In fact, this is already happening now when one looks at the efforts made by Oceanit, a science and engineering company located in Hawaii that has made its scientists and engineers accessible to our public schools serving as mentors for the FIRST Robotics and FIRST LEGO League, judges for the Hawaii State Science Fair and hosts of Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day.

Nonprofits, businesses and other organizations can assist in many ways as Queen’s Health Systems has done in conjunction with the Howard Hughes Medical Foundation in awarding Stevenson Middle School a $750,000 grant to promote science education and interest in the health care profession.

Partnerships, alignment and collaboration. Check, check and check. So you know what? We can. The next question: Will we?