Support Innovative Education!

When you give now, you provide an innovative school with the momentum to move forward into the new year, energized to enrich our most precious resource for the future, our youth.

Since 2001, education professionals have been talking about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, and the critical need to rethink how these subjects are being taught in schools. La Crescent Montessori & STEM School has adopted a STEM philosophy in which Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics play an integral part of the teaching as a whole. The school has added highly specialized professional applications to introduce the upper elementary and junior high students to the CAD engineering program, robotics, computerized animation, and alternative energy sources. Additionally, it is the only school in this area that has integrated STEM as part of the core curriculum rather than as an elective.

In recent years, there has been a significant decline in the number of college students choosing majors in STEM related fields. This is in spite of the fact that the National Science Foundation “estimates that 80% of the jobs created in the next decade will require some form of math and science skills.” La Crescent Montessori Academy’s alumni have bucked this trend. Even before the introduction of the STEM curriculum, 56% of LMA’s alumni entered into a post-secondary STEM related field of study. The school has exceeded the national percentage of females entering in to post-secondary STEM fields of study with 48% of its girls represented in this group. We will continue to track the students who are enrolled in the current STEM curriculum and anticipate greater growth and success in the future.

Unfortunately, education funding at both the state and federal level is either being cut, allowed to expire, or simply “held-back.” Large public school districts; who typically stick to traditional, failed methods; are able to weather the financial storms because they may levy for taxes, borrow from traditional sources, and operate in statutory operating debt for years, even decades. None of these are true for charter schools, which are held to a higher standard. Small public schools, like La Crescent Montessori & STEM School, end up struggling to pay for the materials and technology required to offer innovative educational opportunities.

Again, please consider supporting a public school that values a rigorous academic program while maintaining a community of small class size with individual attention. Help provide the vital support in the new year for these critical education efforts by making a gift today.