Justin Hill owns Worth Products, a metal fabrication company in Snow Hill, N.C. A lot of the manufacturing at his facility is performed by computer-guided machines but he still needs skilled workers. Hill employs engineers, machinists, welders and assembly workers, paying them on average about three times North Carolina’s $7.25 minimum wage.
Worth Products is growing and Hill sometimes has a hard time finding local workers with the right training. Still, he’s put a number of local high school students to work as apprentices and now has four employees who are simultaneously enrolled in a community college machining program. “It’s super exciting to see what they’re doing — the robotics, 3D printers, things that are opening doors in students’ minds that they never knew existed,” Hill says of the high schoolers. “Teaming up with Dr. Garcia in Greene County has definitely opened my eyes to how we can better fit into the school, so they know what’s here.”
He’s referring to José Garcia, who coordinates STEM programs throughout the Greene County school district. The county has an unusually coherent set of programs for STEM education and training that start as early as kindergarten and move up through community college. For example, middle and high school students participate in a challenge program each semester, working in teams to research, design and make a product that answers a specific local need. Garcia works to ensure that academically advanced students aren’t the only ones doing these projects, instead finding a mix of students who are high, middle and low achievers. The middle and high schools, as well as a county primary school, have been recognized as “STEM Schools of Distinction” by the state. “We’ve seen dozens of these students transition into the workforce and their impact is clearly felt,” says Trey Cash, an economic development official in the county.
Over the past 15 years, the share of students in the local school district who are Latino has grown from the single digits to more than a third. In Greene County, as is true across the country, school test scores for Latino students lag well behind those for white kids. They’re less likely to read or do math at grade level and they’re offered fewer opportunities such as college prep programs.
This performance gap is a challenge for America’s economy and society at large, creating a dangerous mismatch between the skills and training employers need to maintain a competitive economy and the workforce waiting in the wings. Over the past 50 years, the share of 13-year-old students who are Latino has grown from 5 percent to 29 percent. An estimated 78 percent of new workers between now and 2030 will be Hispanic. Even as the growth of STEM-related jobs is projected to outpace non-STEM jobs by a factor of nearly five over the next decade, less than 4 percent of current working Latinos have jobs in engineering, computers or science.
“We are so far behind,” says Juan Proaño, CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens, better known as LULAC, a nonprofit that works to advance Hispanic educational attainment. Latinos are interested in advanced technology careers, he says, but existing programs and initiatives aren’t creating a pipeline toward these jobs. “For example, there is no program anywhere in the U.S. for Latinos in AI,” Proaño says.
Garcia understands firsthand the kind of disadvantages migrant students can face, especially if they’re ever going to go on to college or graduate school. His family came to North Carolina from a farm in Mexico and he worked in the fields as a young person. The STEM and language programs he’s helped develop won’t solve all the educational needs and deficits that are common in disadvantaged communities. But Garcia argues that proficiency testing is not the only measure of what he’s trying to do, which includes boosting not just the future prospects but the self-esteem of his students. (He’s doubled as a coach during most of his 20-plus years at Greene County Schools and helped launch its soccer program.)
“If all you’re hearing is that you’re not good at testing, you start to lower your expectations,” he says. “We’re trying to show students that while assessments matter, they’re not going to define you. The other thing we’re going to do is help you grow your skills and give you opportunities.”
That’s paying off. Garcia has helped launch a set of STEM programs, often bilingual, that are preparing a new generation of highly skilled workers in Greene County. “A good portion of students from these programs have successfully found jobs in the area,” says Cash, the economic development director. “You have economic development, you have manufacturers, you have the school system and the community college system all working together to improve the workforce right here.”
In his role as STEM coordinator for the district, Garcia has integrated science and tech curriculum throughout all grade levels. Kids are presented with a rich mix of hands-on activities, off-site learning, summer STEM camps and exposure to local careers, among other opportunities. In Greene County, elementary schools are split into two grades apiece. Even at Snow Hill Primary, a school for kindergarteners and first graders, every student participates in STEM classes, visiting a STEM lab each week. They present “junior challenges” akin to the projects that the middle and high schoolers take on, presenting their work at a K-12 expo each spring.
The district’s biggest innovations in bilingual education took root at Snow Hill Primary. Even 20 years ago, the local Latino population was growing in East Carolina; the only resource the school had to address this change was a bilingual employee who was not a teacher. Young English learners trailed her all day, relying on her as a translator. In 2003, the district began a dual-language immersion program known as Los Puentes (puente being the Spanish word for bridge).
Half of Los Puentes students are native English speakers and half Spanish. Parents must apply and slots are determined by lottery. (Certified English as a second language [ESL] instructors are available to teach elementary students who aren’t part of Los Puentes.) Students enter in kindergarten and stay in through fifth grade. No matter their home language, Los Puentes students study math and science in Spanish, while social studies, English and language arts are taught in both languages.
There’s a reason demand outpaces the number of spots. Kids with Spanish as their primary language who have gone through Los Puentes are less likely to drop out than the student population as a whole. “My theory is that it’s because they’ve been exposed to teachers who look like them,” Cain says, “who are highly educated and promoting them to move forward.”
Attempts to expand Los Puentes into middle school haven’t succeeded, in part because of the draw of competing options such as sports, but ESL support is again available at that level. High school students can enroll in STEM classes taught in Spanish. Communication with parents is conducted in both English and Spanish.
The school district maintains a close partnership with Lenoir Community College, which in turn coordinates closely with local industry. High school students can earn an associate’s degree from Lenoir, tuition-free, along with their diplomas. The college offers certification programs in HVAC, electrical and energy distribution, welding and automotive systems in both English and Spanish. There’s also an Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing Center that offers training in mechanical engineering, industrial systems technology, aviation and computer-integrated machining.
The student population at Lenoir Community College is divided roughly 50-50 between students pursuing degrees and those seeking job skills or certification. “Our institution started out with more of a workforce development mindset,” says John Paul Black, vice president of student services and workforce development at the college.
Already, there are jobs in robotics and electronics manufacturing in Snow Hill. Agriculture remains the leading employer, but crop and livestock manufacturing rely increasingly on technology. At the food processing plants, not every job requires STEM skills, but workers with such skills are needed to ensure safe operations.
It’s not always the norm for community colleges to make sure their workforce development programs are in sync with local jobs, but there are missed opportunities when they don’t. Most community college graduates end up working within 50 miles of their schools, according to Joseph Fuller, a professor of management practice at Harvard University. Employers in the Lenoir-Greene area recognize the value of the various STEM programs in the schools and at the college, Cash says. Many are eager to hire bilingual workers, especially Los Puentes graduates.
This will translate into good-paying jobs for those with the right skills. That’s what the various programs and collaborations in the Greene County area are all about. Snow Hill, the county seat and the headquarters of its school district, has about 1,500 residents. A much bigger world is opening up to young people there. Creech, the superintendent, recalls visiting a class of third graders who had been asked where they’d go on vacation if they could go anywhere. One student told him he’d like to visit Goldsboro one day — located just 20 miles from Snow Hill.
The STEM programs in Greene County Schools have succeeded in broadening the horizons of many local students, including a growing share of Latinos, even as it’s helped improve their personal prospects. “We are optimistic about the future,” Cash says, “as these programs are producing the skilled workers our community needs to thrive.”
