East Technical High School
"Home of the Golden Scarabs"

Terry L. Butler
Principal

December 19. 1997

     The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper writes of East Technical High School, once the pride of the Cleveland Public School System with distinguished graduates such as the late Jesse Owens, as 'The New Miracle on East 55th Street'.

    Just five years ago, East Tech an urban high school located in the center of Cleveland's most impoverished housing projects was slated for closing. The enrollment had dropped to 900 students. The daily student absentee rate was 34%, the school had a dropout rate of close to 50% and only 43% had passed the State Proficiency Test. It was at this low ebb that a number of events happened to change the academic stories and futures of these students.

    A new dynamic principal said "YES" when an engineer from the NASA/Lewis Research Center introduced the FIRST program to the school. The change was not apparent in the beginning, but soon NASA engineers and 15 students were daily working and having fun with math and science as they built their competitive robot. Soon the FIRST Robotic Program became the activity of choice. Other students for the first time began going regularly to their math and science classes. They just had to find out what is going on and what was the progress of this robot named "TECH FORCE". Each day after school the FIRST Student Engineering Team would divide into their sub-teams and build their 'Champion Robot'.

    Hesitant in the beginning the Cleveland news media began covering this story. Were these inner-city kids good enough to compete in this national math and science competition in Orlando, Florida? At the competition the East Tech students, not sure of their own ability, soon won match after match and were in first place. A phone call went back to East Tech. The principal then announced over the PA system the good news, "East Tech is doing well and presently in first place." Students in the classrooms cheered "TECH FORCE" for five minutes, they were so proud that their classmates were excelling at the FIRST Competition. The East Tech students competing at Epcot and the students cheering in the classrooms made the 6 o'clock news on the local TV stations. The FIRST Team proudly finished ninth out of 150 teams.

    The East Tech FIRST Student Engineering Team now has 40 members. Students are running to and hitting the books in all their classes to earn the 3.00 GPA necessary to qualify for the team. Presently more students try out for the FIRST team than for the football and basketballs teams combined, even though Each Tech won the City Football Championship this year for the first time in its 110 year history. Students are transferring into East Tech from all over the city and some are event coming in from the suburbs. Our enrollment is now at 1400. We have become the Science and Engineering Magnet School for the District. Our attendance rate is at 82%, tops for high schools in the District, and 71% of our students have passed the State Proficiency Tests. Our 12 graduates from the FIRST Student Engineering Team, everyone is enrolled in a four year engineering program at the university level.

    The FIRST team has been recognized and awarded by two United States Representatives from Ohio, Congressman Louis Stokes and Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. The May of Cleveland, Michael White, has praised them for their accomplishments. Team members are invited to present their math and science project at educational conventions all over the Midwest. They demonstrated their robot at the Space and Defense Days Program at TRW, Inc., at Pathfinder Days at NASA and kicked off the City of Cleveland's National Air Show. Parents of the FIRST Team are proud to have their sons and daughters excelling in math and science and are grateful they are enrolled at a school that hosts a FIRST Team. East Tech is now the 'Lighthouse School' for Math and Science in the Cleveland School District, 'A Miracle Is Taking Place On East 55th Street And It Began With FIRST.'

Sincerely,