The Worthington City School District's Project Lead the Way program recently achieved national certification, which means students completing the required courses could earn college credit at major universities such as Ohio State, Penn State, Duke and Purdue while still in high school.

Thomas Worthington High School teacher Bryan Brown said students can now earn "transcripted credit."

"If a student from a freshman to a senior takes one of our courses and completes the course and passes an engineering test at the end, they can get transcripted credit, which means the student would not need to take that course when he gets to college," he said. "Some courses students take in high school count as elective credit, but with transcripted credit, students can exempt out of a college course if they want to."

The district's Project Lead the Way began three years ago, but it is not just for students interested in engineering careers, Brown said.

"The program was developed to satisfy a deficit the country was having in technology- and engineering-related fields, but that covers a broad range of careers," he said. "Our program helps students develop a higher order of knowledge and skills to allow him or her to be successful in any STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields. Any students interested in the STEM fields could benefit from this program."

Available at both Thomas Worthington and Worthington Kilbourne, the program has about 350 students currently enrolled.

The final steps in certification meant a national Project Lead the Way team coming in to observe classes and talk to students, teachers, administrators and parents.

"Teachers don't normally ask people to come in and critique us and we usually don't allow people to pull kids out of class and talk to them privately, but when a team of national Lead the Way members came in, that's what they did," Brown said. "They talked to building and district administrators first to get their perceptions of the program, then guidance counselors and parents, then pulled students randomly out of class to quiz them on the program."

Brown said the national team also talked to the program's advisory members, who are business people or engineers in the community.

After looking at test scores, the national team did some scoring of its own.

"We scored high in all of their categories, which gave us national certification, but they did say although we had done a good job recruiting minorities, that there is a national need for more women in engineering, so we have to do a better job of recruiting female students," he said.

Brown said he hopes to help students and parents to understand "engineering is not just some guy with bifocals sitting in a cubicle.

"We want them to know that you can make a real difference in the world and a real impact in engineering, technology, math and science professions," he said. "You could make an impact through medicine, or in finding better food sources to eliminate hunger.

"This program is not just for people who want to build bridges or make cars," he said.

Parents and students can find out more about Project Lead the Way by talking to guidance counselors or e-mailing Brown at BBrown@worthington.k12.oh.us.