Barkley Bridge Elementary School students and faculty alike, all donned in bright yellow, gathered in the school gymnasium last Friday morning to celebrate the school’s most recent achievement.

Barkley Bridge recently attained its AdvancED STEM certification and are only the second elementary school in Alabama to do so.

Dr. Andre Harrison with the Alabama State Department of Education visited the students and faculty to congratulate them on their success.

“This does not happen without your good teachers who are in your classroom who are there to help you,” Harrison said to the students.

Harrison said among the 36,000 institutions in 70 countries, only 136 schools are AdvancED STEM accredited, with only six being in Alabama. Barkley Bridge is the second elementary school in the state to achieve the accreditation.

BBES principal Tina Towers said that her faculty and staff work to promote and value a culture of creative problem solving and critical thinking with real-world application of STEM skills. “I am so very proud of our Barkley Bridge family,” Towers said. “This certification validates that we are doing what is best for our students. Our children learn to be innovative, creative and problem solvers. The culture of Barkley Bridge ensures our actions of preparing our students with the strategies, skills and knowledge to be successful in a STEM field or any other career out students choose.”

According to Towers, Susan Hayes, who now works at the Hartselle City Schools central office, began working toward this goal four years ago when she was Barkley Bridge’s principal.

Several teachers at Barkley Bridge made up the lead STEM accreditation team including Sarah Ellis, Marriann Parker, Amanda Godsey, Wendy Goos, Christy Zuck, Kim Hargett and Jamie Haynes.

A review team visited Barkley Bridge in April to observe and interview faculty and students in order to ensure AdvancED curriculum was being taught. All in all, 34 classroom observations

95 student-focused conversations were held.

Towers added that Barkley Bridge has consistently implemented Project Lead the Way standards for the past several years and even garnered national recognition. PLTW is a set of vetted and internationally accepted standards and benchmarks where learning in integrated across all STEM disciplines.