The Tyrone Area School District has been awarded grant money to participate in a program designed to increase the rigor of its high school curriculum.
\nGov. Ed Rendell is backing the initiative, Project 720, according to Tyrone Area assistant superintendent Joann Lang.
\n\u201cWhat it will do is give us an opportunity to look at our high school,\u201d said Lang. \u201cThrough our grant, at least, (it allows us) to take a look at our course work, our vocational department, and see what we can do to help get these kids ready for career pathways to prepare them for the workplace.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a gamut of things we expect to do,\u201d said Lang. \u201cWe will take a look at our math course. We have to add another math course. Part of our commitment is to increase our math classes we offer.\u201d
\nLang said the English department and other courses would be reviewed. The grant for the program is through the state\u2019s department of education. Lang said the school district received $66,000 for the upcoming school year. She said the grant is for three years so the district is projected to receive the same amount for an additional two years, making the overall grant almost $200,000.
\nThe Pennsylvania Department of Education said on its Project 720 website, a goal had been set to see all students in the state \u201cgraduate from high school prepared to enter college and the high-skills workforce.\u201d
\nHigh school principal Rebecca Erb said the project is designed to \u201cenhance the post-secondary access for students who go on to a career or higher education.\u201d She also said the project is designed to help students become \u201cactive and productive citizens.\u201d
\nThe Project 720 website noted its name is derived from the number of days a student spends in high school from the beginning of ninth grade to the end of 12th grade. The PDE said the program \u201cwill help transform Pennsylvania\u2019s high schools so that every student can succeed.\u201d
\nForty-one school districts participated during the 2004-05 year, and the 2005-06 Budget provides $4.7 million to double the number of participating school districts to 80. With this expansion, nearly 20 percent of Pennsylvania school districts will be involved in Project 720. Tyrone was the only Blair County school chosen to participate in the initiative.
\nThe PDE said the initiative\u2019s objectives are designed to:
\n\u2022 Help students earn college credit before graduating from high school. The 2005-06 state budget signed by Governor Rendell includes $5 million to fund Dual Enrollment Programs for high school students to take college-level, credit-bearing courses at local community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. These courses will also count towards high school graduation requirements. Pennsylvania\\’s dual enrollment program also emphasizes early college, middle college, and gateway to college programs. State funds will be targeted to at-risk students, academically challenged school districts, and the Project 720 sites;
\n\u2022 Upgrade \u201cVo-Tech\u201d for the 21st century- nearly 100,000 Pennsylvania high school students enroll in a Career & Technical Education (CTE) program during their high school career. CTE must be dramatically improved so that students are held to high academic standards and receive training for high-demand occupations and
\n\u2022 Create seamless Transitions from High School to Higher Education- Pennsylvania must align its high school and postsecondary education in order to better serve students. The Commonwealth will explore using the 11th grade statewide reading and math assessments as college entrance and placement exams and will create a statewide transfer policy between two-and four-year public higher education institutions to ensure that students can move their credits from one institution to another \u2013 and that the credits count in their major field.
\n—
\nFor more information: www.project720.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Tyrone Area School District has been awarded grant money to participate in a program designed to increase the rigor of its high school curriculum. Gov. Ed Rendell is backing the initiative, Project 720, according to Tyrone Area assistant superintendent Joann Lang. \u201cWhat it will do is give us an opportunity to look at our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}