For the second straight year, South Park High School has been named a Project Lead The Way (PLTW) Distinguished School. South Park High School is one of only seven schools in Pennsylvania and one of only 64 schools nationwide to receive the recognition. South Park High School earned the designation as a distinguished school for its work to increase student access, engagement and achievement in its PLTW engineering program. PLTW, a nonprofit organization, serves millions of K-12 students and teachers in more than 10,500 schools across the United States.
South Park High School offers a four-level honors engineering pathway in ninth through twelfth grades. Mr. Dave Bailey teaches the freshmen- and sophomore-level courses (introduction to engineering design and principles of engineering) in the pathway. Students in introduction to engineering design focus on the engineering design process, parametric 3D modeling and reverse engineering. In principles of engineering, students explore a wide range of engineering topics in this rigorous course in applied physics.
Mr. Ryan Siniawski teaches the junior- and senior-level courses. Juniors in digital electronics delve into circuit design and Boolean logic. The senior-level engineering design and development class is utilized as a research, development and prototyping course.
“South Park High School’s Project Lead The Way program equips today’s students with the knowledge, training and experience they need for the in-demand careers of tomorrow,” said South Park School District Superintendent Wayne Gdovic. “This well-deserved, national distinction for the second straight year recognizes the commitment of Mr. Bailey, Mr. Siniawski and our high school administrators to develop and enhance the engineering pathway offered to South Park High School students.”
To earn the PLTW Distinguished School recognition, a school must have met the following criteria during the 2017-2018 school year:
- Offer at least three PLTW courses
- Have 25 percent or more students participate in PLTW courses, or of those who participated in PLTW, at least 33 percent took two or more PLTW courses
- Have 70 percent or more of students earn a proficient or higher on PLTW end-of- course assessments or 10 percent of students earn the AP + PLTW Student Achievement