The Rose Tree Media School District is one of 221 school districts in the state that will receive a Targeted Grant of $35,000 to help promote STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) and computer science among underrepresented and underserved students.
One such school was Penncrest High School, which is one of 16 Technical High Schools in Delaware County that received such a grant. School districts often turn to poster printing to announce such accomplishments to the community and make people aware of such advances in education.
The Targeted Grants are part of the PAsmart initiative. It is comprised of two phases. In the first phase, those charter schools, career and technology centers, and school districts can send teams of four educators to professional development workshops to learn how to develop computer science curricula that meets their needs and is appropriate to their grade levels.
In the second phase, schools and other educational institutions can apply for additional funding to further implement computer science standards and help to increase the number of students who have access to these offerings.
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is placing a heavy emphasis on STEM education as there are now 300,000 jobs in the state that require these skills and close to three-quarters of jobs in the next ten years will also require these skills.