SPHS Recognized For Empowering Students

Severna Park High School (SPHS) has been recognized as a 2020-2021 Project Lead the Way (PLTW) Distinguished School. It is one of just 204 high schools across the U.S. to receive this honor for providing broad access to transformative learning experiences for students through PLTW’s pre-engineering program.

PLTW is a nonprofit organization that serves millions of prekindergarten through grade 12 students and teachers in over 12,200 schools across the U.S.

“We are very proud of the more than 450 students’ achievements and resilience as they have continued to push the bounds of their learning, even throughout COVID-19,” said Steve Cahoon, SPHS PLTW coordinator. “Specifically, we are very proud of this year’s 90-plus graduates of the PLTW program, who will be pursuing STEM pathways in their post-secondary lives, and we are excited to see the positive impacts they are certain to make on our society.”

The PLTW Distinguished School recognition honors schools committed to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in their PLTW programs. To be eligible for the designation, Severna Park High School had to meet the following criteria in the 2019-2020 school year:

• Had 95 percent of students take the end-of-course (EoC) assessments
  
  
• Had 25 percent of students or more participate in PLTW courses, or of those who participated in PLTW, at least 33 percent took two or more PLTW courses
  
  
• Offer and had students enrolled in at least three PLTW courses
  
  
• Had strategies and procedures in place that support reasonably proportional representation with regard to race, ethnicity, poverty, gender and can support such claims with relevant data
  
  

“It is a great honor to recognize Severna Park High School for their unwavering commitment to provide students with an excellent educational experience despite the unusual circumstances and unique challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented to the educational landscape this past year,” said Dr. Vince Bertram, president and CEO of PLTW. “They should be very proud of their achievements in unlocking their students’ potential and equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in life beyond the classroom no matter what career path they choose.”

Severna Park High School is part of a community of schools, colleges and universities, and corporate and philanthropic partners across the country united around a passion for providing students with inspiring, engaging, and empowering learning opportunities. For more information about PLTW’s recognition program, visit www.pltw.org/our-programs.