MIDLAND – The Pennsylvania Department of Education recently announced that Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School has been selected to be a Title I Distinguished School for the 2012-2013 school year.
The honor is bestowed each year to Title I schools that have achieved Adequate Yearly Progress under the Federal No Child Left Behind Act for two consecutive years. In addition, the schools must have been among the top 25 performers in reading or math or must have had students in certain subgroups improve their scores by at least 25 percent. PA Cyber is among 113 schools receiving the distinguished designation.
PA Cyber CEO Dr. Michael J. Conti said he is proud of the school’s staff and students for making significant academic progress with the Asian Science subgroup. The subgroup scored a 95.2 percent proficiency rating in 2012, up from 68.4 percent the previous year, a 26.8 percent improvement.
“To have closed the gap by that much in one year is quite an accomplishment, and we are very honored that state and federal education officials have recognized that feat,” Conti said.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s Division of Federal Programs, PA Cyber will be honored, along with its fellow distinguished schools, at the 2013 Title I Improving Schools Performance Conference, which is taking place in January in Pittsburgh. All of the schools are eligible to be chosen as one of two National Title I Distinguished Schools.
“We are hopeful we will have an opportunity to share our best practices and successes with other like-minded educators at the upcoming conference in Pittsburgh. After all, that is a big part of why the charter school law was enacted – so that the unique educational approaches we take can be adopted to help a broader audience,” Conti said.
Title I is a 100 percent federally funded supplemental education program that is targeted to help students from low-income families achieve academic success. Monies are based on the percentage of low-income students There are 3,292 pubic schools in Pennsylvania, 72.8 percent of which are designated Title I schools.