Published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, by Megan Harris

September 16, 2014

The state awarded six Western Pennsylvania schools nearly 40 percent of a $700,000 grant initiative designed to pair high-performing schools with low-performing schools to increase student achievement.

Fox Chapel, South Fayette, Upper St. Clair and West Jefferson Hills in Allegheny County; Peters in Washington County; and Franklin Regional in Westmoreland County will collect a total of $275,000 to fund partnerships under Gov. Tom Corbett's pilot mentoring grant program.

Seventeen districts across the state won grants.

“This program goes to the heart of our education system — increasing student achievement and preparing students for post-high school success,” Corbett said in a release. “I congratulate these schools for their strong record of academic progress, and I applaud each of them for their willingness to work with their peers to improve student performance.”

Public schools with a score of 90 percent or higher on their 2012-13 School Performance Profiles were eligible to apply for up to $25,000 per profile component that contributed to their outstanding achievement. Spokesman Tim Eller said the state received 55 grant applications, including strategies, processes, techniques and training tools that can be shared with partner schools with scores at or below 79 percent.

Mentee schools, which the state will name by the end of October, will receive $10,000 grants to assist in replicating the model schools' strategies or training.

The 17 grant recipients will present their work at the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators and the Pennsylvania School Boards Association's School Leadership Conference in October.

(Megan Harris, "State awards six Western Pennsylvania schools mentoring grants," Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 9/16/14)