MT. VERNON — — Thanks to the Mt. Vernon Township High School Foundation, students are getting additional help with the 21st Century Learning Lab.
“The lab isn’t 100 percent complete yet, but students are in there learning,” said Rob Pipher, the assistant principal and director of curriculum and instruction at the school. “We’re already seeing a difference for the students who are using it.”
The 21st Century Learning Lab was the 2012 major project taken on by the MVTHS Foundation, according to Foundation President Matt Flanigan.
“The lab was $17,500, and our big project,” Flanigan explained. “A lot of our funds raised this year went into this. The Schweinfurth Foundation also provided funds. We always try to do a large program each year that will benefit a lot of students. We completed the engineering lab last year.”
Pipher said there are two components being used in the learning lab at this time, one for reading and one for online learning credit recovery.
“Read 180 is a program we are using to help students who are behind in their reading level catch up,” Pipher said. “At this time, it’s serving 60 students for the semester. ... The reading component is a program that is proven nationwide. Reading is the foundation for everything. With this program, during the first quarter alone, we’ve had students increasing their reading two grade levels.”
For the online credit recovery portion of the lab, students who have failed to receive credit for classes can get caught up. full story
