Enterprise IT vendor IBM said Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) will be expanded to nearly 40 schools in the U.S.
According to current plans, P-TECH education model, which began in Brooklyn in 2011, will be growing to an estimated 100 schools by 2016.
IBM, together with many P-TECH schools and the City University of New York (CUNY), introduced a new digital playbook that will be preparing students to enter the workforce with marketable skills that many employers now require.
The new website includes more than 30 tools and 15 case studies to assist school districts, higher education institutions, and businesses to establish new P-TECH schools.
The site will be shown to 100 school and business leaders from New York’s P-TECH schools, including representatives from the 10 new schools selected by the State Education Department and Governor Cuomo, at a training session at SUNY Plaza in Albany, hosted by New York State P-TECH Leadership Council and the Public Policy Institute.
Stanley S. Litow, IBM Vice President of Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs and President of the IBM International Foundation, said: “This new playbook will give principals, schools, and companies a detailed framework to provide our children with the 21st century education they need and deserve.”
Since the opening of the first P-TECH school in 2011, Brooklyn’s P-TECH has more than 170 students, or 65 percent of the school, enrolled in at least one of 12 college courses last year. 60 percent of fourth-year students have earned more than a semester’s worth of college credits. Six students are on track to graduate next spring – two years ahead of schedule.
