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Indiana’s Warsaw Community Schools to Be Honored for Excellence and Innovation in Secondary Schools

Alliance for Excellent Education to Announce Award on Digital Learning Day, February 17

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, during national Digital Learning Day Live!, the Alliance for Excellent Education will recognize Indiana’s Warsaw Community Schools (WCS) as one of three recipients of the Excellence and Innovation in Secondary Schools award. Created in 2012 by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a Washington, DC non-profit education reform organization, Digital Learning Day (#DLDay) is a nationwide celebration that highlights great teaching and demonstrates how technology can improve student outcomes.

“From small, rural towns to large, urban cities, Digital Learning Day spotlights educators, policymakers, and others leading the charge to close the digital divide in their communities,” said Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia. “After a national search for schools and school districts that are making a difference for students in socioeconomically disadvantaged and traditionally underserved communities, Warsaw Community Schools’s exemplary career and technical education and dual-enrollment programs emerged them as a national leader and a great role model for districts nationwide.”

“Warsaw Community Schools (WCS) is honored to be recognized as the Alliance’s recipient of the Excellence and Innovation in Secondary Schools award,” said Dr. David Hoffert, superintendent of WCS. “Warsaw Community High School and the Warsaw Area Career Center have become leaders at the state and national levels in preparing students for college and career readiness. Our teachers, parents, students, and community industry have partnered to shape a curriculum preparing students for their future dreams. This honor is a recognition of the continued work and commitment as WCS moves forward in our mission: To inspire and equip all students to continuously acquire and apply knowledge and skill while pursuing their dreams and enriching the lives of others.”

A rural school district located in northern Indiana serving approximately 7,000 students, WCS has worked to meet local employment needs, including the orthopedic, medical, and agricultural industries, through an innovative vision. Specifically, WCS and the Warsaw Area Career Center work together to engage students through a hands-on approach in deeper, more relevant learning that combines technology and a focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. During the last five years, the district has encouraged students to explore a wide range of fields by adding more than seventy-five new classes to its career center and high school curricula.

With the fifth largest dual-credit program in the state of Indiana, WCS high school students can simultaneously earn high school and college credit for a single class. Teachers are encouraged to teach a college-level course, which has led to more than 75 percent of high school teachers having experience teaching a dual-enrollment course. During the 2014–15 school year, WCS students earned Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment credits worth more than $1 million. With its dual-enrollment and career and technical education programs, the district has made great strides to push students toward college and career readiness.

WCS was selected to receive the Excellence and Innovation award after a rigorous review process that included more than five dozen schools and districts. The two other award recipients were Cleveland, Ohio’s MC2 STEM High School and Santa Ana Unified School District in California.

For more information on Digital Learning Day, visit www.DigitalLearningDay.org.

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The Alliance for Excellent Education is a Washington, DC–based national policy and advocacy organization dedicated to ensuring that all students, particularly those traditionally underserved, graduate from high school ready for success in college, work, and citizenship. www.all4ed.org.