Academic Reforms
In 2010, the school board hired former Pennsylvania Secretary of Education, Dr. Gerald Zahorchak D.Ed., as Superintendent of Schools. In 2011, he proposed a wide ranging set of reforms called 2011-2012 Program of Studies and Related Curtailment Plan. After a contentious debate, within the district and with the community, the Allentown Board of School Directors approved the plan in March 2011. As a part of the plan a significant realignment of resources would be undertaken for the 2011-12 school year. This resulted in the reduction of professional staff through furlough, termination or demotion in the following areas: 84 elementary positions, 121 secondary positions and 42 student support positions were eliminated. Some position were not replacing retirements and some were furloughed. The cuts are based on seniority and certification area and amounted to 18% of the district's employees.
Under the plan, AP courses are taught, as dual enrollment courses, by local college professors. Some courses at the high schools were cut.
Read more about this topic: Allentown School District
Famous quotes containing the words academic and/or reforms:
“Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.”
—Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)
“Until politics are a branch of science we shall do well to regard political and social reforms as experiments rather than short-cuts to the millennium.”
—J.B.S. (John Burdon Sanderson)