LITTLE ROCK — LR graduates win AP Scholar Awards
Whitney Gao and Joseph Berleant, both recent graduates of Little Rock Central High, have earned State AP Scholar Awards for Arkansas for their performance on Advanced Placement examinations during their high school careers.
They are among 108 students nationwide to receive State AP Scholar Award honors.
Gao took 21 examinations in Advanced Placement subjects from 2009 to 2012 and earned a mean score of 4.90 on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the top score, according to information provided by the Little Rock School District.
Gao is now a freshman studying at Harvard University.
Berleant took 21 examinations from 2010 to 2012 and earned a mean score of 4.71.
He is now a freshman studying at the California Institute of Technology.
Students who receive scores of 3 or higher on a College Board’s Advanced Placement Program examination have the potential to qualify for college credit or advanced placement at colleges and universities.
“We are proud of our school’s competitive and rigorous Advanced Placement Program,” Central High Principal Nancy Rousseau said. “We recognize and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of these two students, the only two students in the state to receive this honor this year.”
3,100 iPads seen in city’s schools
The Little Rock School District is now home to 3,100 iPad computer tablets spread over its nearly 50 campuses, for student and adult use, according to a report given to the district’s School Board.
Another 1,974 of the tablets are on order.
The district has used federal School Improvement Grants and federal Title I funds to purchase the popular tablets for its four campuses that are among the lowest achieving in the state.
J.A. Fair High, a recipient of a School Improvement Grant, has 310 iPads. Hall High, another improvement grant recipient, has 277 of the electronic tablets, while McClellan High, a more recent recipient of the same grant, has 111 iPads. Cloverdale Middle School has 315 tablets, also a result of being an improvement grant recipient.
All of the iPads on order will go to those four schools.
Other schools in the district have iPads, just not in the same quantities. Central High has 56 iPads and Parkview High has 22, according to the report. There are far more iPads at the district’s middle schools.
In all, there are 872 iPads in the high schools, 1,532 in the middle schools and 696 iPads distributed among the district’s elementary schools.
The district also owns 11,831 desktop computers and 2,369 laptop computers, with 559 more laptops on order.
Teen brains focus of NLR workshop
The North Little Rock School District’s Secondary Family Involvement Committees are hosting a free one-hour workshop titled Inside the Teenage Brain at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Lakewood Middle School and ninth-grade campus mini-auditorium.
Workshop leaders will review current research on adolescent brain development, including topics such as why teens are so impulsive and emotional, and why they like to take risks and sleep in late. Workshop participants will be given strategies for effectively dealing with challenging teenage behaviors.
Door prizes, including a one night stay at the Crown Plaza Hotel, will be provided. Snacks provided by Starbucks and Simply the Best will be served.
Arkansas, Pages 12 on 02/11/2013