North Allegheny approves engineering course with waiver

The North Allegheny School Board on March 15 approved continuing the Project Lead The Way engineering program at North Allegheny’s middle and high schools, but with the addition of a privacy notice for parents and students to sign.

The NASD school board had tabled a decision at its Feb. 15 meeting due to the program’s practice of collecting student data as part of its end-of-course online examination.

Project Lead The Way, offered through the Rochester Institute of Technology, is a comprehensive educational program, which consists of courses in the Tech and Engineering Education Department.

The district solicitor reviewed the agreement between North Allegheny and Project Lead the Way as requested by the school board.

PLTW requests student data particularly when a student performs online course assessments. This includes requests for full names, student identification numbers, grade, gender, date of birth, race, ethnicity. And it also requests individual education plan status and any needs for accommodations, according to school Board Vice President Marcie Crow. The company can keep the data for up to six school calendar years, after which it will be destroyed.

A privacy notice is now included for both parent and student to review and sign if taking a PLTW course, said Crow. Now, families will be aware of the data collection.

“That is fine, if parents know that,” Crow said.

PLTW can be used for college credits.

Daniel Balderas, a junior, said the hands-on engineering courses help students develop advanced skills and the credits save them from paying for higher course fees in college.

“I learned so many things about how the world around us works,” Balderas said. He plans to major in civil engineering, and said this gives students a “head start.”

Brendan White, senior and student board representative, agreed.

“I took two classes myself and it helped me see what I liked about engineering and what I didn’t,” White said.

The PLTW High School Engineering Pathway Fee is $3,200, and the 2023-24 fee will be paid with a grant awarded by PLTW. The Middle School fee is $950 for each building annually and is paid by the district.