Technology
INFORMATION
Among Choice Programs At Wellington Middle Schools By M. Dennis Taylor
The School District of Palm Beach County is an A-rated district committed to providing students a world-class education — and for more than 50,000 students, that means participating in the impressive array of choice and career programs. Throughout their school careers, students have the opportunity to immerse themselves in relevant career-oriented classes, custom-tailoring their education to their future career paths in the performing and visual arts, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math), the International Baccalaureate program, JROTC, dual language and more. The school district features a 90 percent graduation rate, and that rate
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approaches nearly 100 percent for students in choice programs. Students selfselect the programs that interest them, with eligibility criteria that may be based on grades and a lottery process. Enrollees in the programs must maintain a minimum grade point average in order to remain with the track. Several choice academies are located in Wellington’s middle schools. All three — Emerald Cove, Polo Park and Wellington Landings — offer the popular pre-information technology pro-
gram. Wellington Landings also offers a fine arts choice program, while Polo Park also features pre-engineering. Students enrolled in the pre-information technology program are exposed to a variety of different IT and computerscience-related concepts in grades six through eight, including: project management and job-readiness skills, computers and logic, web development, design, HTML coding, CSS and JavaScript, cloud computing and social networking. The pre-information technology programs also allow for middle school students to earn industry certifications. Approximately 90 percent of district middle school students taking one of two exams earn the industry certification.