Academic Enrichment Opportunities

The school district's vision to provide students with customized learning opportunities. Our goal is to help students discover their strengths and passions.

There are many avenues available to high school students actively seeking academic enrichment. Students have the opportunity to take:

• E-learning courses to expand course selection options
• Telescoping schedules (e.g. two math courses in the same year)
• College courses under dual enrollment programs
• Job shadowing and internships to provide real-life experience

Students interested in exploring any of these or other options should contact their guidance counselor to discuss individualized course of study.
 

Online Courses

Students take courses online for many different reasons. Some reasons might include:

• Students are not able to fit a class in their schedule but have the time to take the course during the day online
• Students work online over the summer to recover credit needed for graduation or to take additional courses not offered by Pine-Richland.

Online courses themselves can be quite different from each other. They are either asynchronous or synchronous.

• Asynchronous courses are ones which students work on the course on their own time.
• Synchronous courses that have set times and students must be available to take the class.

Items to Consider When Taking Online Courses:

• Do you have a computer at home that is compatible with the system requirements of the course?
• Whether or not you enjoy learning electronically with little to no physical interaction from the teacher.
• Whether or not you are self-disciplined, highly organized and/or strongly motivated for independent learning.  

Students must work closely with their guidance counselors so that details of the online course, including fees involved, the location of the computer to be used, and the time devoted to completing the course, are thoroughly understood.

As third-party courses, online courses receive a grade from the providers that create and teach them. The course and credit are documented on the Pine-Richland transcript, but the grade is not calculated in the Pine-Richland GPA.

Credit Recovery

Incomplete Grades

Students who have not completed the work required for a class are given an "I" for incomplete on their report card.

Students have two weeks after the report card is distributed to complete the missing work. If the work is not completed within two weeks of distribution of the report card, the incomplete becomes an "F" for failure.

Options to Make Up a Failed Course

To recover credits necessary for graduation, a required subject that is failed may be made up in one of the following ways:

• Repeat the course the following academic year
• Attend a regularly accredited summer school
• Pass a licensed correspondence course that has prior approval (See your counselor for additional information)
• Take the course online over the summer

Summer School

Summer school is available for qualifying students but is not offered at our high school. Please be aware that there are two types of summer school, enrichment and credit recovery. Enrichment summer school classes are designed for students to enhance their education by taking courses that they previously have not completed, or are not currently offered, at Pine-Richland High School. Credit Recovery summer school classes are designed for students that have failed a course and need to repeat the class in order to recover the credit.

Students may enroll in approved enrichment programs which are offered at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC). There courses are taken for enrichment purposes only and the cost for these courses is the responsibility of the student and family. In order to receive grade and credit for theses courses, a student must also pass Pine-Richland's final examination in the course.

Online credit recovery courses are offered through Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU), the Online Academy at North Hills Senior High School, and Keystone Credit Recovery.