Pine View School
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- Pine View redirects here. For the neighborhood in Ottawa, see Pineview.
| Pine View School | |
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| Established | 1969 |
| School type | Full-time gifted public school, grades 2 through 12 |
| Religious affiliation | None |
| Principal | Steven Largo |
| Location | Osprey, FL, USA |
| Color(s) | Blue and gold |
| Mascot | Python |
| Homepage | www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/pvs |
Pine View School for the Gifted is a full-time gifted public school located in Osprey, Florida. Pine View serves students in second through twelfth grades.
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[edit] Origin
The school was founded in 1969 with the help of a Department of Education grant; the grant was part of a nationwide response to correct the perceived inferiority of American students in math and science to students behind the Iron Curtain, a movement which had arisen after the Sputnik satellite launching in 1957. Originally named S.E.E.D.S. (for "Sarasota Exploratory Educational Development School"), the school was rechristened Pine View because of the many pine trees at the original site. John D. Wollever was its first principal and one of the writers of the school's grant proposal. The original curriculum he helped create combined a rigorous grounding in math and science with a strong selection of creative subjects.
[edit] Campus
Until 1994, the school was situated in Sarasota, Florida. It grew from a collection of about ten portable classrooms to over one hundred portables before it was relocated to Osprey. Pine View's current campus sports more than a dozen buildings situated around a central lawn and connected by open-air, blue porticos. Sarasota architect Carl Abbott patterned his design after Thomas Jefferson's "academical village" at the University of Virginia.
[edit] Entrance requirements
Pine View educates students from second grade to twelfth grade. In order to attend Pine View, students must have a minimum score of 130 on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. The IQ requirement on the Stanford-Binet V is also a full scale score of 130. Students must also achieve a certain number of points on the Gifted Profile exam. Students must take a test at the Sarasota County school board building before they are permitted into the school. The test is very unusual asking children to find flaws in pictures not answer math questions. Or be asked a few questions about the things that they did earlier in the session instead of writing an essay. 71.122.181.151 19:39, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Curriculum
Pine View's academic year is 180 days long and is divided into two semesters. Students must enroll in at least six classes, not counting study halls, during each semester. Because most of Pine View's students enter high school with credit from high school classes taken during middle school, Pine View requires students to complete 26 credits in order to graduate from high school; the state of Florida requires only 24 credits.
Pine View's credit distribution requirements are as follows:
- English - 4 credits
- Math - 4 credits (Florida requires 3 credits)
- Science - 4 credits
- Social Studies - 3 credits, with one credit in American History, half a credit in Economics, and half a credit in Government
- Practical Arts/Performing Fine Arts - 1 credit
- Life Management Skills/Physical Education - 1.5 credits
- Foreign Language - 3 credits (Florida requires 2 credits)
Many students graduate with significantly more than the required 26 credits; graduating with 33 credits is not unheard of. Students acquire these extra credits by taking more than the required six classes per semester, carrying over credit from high school-level language and math classes taken during middle school, taking classes online at the Florida Virtual School, and taking classes (most often Personal Fitness and Fitness Lifestyle Design) during the summer.
Pine View's curriculum emphasizes rigor, and students who have attended other public schools in the Sarasota area generally report that Pine View's classes require significantly more work than their counterparts at other schools. Although weighted GPAs give the standard single-point bonus to honors classes, the same class is never offered as both non-honors and honors at Pine View. Most classes are designated as honors to reflect their challenging workload except where Florida statute prohibits the designation, such as in foreign language classes.
Since students are never given a choice between honors and non-honors classes, they instead choose between Advanced Placement (AP) and non-AP classes. As of the 2006-2007 school year, Pine View officially offers approximately 28 different AP courses, although a course may not be taught in a given year due to lack of student demand. Additionally, Pine View offers classes in differential equations and multivariate calculus to students who have completed AP Calculus.
[edit] Academic recognition
[edit] Government recognition
Pine View is among the 35 of Florida's 2859 public schools (1.2%) to earn a top grade of "A" on every administration of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) since the program began in 1999.[1] In 2003, Pine View was selected as a Blue Ribbon School[2][3].
[edit] Newsweek's Public Elite High Schools
Due to its average SAT score of 1335 for 2005, Pine View was listed among Newsweek magazine's 21 Public Elite American high schools.[4] Pine View is the only Public Elite school in Florida.[5]
[edit] References
- ^ Microsoft Excel file containing FCAT grades for all Florida's schools
- ^ Pine View's application to be a Blue Ribbon School
- ^ List of 2003 Blue Ribbon Schools in the top 10% of their state
- ^ Best High Schools: The Public Elites. Retrieved on July 2, 2006.
- ^ Pine View tests out of Newsweek's ranking. Retrieved on July 2, 2006.
