IN Shaler Area Fall 2026 | Page 29

WORKING TOGETHER TO TRAIN TOMORROW’ S TRADESPEOPLE
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New Program Helps Students’ Reading and Writing Skills Soar!

SHALER AREA SCHOOL DISTRICT AND A. W. BEATTIE:

WORKING TOGETHER TO TRAIN TOMORROW’ S TRADESPEOPLE

Every year, dozens of Shaler Area High School students spend part of their week learning hands-on trade skills at A. W. Beattie Career Center. This arrangement, which has been in place since the 1970s, has enabled thousands of SAHS graduates to learn the skills they need to earn rewarding careers in fields ranging from culinary arts to auto repair— and much, much more!
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Beattie offers SAHS students the opportunity to train in 19 different career programs, from Pastry Arts, Robotics, and Cosmetology to Automotive Technology, Dentistry, and Early Childhood Education!
The programs Beattie offers train students for career paths that typically DON’ T require a traditional 4-year college degree
Beattie’ s programs fulfill elective credit requirements for 10th, 11th and 12th grade students.
About 120 to 150 SAHS students train at Beattie each year
Seniors who attend Beattie participate in the NOCTI exam, which awards industry certifications and college credits based on test results
SASD students spend 3-4 school periods learning at Beattie, or around 2.5 hours per week
SAHS counselor Mathew Anselmino has been the school’ s Beattie liaison for 21 years, and counselor Tony Indovina was the Beattie liaison for about 30 years before him. That’ s over 50 years of A. W. Beattie and SAHS working together to train Pittsburgh’ s trade workers of the future!

~ 10,000

SAHS STUDENTS
Students who excel at Beattie and their high school programs are able to be inducted each year into the National Technical Honor Society
During those 50 + years, around 10,000 SAHS students have taken classes at Beattie!
Learn more at www. beattietech. com

New Program Helps Students’ Reading and Writing Skills Soar!

Shaler Area recently adopted HMH Into Reading, a language arts program based on award-winning literature that enhances knowledge of science, social studies, and the arts. The program helps students learn the reading, writing, and discussion skills they need to better understand and retain information, and then apply that knowledge both in writing and conversation.
Benefits of Into Reading include:
• Comprehensive, research-based K-5 ELA curriculum aligned to Pennsylvania academic standards
• Consistent, structured literacy instruction across all elementary grade levels supports smoother transitions between grades
• Supports the science of reading by integrating phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction
• Clear lesson structure and pacing allows teachers to focus on responsive instruction rather than curriculum-building
• Built-in assessment tools to monitor student progress and inform smallgroup instruction
• Embedded differentiation tools to support struggling readers and challenge advanced learners
“ Language Arts is an area where our students perform exceptionally well. Nearly 75 % of the Class of 2026 was proficient or advanced on the Language Arts Keystone exam. That’ s a testament to the time, energy, and resources the district has invested in providing our elementary teachers with extensive training on the Science of Reading and the incredible reading specialists we have supporting our students,” said Dr. Brian Brown, Shaler Area Assistant Superintendent. shalerarea. org | 27