In just its second year, Lehighton Area School District's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Plus Academy is receiving national accolades.

The National Education Foundation named Lehighton winner of its 2016 STEM Leadership Award, meaning the district will receive $10,000.According to Charles Bachert, Lehighton Middle School assistant principal and STEM academy director, Lehighton uses the SuccessMaker program, a personalized digital curriculum geared toward helping students improve in English language arts and math.The goal is for K-6 students to improve one grade level in the two areas each year.In the past year, Lehighton students advanced a grade level in math and reading in 26 and 27 learning hours respectively."It is a great honor and privilege to be recognized with an award of this magnitude from such a prestigious group as NEF," said Bachert. "We are fortunate to have such a strong partnership with NEF, and look forward to expanding our STEM program districtwide."Lehighton partnered with the NEF and the State University of New York to start its academy last year."NEF is concerned that the U.S. is ranked 27th out of 34 countries in math and science," said NEF Chairman Dr. Appu Kuttan and NEF national STEM academy director Professor Anthony Betrus of the State University of New York at Potsdam. "Lehighton's success stands out as a clear example of how to cost-effectively improve student achievement by involving and motivating all the stakeholders - students, teachers, parents and administrators."Helping to fund Lehighton's program was part of an $8.45 million Qualified Zone Academy Bond, a low-interest bond from the U.S. Department of Education, which the district received last year.Lehighton has, by far, the most students using SuccessMaker at 1,350 with the next closest district at 480 students.The National Education Foundation tracks scholars of the week and month."In 17 weeks this year, we've had 14 scholars of the week in math and seven in reading," Bachert said earlier this year. "We've also had four scholars of the month in math. Our students are truly doing a great job and standing out."Lehighton received $25,000 this year to spend on incentives for the students.Every two weeks when the district runs growth reports, students are rewarded with Indian Bucks based on how much progress they have shown during the period. The Indian Bucks go into grade level boxes for midyear and end of year drawings. All four elementary schools combine the Indian Bucks together and choose a student from each grade level, K-4, to receive an iPad.According to Bachert, the district has purchased 234 pizzas through February for grades K-6 and, over the course of a year, gives out 21 iPads."Also, the class with the most growth gets a trip to the Franklin Institute and our teacher who has the most growth in their class gets a $500 grant to use for their classroom," he added.