Piedmont Governor's School for Mathematics, Science, and Technology


The Piedmont Governor's School for Mathematics, Science, and Technology is one of Virginia's 18 state-initiated magnet Governor's Schools. It is a half-day school program where 11th and 12th grade students take advanced classes in the morning
Four classes are to be taken at the gov. school and two or three more per semester at their base school.
Students at PGSMST have the opportunity to earn an associate degree through Danville Community College or Patrick Henry Community College while enrolled at the Governor's School.
The School does not have a classroom facility of its own. Instead, students travel to the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research or New College Institute to take courses offered by the program.

History

Before The Piedmont Governors School for Mathematics Science and Technology, it was commonly called the GSGET

Mission

The mission of the Piedmont Governor's School for Mathematics, Science, and Technology is to provide a challenging, project-driven, research-based curriculum in a technology-infused environment. The school is designed for academically gifted, highly motivated, and high achieving eleventh and twelfth grade students from Danville City, Henry County, Martinsville City, and Pittsylvania County school divisions.

Upon Consideration for Gov. School...

Nominations of potential candidates may be received from a variety of sources including students, parents, school personnel, and community leaders. Multiple criteria will be used to create a pool of applicants from the nominations to insure that a student can not be eliminated by one measure. The criteria may include such items as grade-point averages, Standards of Learning End-of-Course test results, scores from standardized tests, and successful completion of specific courses in mathematics, science, and technology.
The selection process will utilize percentile rankings on standardized achievement and ability tests, such as the Matrix Analogies Test ; writing samples; unweighted grade-point averages; and teacher recommendations. In the event of a tie between students’ scores, science and mathematics course grades, and achievement tests scores in those areas will be compared.

Participating school systems

As of 2008 the school has 125 students enrolled from its participating school systems: