Students in four more Mercer County schools will benefit from Pennsylvania’s “Classrooms for the Future” initiative, officials announced.

In 2008-09, Grove City Area, Hermitage, Lakeview and Sharpsville Area school districts are getting state grants to pay for laptop computers, high-speed Internet access and software at middle and high schools, a news release said.

Grove City was awarded $138,210, Hermitage got $78,392, Lakeview will receive $77,057 and $83,715 will go to Sharpsville, according to the release.

The program is in its third year with 543 high schools participating, 182 of those new this year. About 500,000 students will benefit from the initiative by the end of the upcoming school year, the release said.

Greenville Area School District — the first in the county to join the initiative — is in the third year of the program. Last year Farrell, Mercer, Reynolds and Sharon schools were selected and are now in their second years.

“Teachers and students alike have praised Classrooms for the Future for reinvigorating our high school classrooms,” Governor Ed Render said in a news release. “It not only is making our high schools more engaging, vibrant places to learn but, just as importantly, it is helping to ensure that our students are primed for success beyond high school.”

 The education budget signed by Governor Rendell earlier this month provides $45 million to buy equipment and train teachers to use it.

According to the state, an independent evaluation of the program’s first year found that teachers spent more time interacting with students on an individual basis and that assignments are moving more toward projects that involve higher-order thinking. Teachers involved in the program have reported that it leads to increased attendance and participation on the part of students and has changed teachers’ own attitudes, as well, the news release said.

Rendell’s original plan called for a $200 million investment in the program and this year’s funding brings it to $155 million over three years. The governor has said that his goal is to make the program available to every high school in the state that is interested.