CLEVELAND, Tenn. (AP) - Bradley County education officials are planning to offer high school students a new challenge in the next school year.

The two high schools will offer classes in different international programs. Bradley Central will offer the Cambridge International program while Walker Valley High School will offer the International Baccalaureate program, according to the Cleveland Daily Banner.

School officials say the goal is to eventually allow students to earn internationally recognized diplomas through the programs.

Bradley Central will be among the first public high schools in the state to offer the Cambridge program.

Before members of the Tennessee State Board of Education would approve the Cambridge courses, they wanted to know how the program measured up to the Tennessee education standards.

"What they found was that the Cambridge system required over and above what the Tennessee course required. So they felt that the rigor was greater there than even the state level," said Dan Glasscock, secondary education director for Bradley County Schools.

It will offer a new challenge for advanced students, who up to this point had two choices: dual enrollment or advanced placement courses.

The programs are being funded with money from the Small Learning Communities Grant, but Glasscock said the school system is also looking into other grants.

He said the district's main reason for adding both programs is that they will help educators reach their goal "to make thinkers of our students not just information gatherers."

"It's one thing to have information. It is another to use it," he said.