Normally, I'm suspicious of a high school environment that is described as "messy, creative, and open" - too often those buzzwords are euphemisms for "no discipline, no standards, and no objectivity." But not, apparently, in the case of High Tech High charter school in San Diego. That's one of a handful of charter schools funded by the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation that are devoted to innovation:
A humanities teacher at the High Tech High charter school in San Diego answered my questions about student achievements there this way: "People always ask how come our students score so high. We don't prep for those tests. We think it's because of what we do every day as a project-based school," Mark Aguirre said.
High Tech High's standardized test scores are in the top 10th of California schools. Its Hispanic and low-income students score in the top 1 percent for those groups statewide. In 2002-2003, High Tech High students scored, on average, 132 points higher on the SAT than the state average. The San Diego charter school opened in 2000, and its entire first graduating class of 48 went to college.
Here's the school handbook, which is refreshingly free of smarmy "mission statements;" the stated rules - behave yourself, treat everyone with respect, don't plagiarize, turn your cellphones off, wear something more substantial than shorts and flipflops, and show up every day - reflect a admirable lack of willingness to let students "express themselves" through obnoxious clothing and behavior.
So how do the students express themselves?
...I recently visited High Tech High to get a sense for how the original school runs. I found the atmosphere to be warm. Students call their teachers by their first names. It has a messy, hard-working, creative, brainstorming feel. Artwork hangs everywhere. Project materials are stacked on file cabinets, tables and beside computers.
High Tech High is a hybrid of a think tank, art studio, and research and development department for high school students. The school is laced with suites of workstations resembling those in a modern office. It offers science, video and art labs, and project and seminar rooms. Each space has a glass wall, so whoever wanders by can see inside.
I saw a student perched on a bench, holding a square of plywood on his lap. Batteries and an apparatus were attached. It was a prototype of an electronic toilet bowl cleaner he'd developed. He had only attended the school for five days.
"Remarkable!" I said. "You already have a product?"
"My group really helped me a lot," he said.
Freshmen at the school invent a product, write a business plan with a cost analysis and a projected market share, and explain the math and science behind the product. Last year, students who came up with the school's five best inventions gave pitches to venture capitalists. One student received a patent and is engaged in manufacturing negotiations.
Mighty impressive. The author of this article, by the way, is Robin Trout, the founder of Albuquerque's proposed MAST charter high school, which was unanimously voted down by Albuquerque's Board of Education members last December:
The mayor has been working since last January on plans for the school to open with its first class of 90 students in August. At capacity, it would serve 360. The mayor intends to appeal the board's rejection to the state education authorities by the Jan. 17 deadline. If his appeal is successful, the Albuquerque board will have to grant a charter and allow the school to open...
One of the reasons board members rejected MAST High School's charter application was because it came from City Hall. Board members said they need the Legislature to clarify whether a municipality can open a charter school...
MAST High supporter Larry Donahue, an Albuquerque businessman, said the charter school is needed to increase the local pool of technically and scientifically skilled workers. He said he's having trouble finding qualified workers in New Mexico for $10 to $12-per-hour jobs and must go elsewhere to fill 20 percent of his jobs...
Jerry Shelton, representing the Coalition for Excellence in Science and Math Education, said his group supports the charter school "as an additional option for a small number of students." He said it would not compete with existing schools.
Board members did not respond to Trout's request for a conversation, but after the meeting member Miguel Acosta said there probably won't be any more discussion.
"We had a conversation," he said, referring to his policy committee's review of the charter application and the board meeting at which it was rejected.
Yep, and those who wanted the school appealed - and won.
State Secretary of Education Veronica Garcia on Friday allowed the MAST High School charter proposal to move forward, overruling a decision by the Albuquerque Board of Education in December.
But Garcia also banned City Hall from operating and governing the new math, science and technology school, which was the school board's main objection to the plan.
Garcia ruled MAST High should be allowed to open in August 2005 and predicted it could become Albuquerque's "crown jewel."
Indeed.
Posted by kswygert at March 10, 2004 02:39 PM