High Tech High As A Model for Our Classrooms

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High Tech High As A Model for Our Classrooms

Wednesday, 12 November 2008 06:03

What did Larry Rosenstock do with a classroom full of non-performers?

High Tech High in San Diego has a dramatic history. It started in 2000, under the leadership of Larry Rosenstock, a former carpentry teacher who taught in the urban high schools in Boston and Cambridge. Larry started High Tech High (HTH) with students who were not performing in their present school. The main qualification for getting into the program was low performance in their prior school.

What Rosenstock did was to integrate a technical education that was project-based, together with an academic education that was based in real life skills. What he succeeded in doing was in motivating otherwise under performing students and getting them to be interested in going to college and studying math and engineering, as well as liberal arts. So, how did he do it? With a numerous similarities to Erin Gruwell and Freedom Writers that I wrote about here on HotChalk.

Here are some of Rosenstock's main principles and how he did it:

Student work is project-based learning. Research shows that students learn much more when they are involved in projects that connect with the real world. They are also excited about learning when they have ownership of the projects.
The teacher develops a sense of community within the classroom and the principal works to create a sense of community within the school
Teachers show respect for the individual student and his/her ideas
Teachers maintain high standards and believe in their students' ability to succeed
The teacher showcases students' work on a regular basis in a community forum
All the student work is computer based and students are taught 21st century technology skills in all classes

High Tech High is a wonderful success story. Here are some of the statistics:

100% of HTH's graduates have been admitted to college, with approximately 80% admitted to four-year programs such as Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Howard University, University of Southern California, University of San Diego, University of California at Berkeley, New York University and Northwestern University
About 35% of HTH graduates are first-generation college students
Over 30% of HTH alumni enter math or science fields (vs. 17% national rate)

What can we do as individual teachers to improve learning in our classrooms even if we don't have a supportive administrative environment? That is the key question in many of the inner city schools in large cities around the country. I suggest that we use some of these principals listed above in planning the lessons for our classesl Organizing students into groups for project based learning is a starting place. Edutopia is an excellent resource for free project based lesson ideas.

High Tech High now has multiple schools and even a school of education to train teachers in these methods.

Here is where they are today:

Six schools; three high schools, two middle schools, and one elementary school
Approximately 2500 students
100% of graduates have been admitted to college

They have found a highly effective way to motivate students and to teach them real life skills. We can all profit from their success by taking a few of their principles and applying them to our own classrooms. They have great resources that are available to everyone. Below is an example of a typical student digital portfolio where students store all of their work for all four years of high school.

High Tech High - Digital Portfolios

It is an inspirational program.

Esther Wojcicki is the driving force behind the development of Palo Alto High School’s award-winning journalism program - the largest high school journalism program in the country. She focuses on assessing and improving student learning through low- and high-tech tools.