Implementing institution: High Tech High
Country: United States
Source: Fundación Telefónica
Execution period: 2000 - in progress
Plataforma de Prácticas Efectivas:
To develop public charter schools where students will be able to expand their academic, professional and citizen capacities for success in the higher education system.
A network of 14 public charter schools whose pedagogy is based on learning through scientific and artistic projects.
Studying at High Tech High increases the likelihood of entering a 4-year college by 10.9%, and reduces the likelihood of choosing a 2-year college by 11.2%.
High Tech High (HTH) is a network of public primary and secondary schools whose pedagogy is based on learning through scientific and artistic projects. The model was developed in the 1990s by a team of civil society and industry leaders. The first HTH school opened in 2000 in San Diego, thanks to various public administration and industry sponsors. Today, HTH has 13 schools and 5,300 students.
The learning process is based on a constructivist approach, which means that knowledge is acquired in a more feasible way through the management of projects that are adapted to real-life problems. Therefore, projects must emerge from the students’ concerns, and so teachers only guide and orient the process towards their realization.
HTH has 4 articulating principles: (i) equity: teachers pay special attention to reducing gaps among students; (ii) customization: teachers try to develop a discourse adapted to their audience; (iii) authentic work: Through the projects, students relate the knowledge acquired in classes with the resolution of concrete problems; (iv) collaborative work: teachers participate in curriculum development and engage with outside actors to adapt courses to real life.
The principles mentioned above are implemented at different levels of education, from primary to secondary level. Each school has its own specifics to the extent that it can decide to focus “on this or that” aspect. For example, High Tech High Middle Media Arts focuses on the visual arts while High Tech Middle North County opts for the humanities and mathematical sciences.
HTH also includes a training program for teachers so that they can continue to develop professionally in the field of education. The innovative character of HTH is also based on an online platform, which links industry professionals with school graduates who are looking for a job.
While it is true that the United States has one of the best education systems in the world, it is also true that one of its main challenges is access to university, where between 2006 and 2015, the net participation of young people in that academic level ranged between 17 and 21%.
At the same time, there is a strict selection of students to enter university according to their results at the primary and secondary level, where the acceptance rate of all U.S. universities does not exceed 60%. In this sense, socioeconomic factors play a role, since students whose families have higher incomes have access to primary and secondary schools of proportional quality. Then at university, given the high cost of careers, students belong, for the most part also, to the upper echelons of society.
On the other hand, the PISA test has highlighted in 2015 that there are acceptable levels in reading and science for 15-year-olds, but at the same time, this result is below the OECD average for mathematics.
Between 2007 and 2010, Joshua M. Beauregard led an experimental study in order to assess the impact of the HTH pedagogical model on the performance of students at the pre-graduate level. This study is part of a thesis presented in 2015 to the Faculty of Education at Harvard University. The results indicate that studying at an HTH school increases the likelihood of enrolling in a 4-year college by 10.9%, and reduces the likelihood of choosing a 2-year college by 11.2%. In other words, the HTH model prepares its students for long-term college enrolment in a feasible way.
Tags: