High Tech High Resources from Oct 7-9

[Mark Hines]

Any resources you care to share from the High Tech High visit? Notes? Insights? Final Presentation summaries?

[Mark Hines]

Group 8 - The transformers created 3 wordles:

1. What? As we talked about our experience, we kept track of the key words and ideas we agreed were significant

2. So what? We talked about the implications of these ideas for us.

3. What next? The key things we feel we need to carry on with to further this effort on our campuses

[Lisa Mireles]

Hi everyone,

Here are some blog posts I wrote during and immediately after our visit....

http://lisa-mireles.blogspot.com/

Enjoy and feel free to comment!

Lisa Mireles

[Arleen Domondon]

Hi Mark (aka IRONHIDE)!
Love the wordles! (The TRANSFORMERS rocked so hard! ahaha) I was wondering if you still have our group picture from that activity. Could you send me the pic or post it and I'll snag it. I'll post my group's notes as soon as we finalize our power point.
Bye for now.
:) Arleen (aka DEVASTATOR)

[Lisa Mireles]

I have the photo Arleen -

If you need it as an attachment, send me your e-mail to [e-mail]

[Mark Hines]

Here is report #1 issued by HAIS:

To: HAIS Academic Community
From: Robert Witt, HAIS Executive Director
Subject: Schools of the Future Report #1 from San Diego


The HAIS/Hawaii Community Foundation Schools of the Future Study Tour is now underway in San Diego.
This Study Tour is convened for three days this week at High Tech High during its annual Fall Residency Program.

The group numbers over 60 educators:

Team members from all participating schools
The HAIS Leadership Team
The Hawaii Community Foundation Leadership Team
The Dean of the UH College of Education
The Leadership Team from HKL Castle Foundation

In this FIRST REPORT, a group arriving early in San Diego visited the San Diego MET High School.
Thanks to Mark Hines and Edna Hussey from Mid-Pacific Institute for the ATTACHED REPORT.

“The Mission of San Diego Met is to prepare students for college and the workforce through active learning,
academic rigor, and community involvement. The Met model is based on the educational design from the
Big Picture Company in Providence, Rhode Island, where internships, project based learning, exhibitions and
college courses provide students with authentic learning embedded in career pathways.

Relationships, relevance, and rigor provide a unique opportunity for students to excel in a nurturing yet challenging
academic environment which is closing the achievement gap for our students.”

Met School in San Diego 10/6/09
San Diego Met Middle College High School
Big Picture School

College-prep
No honors, no SAT
All have right to rigor
Role of principal — learn with students in class, so 80% of time in classrooms not to evaluate but to learn

Internships from freshman year done Tuesday and Thursday (10-12th grade)
9th grade year students take a class that prepares them for the application/interview process for the upcoming internships (10 weeks)
Integration of content areas
Advisory: same 25 students for 4 years
Students connect with advisors
Advisors really support students
Recurring theme: strong student support; small classes
High accountability
50 students each grade level with 2 advisors eng, ss art
No AP or Honors classes, everybody takes the same classes
Flexibility in teaching/contents; more work than in traditional school
Relevance, Rigor, Relationships
High expectations of students
All children can learn
School experience is preparation for world of work
Focus on content
Internships tie in with college major
One-on-one learning management focus; set goals; checklist of daily tasks
Exhibition 4x year/ solo about their school performance (must use powerpoint, have a display board and a binder that connects their leanings from the internship and their classwork)

One student at a time philosophy
Faculty meets frequently and work as partners

Recurring theme: data analysis to inform instruction

Teachers not evaluated
Letter grades: A B C F, no Ds

How many students? 200
Who sets up internships? Full time Internship Coordinator who has business/marketing experience as well as teaching the 9th grade prep class
Internships

9th grade class (business environments) observed:
preparing for internships
dressing for success
10-week prep class to get the internship they’re seeking

from students:
really want you to go to college
lots of homework

What students recommend about opening a new school:
Pod/cohort moves together
Ethnic diversity
Caring, knowledgable teachers and principal
Everyone in class is smart, meaning everyone works hard
Challenging work
School offers many possibilities

[Mark Hines]

To: HAIS Academic Community
From: Robert Witt, HAIS Executive Director
Subject: Schools of the Future Report #2 from HIGH TECH HIGH in San Diego


The HAIS/Hawaii Community Foundation Schools of the Future Study Tour continues in San Diego.

Here is Phil Bossert’s official report from Day One at High Tech High:

Wednesday, Day One, started with our group walking over to HTH altogether and stopping traffic for several minutes at every intersection :-) After a great breakfast served up by HTH, we had presentations by Rob Riordan, the HTH Emperor of Rigour, and Laura McBain, the Director of Policy & Research. The key points they stressed were:

Three Key Principals Behind HTH:
1) Students Working Together – no tracking, no skill level divisions; many different mixes in the collaboration
2) Hands and Minds – everything involves thinking and doing together, not study then do; learn by doing
3) Work That Is Relevant to the Adult World – no make-work, no book exercises; just real projects and problems

Five Design Principals at HTH:
1) Personalization – small classes, teacher teams, advisory groups that students are part of for all 4 years; every student is well-known and does not fall through the cracks of some impersonal system.
2) Common Intellectual Mission – every student has the same course of study; no AP this or that for “the smart kids” and shop for the “dumb kids”; common learning goals; focus on development of habits of mind; promotion and graduation based only on performance – no social promotion.
3) Adult World Connections – field studies, community projects, mentors, internships; teachers are co-learners, facilitators, working side-by-side with the students.
4) Teachers as Designers – no text books or “national curriculum”; all learning based on projects designed by teams of teachers; schools are largely run by classroom teachers including the budgets and calendar. Every teacher has a school credit card to buy the supplies he or she needs for the projects that are being worked on; they have to develop and submit budgets for the projects to the accounting office.

HTH is an Adult Learning Community with affiliated students. Teachers meet together in various project work groups or with their teammates (most teachers are in teams of one science/math person + one English/History person) for 30 to 45 minutes at the beginning of every day to discuss projects and issues. Teachers as well as students maintain ePortfolios.

Assessment is always and only based on performance – students must show or demonstrate to the entire HTH community what they have learned in the projects. Parents and community members are invited to attend these “Presentations of Learning”.

Juniors and seniors have “full immersion” internships of 3 to 6 weeks – the students must develop their own internships and produce a project based on the internship that includes a presentation of learning. There are also 2-week intersession projects that involve travel to foreign countries and work in the community.

After the presentations, our group split into 4 or 5 small groups and given tours of the five HTH schools (2 high schools, 2 middle schools, 1 elementary school) that are part of the main campus or “village”. We were invited into classrooms while teaching was going on and students were the guides. After lunch the members of our group could go back to any class or area that interested them. At 2:00, one of the art teachers took our group through a process of “project design and tuning” - all projects are developed by teachers and presented for tuning to other groups of teachers before being introduced to the students.

The day ended with a very lively and inspiring talk and Q&A session with the founder of HTH, Larry Rosenstock. Several key points that he stressed were: 1) HTH was started from the ground up – it is very hard to change an existing educational institution; 2) the HTH model works best as a charter public school that is free to the students – it is difficult for private schools to do something like this because school administrators and teachers are “beholden to over-privileged parents who are paying tuition and therefore think they have the right to tell the school what to do.”; 3) HTH does not test students, but HTH students do very well on all of the standardized tests – this nation has gone testing crazy and what “No Child Left Behind” really means is “No Child Left Untested.”

Everyone left with much to discuss over dinner.

[Mark Hines]

o: HAIS Academic Community
From: Robert Witt, HAIS Executive Director
Subject: Schools of the Future Report #3 from HIGH TECH HIGH in San Diego


The HAIS/Hawaii Community Foundation Schools of the Future Study Tour continues in San Diego.

Here is an official report from Mark Hines (MPI) for Day Two at High Tech High in which he explores
“Three Axioms from HTH, rules to live by everyday in work with students and program planning.”

NO TRACKING. This is not because they think it is easier, it is because they think it is the right thing to do –they believe that ALL students have the capability to learn the same material at a high, rigorous level. Many schools spend a lot of effort sorting kids into groups by perceived notions of ability. In the process, students get the message that some are smarter than others. What else do we mean to imply when we create an Honor’s track for 20% of our students? Should we not expect ALL of our students to perform the same high quality work?

HANDS AND MINDS. At HTH, they say “We don’t teach and then do a project. Instead, we do a project, and then we teach within the project.” This is probably different that what most teachers mean with they say they do projects with their students. At HTH there is genuine, deep commitment to ACTIVE LEARNING that integrates doing with thinking, hands with minds…see the next section on RELEVANCE for a fuller description of this process.

RELEVANCE TO THE REAL WORLD. At HTH there is a pervasive sense of connecting all that they do to the real world. Internships, mentors from the community, project designs that address complex problems from the San Diego community, exhibitions of student mastery; the school and the community are vitally connected in a learning partnership that promotes active, project-based learning, most often conducted in student teams.

Supplementing Mark’s report is a list of action items for immediate implementation created by Raleigh Werberger (MPI):

(1) Develop integrated projects that provide opportunities to do action research in the community; use the arts as the medium for presentation of findings
(2) Once the projects are designed, identify the skills and content needed to catalyze teaching and learning at high levels of rigor
(3) Establish an agreed upon method for fine-tuning projects using panel discussions both before and during project work
(4) Find and develop a common area (open space) in which to meet and work
(5) Establish a website with teachers’ personal pages
(6) Develop student advisories
(7) Establish student exhibitions as the basis for student and teacher performance-based assessment, and for sharing with parents and community
(8) Establish partnerships with both profit and non/profit organizations to facilitate meaningful real world internships for students

[Mark Hines]

To: HAIS Academic Community
From: Robert Witt, HAIS Executive Director
Subject: Schools of the Future Report #4 from HIGH TECH HIGH in San Diego


The HAIS/Hawaii Community Foundation Schools of the Future Study Tour concluded yesterday in San Diego.

Highlights of the visit for Assets High School teacher Alison Beste were as follows.

(1) The learning environment is dynamic!
Students are excited, engaged, on-task, and LOVE their school
Artwork and student projects are displayed everywhere
Campus architecture is beautiful, buildings are “open,” classrooms are colorful, lots of windows
Student culture defined by a belief that it is “COOL” to work hard here, positive peer pressure
to pull your weight on team projects and to work hard for success
(2) Key word: PASSION
Passionate teachers care deeply about passionate students who care deeply about learning
Faculty, staff and students are passionate about their vision for transforming education via
project-based learning, collaboration, high achievement for ALL students
HTH graduates take their passion with them to college, careers, and citizenship
(3) Relationships Matter
Teachers establish rapport with students, everyone is on a first-name basis, students view teachers as friends
Alums report teachers gave them two key skills/qualities: passion, and a willingness to always ask for help
(4) School/Community Partnerships
Relevance matters, school is connected to the “real world”
San Diego community engaged at school via art projects in galleries, poetry readings, brown bag lunch speakers,
panelists for student exhibitions; the community SEES the school and values its contributions
(5) Reflection deepens learning
Students are encouraged to reflect intentionally on the learning process
Students are engaged in “presentations of learning” that deepen the reflective process and increase self-awareness
Students and teachers work together to reflect on their own “practice,” ie. The practice of teaching, the practice of collaborative learning
Students and teachers use formal and informal protocols to reflect individually and in groups; they are open to changing their “practice”
(6) Project-based learning
It’s all about the process of learning
Projects are not end products, they are the means to rich learning
Subject matter (content) is integrated into the problem-solving process of the projects
(7) Collaboration and team work
Teachers meet in groups for 45 minutes every day before school to plan, collaborate, discuss, build collegial support
Classrooms are transparent

[Mark Hines]

To: HAIS Academic Community
From: Robert Witt, HAIS Executive Director
Subject: Schools of the Future Report #5 from HIGH TECH HIGH in San Diego


The HAIS/Hawaii Community Foundation Schools of the Future Study Tour concluded last Friday in San Diego.
Here are some observations from several participants.

Mike Travis from Assets School described his main “take aways” from the Three Day Residency as follows:
Teachers are reflective, collaborative, risk-takers and lifelong learners…those lacking these qualities are not qualified to teach at HTH.
Students are respected by teachers; there are fewer rules, and much more freedom in classes…we observed classrooms in which students
were fully engaged even when the teacher was not present. Project based learning works well; teachers are encouraged to integrate
their personal and professional passion into project designs; students like the projects because they are encouraged to problem solve
real-world issues and are motivated to achieve at high levels in anticipation of the project presentation at the end of each unit at which
their work is reviewed by other students, teachers, parents, and community members.

Phil Bossert, SOTF Project Director writes more about project based learning from a conversation with a HTH Engineering teacher.
He first discussed several projects that his junior and senior students have been engaged in over the past few years: building an undersea
robot explorer, a functional helicopter, a 1,000 gallon seawater research tank, a self-controlled car, etc. The teacher emphasized the process
students go through; a particular project might involve the learning of Physics, AND organizational and management skills. Mark Hines (MPI)
details this process even more, noting that teachers encourage students to design projects that will “contribute to the building of new knowledge.”
The design process includes flowcharts, planning sheets, reverse engineering, reference to the US Patent Office website to discover new approaches
to innovation, and constant reflection and re-thinking.

Raleigh Werberger (MPI) reports on some HTH results: 100% college acceptance, high retention, top statewide standardized scores (including
socioeconomically disadvantaged students), full Six-Year Accreditation Term from WASC. HTH also tracks the progress of its graduates as they
matriculate in college where they are very successful, highly engaged, confident, resilient and adept at asking for and receiving the academic
help needed to achieve at high levels. One weakness noted was a lack of experience “cramming for finals.”

Phil adds his commentary on how HTH manages to do so well. The cost per pupil is low: $6,300 to $6,500 per year, with lower than normal administrative
expenses. Teachers are not “hired hands” (remember Ted Sizer’s Horace’s Compromise) but have a sense of “ownership” of the schools and are
engaged and invested in most policy development and decision-making. Teachers are also dedicated to meetings needed for instructional collaboration,
following a routine schedule: Monday is used for teachers wanting to talk to any other teachers; Tuesday is used for two-member teacher teams
to meet with one another (science/math + English/history); Wednesday is used for all teachers to meet for discussion of school wide academic
issues; Thursday is used for all teachers in a particular discipline to meet with one another; Friday is used for grade level teachers to meet together.
Average meeting time is 45 minutes per day.

This is the fifth and final report from the HTH Study Tour. In the weeks ahead additional reports, resources, photos, and much more will be posted
on the Schools of the Future Ning…go to http://futureschools.ning.com