High Tech High is a San Diego, California-based school-development organization that includes a network of charter schools, a teacher certification program, and a graduate school of education.[1]
In 2010 it had approximately 3,500 students in high, middle, and elementary schools. The HTH website states that in 2010, 100% of high school graduates were accepted to colleges, of which 80% were to four-year institutions.[2] As of 2008, 99% percent of graduates had entered college.[3] Admission is via random lottery and there is no tuition.
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The schools operate within the San Diego Unified School District but the High Tech High organization is governed by three independent boards of directors:[4]
The schools are publicly funded although they have received grants from private companies and organizations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributed $17 million between 2000 and 2006.[5]
The original "High Tech High School" is now known as The Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High.
In 2000 the San Diego Unified School District approved the first charter and construction began in a former U.S. Navy training center in the Point Loma district, now known as Liberty Station, near the San Diego airport. The grouping of High Tech High schools in this area is known as High Tech High Village. With a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, High Tech High opened with 200 students in the 9th and 10th grades in September. In 2003 the first graduating class of graduated 50 students. In 2006 the Statewide Benefit Charter was approved. In 2007 High Tech High Digital Commons launches. In 2009 the statewide Benefit Charter was expanded to K-12.
The high school and middle school were designed, and construction directed, by the school's in-house Design Director, architect David Stephen. The facility received a 2001 Educational Design Excellence Award from the American School & University Architectural Portfolio.[6] Stephen served as both the school's Curriculum Designer and Design Director in the school's first 6 years.[7]
HTH Graduate School of Education offers a Master of Education degree (M.Ed.) in Teacher Leadership and a Master of Education degree (M.Ed.) in School Leadership.
Teacher Credentialing
High Tech High is authorized by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing to offer preliminary and professional credentials. It offers two programs: The Intern Program for preliminary teaching credentials and the two-year Induction Program for teachers with preliminary teaching credentials.
Leading Schools Program
This is a one-year program which blends on-line learning and face-to-face collaboration. It is designed to transform schools across the nation by serving as a "change incubator" for teams of educators engaged in school reform.
The High Tech High program and curriculum evolved from the work of Larry Rosenstock and colleagues in the New Urban High School Project, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education.[8] The focus was on inner-city high schools using school-to-work strategies, including internships and other forms of field work, as a leverage for whole-school change. The findings of the NUHS were summarized in guides centered on six design principles. The school is virtually textbook-free.[9] HTH is structured around four design principles, including three from NUHS and one developed by HTH:
These principles determined the small size of the schools, the openness of the facilities, personalization, emphasis on integrated and project-based learning, and display and exhibitions of student work. All students are required to complete internships in the community. HTH director Ben Daley described the school's approach: "We are teaching students to think deeply about content and then do something with their knowledge, not just race through a textbook.”[10] According to Rosenstock, who became a CEO of HTH, a slogan at High Tech High is: “You can play video games at HTH, but only if you make them here.”[11]