"It does not matter how SLow you go, What matters is that you don't stop..."
General:
High Tech High began in 2000 as a single charter high school launched by a coalition of San Diego business leaders and educators. It has evolved into a school development organization with a growing portfolio of innovative charter schools spanning grades K-12. HTH combats the twin problems of student disengagement and low academic achievement by creating personalized, project-based learning environments where all students are known well and challenged to meet high expectations. HTH schools attempt to show how education can be redesigned to ensure that all students graduate well prepared for college, work, and citizenship. Mission: High Tech High’s mission is to develop and support innovative public schools where all students develop the academic, workplace, and citizenship skills for postsecondary success. History: High Tech High was originally conceived by a group of about 40 civic and high tech industry leaders in San Diego, assembled by the Economic Development Corporation and the Business Roundtable, who met regularly from 1996 - 1998 to discuss the challenge of finding qualified individuals for the high-tech work force. In particular, members were concerned about the “digital divide” that resulted in low numbers of women and ethnic minority groups entering the fields of math, science, and engineering. Gary Jacobs, Director of Education Programs at Qualcomm, and Kay Davis, Director of the Business Roundtable, were key participants in these discussions. In late 1998 the group voted to start a charter school and engaged Larry Rosenstock, then President of Price Charities in San Diego, as the founding principal. The founding group was clear about its intent: to create a school where students would be passionate about learning and would acquire the basic skills of work and citizenship. Rosenstock, a former carpentry teacher, lawyer, and high school principal who had recently directed the U.S. Department of Education’s New Urban High School project, brought a vision and a sense of the design principles by which this mission might be accomplished. |
My Experience:
I've been part of the High Tech school system since 6th grade. Going into it I wasn't sure what to expect. I started out in a year round elementary school learning out of old elementary school text books, always doing math worksheets and reading about history. The way it's done in elementary school isn't that interesting, especially when all you're really doing is sitting infront of a book. My sister went to High Tech High when she was in 6th grade as well, so she was really my connection to the school. Now that I'm part of this system I look back and realized all the opportunities this school has opened up for me. Before I wouldn't even know that there's a whole other world of learning. Here at High Tech High we learn by doing, and that has really stuck to me. I could sit and read how to do something a couple times and still not understand, but when I try doing it that's when it all comes together. |