{"id":593,"date":"2012-07-10T13:20:49","date_gmt":"2012-07-10T20:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=593"},"modified":"2012-07-10T13:27:04","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T20:27:04","slug":"high-tech-high-and-networks-of-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/?p=593","title":{"rendered":"High Tech High and Networks of Ideas"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

High Tech High and Author Reflected<\/p><\/div>\n

Today I published a long-in-the-works case study of High Tech High<\/a><\/strong>, the collection of schools in San Diego County that follow the same design and operating principles.<\/p>\n

Each of the 11 HTH schools is small, a maximum of 125 students per grade, and personalized.\u00a0 Each of the schools follows a project-based curriculum that requires students to make connections to the adult world, through projects and internships that are critical in helping students set their sights higher and aim toward college.\u00a0 Each of the schools follows what the school calls a “common intellectual mission” integrating head and hand.\u00a0 There are no classes labeled “gifted,” and whenever possible special education students are fully integrated into regular classes and projects.<\/p>\n

Finally, the schools work around the principle that it is the teacher who designs the curriculum.\u00a0 There are no packaged programs of instruction, and the schools have not outsourced the intellectual core of teaching and learning.\u00a0 Adult conversations and collaboration are prized and built into the schools’ daily schedules.<\/p>\n

Like all visitors, I was charmed by the schools: Students having fun while fully engaged in projects.\u00a0 Scores of books written and published.\u00a0 Interesting multimedia projects.\u00a0 Enthusiastic teachers who are articulate about their craft and art.<\/p>\n

But it was a public policy puzzle that drew me to HTH.\u00a0 How does a group of attractive charter schools replicate success? \u00a0HTH decided that, unlike KIPP, it would not franchise, nor would it grow to a divisional corporate form.\u00a0 (HTH has a statewide charter allowing it to start up to 48 schools, but it does not plan to expand much, preferring a very slow process in which new schools are founded by veteran leadership from older ones so that the culture of the schools moves with the people.)\u00a0 HTH can’t be packaged and sold as a program of instruction the way publishers do.\u00a0 So, how do others take away the lessons of HTH and weave them at home?<\/p>\n

Thus far the answer seems to be a loose network of teachers and administrators who are willing to spend the time understanding HTH in some depth.\u00a0 HTH runs its own graduate school, and one of its activities is the Leading Schools program where educators from around the world come together understand the existing HTH model and how to adapt it.<\/p>\n

In many ways, it’s idea leadership at its best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I published a long-in-the-works case study of High Tech High, the collection of schools in San Diego County that follow the same design and operating principles. Each of the 11 HTH schools is small, a maximum of 125 students per grade, and personalized.\u00a0 Each of the schools follows a project-based curriculum that requires students […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,6,11,8,38],"tags":[91,90,39,89,93,92],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=593"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/charlestkerchner.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}