Is This The Best High School in America?

Learning, Innovation & Tech

Bombs & Breakthroughs

CJ Westerberg, February 3, 2012 6:10 PM

A classic from The Daily Riff

Video Below

How these six minutes may change your idea of education in America. Phillips Exeter, Harvard Westlake & Lawrenceville may be taking notes from this San Diego charter school leading the next wave.

Innovation in schools can look and sound much like High Tech High in San Diego, where the graduation rate is 100%, college acceptance and test scores excel. They have expanded to Middle School and now elementary school level, as well.

Why don't our schools look more like this?

Prev. Published The Daily Riff 12/09

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Brendan Gallagher

What about composition?

I would like to see what the writing instruction looks like at this high school. I know it is harder to capture visually in an interesting way, but there was no mention of it in the video at all.

While critical thinking and verbal communication are huge priorities, written communication should be considered one of the top 5, if not 3 since so much of our world is now web-text-based. If we do not revolutionize English Language Arts with the rest of education, then students will compartmentalize school into the fun collaborative projects and the boring book work.

Innovative education in Lang Arts and Math are the venues through which our entire system of education can be changed. If we don't revolutionize those areas, then we're just putting different frosting on the same old cake.

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Now, keeping in mind these fourfold interests - interest in conversation, or communication; in inquiry, or finding out things; in making things or construction; and in artistic expression - we may say they are natural resources, the uninvested capital, upon the exercise of which depends the active growth of the child..

John Dewey, The School and Society, 1900

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