Students in this elementary school have a vocabulary for explaining how their learning happens.

They "make learning visible."

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TEDx by Dennis Littky

What is one word that describes high school?

BORING

So we set out to create a school that was not boring.

Tour of High Tech High with Bill Gates and Oprah

Teaching History Backwards with the Personal History Workbook

Download the free ebook tinyURL.com/PersonalHistoryEbook

See the video TINYURL.com/PersonalHistoryWorkbook

Eric Mazur (Harvard University) asks students to "turn to your neighbor" and discuss the possible answers

Projects at High Tech High

Larry Rosenstock describes the focus at High Tech High: “Students should gain strong experience in and understanding of all aspects of an industry, including Finance, Planning, Management, Underlying principles of technology, Labor Issues, Community issues, Health and safety issues, and Environmental issues as they pertain to that industry.” The average US person works in 8 to 12 places in their lifetime. You can hear his full talk at www.TINYURL.com/LarryHTH (adapted from High Tech High Schools)

If we didn't know what school looked like, what would be the best way to organize a school? Think about homeschooling. Would we teach in the kitchen and then ring a bell and move into the dining room?

Name one word to describe high school: BORING

We're going to make a school that is not boring.

"What's best for kids, one student at a time."

We gave a teacher 15 kids and asked the teacher to follow those kids for four years. -- Dennis Littky

REDESIGN SCHOOLS

Replacing an American Institution

Many critics believe that the high school is broken and that the people who work in high schools are lazy or incapable. We believe that the high school isn't broken. Rather, it is obsolete. The basic design of our high schools is a century old and no longer appropriate for educating American youth.

In the 1890s, Harvard College, a regional institute of higher education, desired to become a national university. To guide Harvard leaders in how to do this and to ensure that they would be getting students from across the country who were properly prepared to be successful in higher education, the college convened the Carnegie Commission. Yes, we're talking about that Carnegie Commission—the commission that decided that our high school students needed to earn course credits based on seat time. This 19th century concept, which is based solely on educating students who would be able to go on to Harvard, is still the basic organizing structure of our high schools in the 21st century.

The United States in the 1890s was a country whose population felt that an education past the 4th grade was a waste of time for most individuals. It was a country where high school was only for those who needed the connection between elementary school and higher education. It was a country where very few women and at most 5 percent of the young men went to college. That's who our high schools were designed to educate: 5 percent of our young men. The rest of our adolescents were employed in our mills, mines, and farms.

The dedicated educators in this country have been able to make the high school designed to meet the needs of 5 percent of the young men work reasonably well for about one-third of our current students. This adaptation has taken a superhuman effort by our high school educators, but the world has changed dramatically in the past century. The economic imperative for our society is compelling enough. But, when you consider that we are the world's premier democracy, we need to be preparing all students not just to keep our economic engine running, but also to become contributing citizens in an increasingly complex democracy.

If we assume that our high schools are broken, then the dedicated educators who populate those schools will feel defensive and resentful of how our society demeans them. They rightly feel besieged from all directions. At the same time, these conscientious individuals are working extremely hard and accomplishing much more than the high school was designed to do.

Fortunately, if we realize that the high school is obsolete, we can validate what our high school educators are doing and work collaboratively with them to design a new high school that works for all of our youth. If we are to be successful in educating all students in a new age, we need to redesign our high school for the new age.