By Melissa B. Taboada
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Five years after New Tech High School opened, graduation rates there have topped 97 percent.
That's enough to convince Manor school district leaders that the project-based learning program should be expanded districtwide. Administrators at the 7,600-student Manor district on Travis County's northeastern edge — where two of its 11 traditional schools received the state's lowest rating this year — see the program as transformative.
Manor will be the first traditional public school district in Texas to bring the concept to kindergarten through 12th grades, New Tech Network organization officials said. The Napa, Calif.-based nonprofit is recognizing the Manor district as the first certified training site for project-based learning, which calls for using hands-on collaborative projects to teach various core subjects.
The idea behind the teaching model is that students learn better when teachers scale back their roles as lecturers, allowing students to think independently.
Manor's New Tech High School has had only two graduating classes. All 40 students in the inaugural class of 2010 graduated. That feat was almost repeated with the class of 2011, in which 97 percent of students have graduated so far. The remaining students have not dropped out and are still pursuing their diplomas.
The accomplishment bucks statistical expectations: In both graduating classes, most students are members of minority ethnic groups, and 65 percent of the class of 2010 and 60 percent of 2011 seniors came from low-income families.
By comparison, Manor High School had an 82.4 percent completion rate in 2010. The average statewide was 91.4 percent.
New Tech High has remarkable success in other areas as well. The first graduating class had 100 percent acceptance into college, and 97 percent of the 2011 graduates were accepted into college. More than 50 percent of those students are first-generation college attendees.
"We are now working as quickly as possible to speed up the learning we have gained from New Tech High School to see what we can replicate in elementary, middle and high school levels in a model that can be sustained as well," said Superintendent Andrew Kim. "We're talking about multiple things we're trying to redo, change and correct so we can truly transform the whole organization."
So far, the district has had some success.
Decker Elementary School was at risk of being closed after three years of failing to meet state academic standards. Things began turning around in 2008-09 with then-new Principal Leslie Whitworth, who brought in the project-based learning model the next year.
Teachers traded out much of traditional lecture-style teaching, which Manor officials said can make students passive participants in learning.
Each classroom has been renovated; large glass windows were installed for visitors to peer in and students to see across to other classrooms.
The design is supposed to lend itself toward collaboration, educators said.
Students don't appear to be distracted by the windows, or even take notice of visitors observing from the hallway. They move about the classroom freely and work with one another.
Desks are round tables where students can work together, rather than individual workstations that face the front of the classroom.
Fourth-grade students last semester broke into teams and collaborated to design a house that could be used for Habitat for Humanity. At their disposal were laptops, iPads and iPods — beefed up technology is a big part of the program.
The students researched the organization and its beneficiaries. They tapped their math skills to sketch out the home's dimensions and all its rooms. Then they wrote and presented a paper on what they learned.
"We were the architects," said 10-year-old Alex Velasco.
In another assignment, students researched global warming and climate change. They turned in a video that provides statistics and photographs about the effects of greenhouse gases and shows the impact of environmentally friendly habits such as conserving water and electricity and recycling. They learned skills in science, math, writing and public speaking.
"They accept what they're doing as something that can help someone, in all sincerity," said Ruth Burrell, a fourth-grade teacher who received project-based learning training three years ago. "They assume the responsibility of tackling that world problem."
Whitworth, Decker's principal, said that under the project-based model, student learning is reflected in "more than just scores or grades. You see a transformation of their ability to take ownership for their learning. It really changes the child, the level of higher learning."
Decker needed technology upgrades and $196,530 in renovations that the district paid for using federal grants and interest earned on bond proceeds, among other sources.
Manor officials say the investment paid off: Student achievement jumped, earning the school the state's second highest accountability rating in 2009 and 2010. (The school was rated academically acceptable this year, missing the mark in reading.)
Now, the program is in all seven Manor elementary schools, and a handful of teachers at Manor Middle School this year are using the method. Other middle school teachers will be trained later this year.
In the fall of 2009, Manor launched its Think Forward Institute for educators in which master teachers trained in project-based learning teach educators from across the country how to create data-driven projects.
The district still has a ways to go, however. Manor Middle School and Oak Meadows Elementary School received the state's lowest rating.
But Lydia Dobyns , the president of the New Tech Network, said she believes that "Manor is one of handful districts in the country right now that have the vision and the capacity to really provide a (kindergarten) through 12 transformation."
"They're one of the exemplary districts within the network, achieving great success," Dobyns said. "You'll see first-hand creative teaching, students responsible for learning and engaged in learning. They constantly reflect collaboration and creativity."
New Tech High is one of the network organization's demonstration sites, and Dobyns said the district has shown a commitment to train others.
The district is working with the UTeach Institute, a collaboration between the College of Natural Science and the College of Education at the University of Texas.
Kim said he wanted to offer a higher education institution the chance to see how project-based learning works and to help "produce teachers, especially in the natural sciences area, who understand how to incorporate project-based learning in working with kids."
Under the UTeach program, University of Texas students spend time in a project-based instructional class. Later, graduates come back to teach in the district.
Michael Marder, co-director of UTeach Natural Sciences, has been working with Manor's New Tech High since it opened in 2007.
"It's the best kind of partnership," Marder said.
mtaboada@statesman.com; 445-3620
New Tech Network
New Tech Network, a nonprofit Napa, Calif., organization, was founded in Napa in 1996 and expanded quickly after a 2001 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The teaching model focuses on an instructional approach centered on project-based learning and strong use of technology.
New Tech programs are now in 86 high schools in 16 states including California, New York and several schools in Texas, including Akins and Eastside Memorial high schools in the Austin school district.
Source: New Tech Network
