Dive Brief:

• The project-based learning model that High Tech High School implemented in 2000 and expanded to its Graduate School of Education in 2006 continues to offer mission-focused preparation for school leaders.
• Getting Smart reports the high school offers graduate students clinical experience, and the graduate programs focus on equity in education along with creating opportunities for deeper learning outcomes as students and, later, as teachers.
• The graduate school aims to serve as a “center of inquiry and progressive practice related to teaching, learning, and leading,” and its graduates are expected to have a direct impact on K-12 schools.

Dive Insight:

Project-based learning has been heralded as a promising strategy to engage students in learning experiences that are more meaningful and enjoyable. Its popularity followed a backlash toward standardized testing, which prompted some schools to focus on test prep and rote memorization of facts. The Williamsburg-James City County Schools in Virginia are discussing a new pilot program that would be structured like High Tech High, with a focus on project-based learning for high schoolers.

At the postsecondary level, Christine Ortiz, dean for graduate education at MIT, is taking a one-year leave of absence starting this summer to plan for and found a new university with project-based learning at its core. It will not have lectures or a traditional degree system. Should it succeed, it would provide another alternative model for graduate school teaching and learning.