We had guest speaker Jeff Hopkins talk about his school, High Tech High, and how he uses personal learning plans for students to attain competency in math, science, history, etc. The theory is that students will become engaged in these subject areas by their own inquiry. The focus is project-based learning, where students pursue their passions through projects, often incorporating inquiry across multiple disciplines. It is an intriguing method that I can see as beneficial since I believe students learn better when motivated. I did a quick google search on High Tech High to see its rating. Although I couldn’t find anything on Victoria’s High Tech High, there were a lot of reviews from the original San Diego-based High Tech High. The website greatschools.org rated the school an average of 6/10, with test scores average (6/10), college readiness above average (8/10), and equity below average (4/10). The score that strikes me the most is college readiness. I find myself torn between the idea that college is content-focused as well as project-based. Some courses were strictly midterms and exams, so I wonder how students who did high school through a project-based lens would be ready for a course where evaluation came from exams. Although our academic world seems to be shifting away from standardized tests and focusing more on inquiry and projects, we still see the old way of teaching and evaluating present. Therefore, I think it is important for high school students to know how to be successful when it comes to tests and exams. I think a blended model is a right fit at the moment, as we are still on the cusp of traditional and inquiry-based learning.
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