Vol. 11 Issue 4 Office for Education Policy May 2014 This Brief New Tech Network in Introduction P.1 Summary Points History of New Tech P.1 Arkansas New Tech high schools New Tech in Arkansas P.1 focus on teaching that The New Tech Network high school Becoming a New Tech School P.2 engages (project-based model is a component of Governor The New Tech Model In Action P.2 learning), technology that Beebe’s 2011 STEM Works Initiative enables, and a culture and currently operating in several Ar- New Tech Successes P.4 that empowers. kansas high schools. This policy brief New Tech Challenges P.5 examines the New Tech model, including Part of Governor Beebe’s Future of New Tech in Arkansas P.6 both its successes and challenges, and 2011 STEM Works Initi- Conclusion P.6 ative called for some Ar- spotlights two Arkansas high schools kansas high schools to that are using the model. The school thrived and advocates begin using the New Tech Introduction model. formed the New Tech Foundation to The New Tech model has been operating provide continuing support. In 2001, Nationally, New Tech in Arkansas for nearly three years now. New Tech was awarded a $6 million students graduate, enroll It is currently being implemented in grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates in college, and persist in fourteen Arkansas high schools and one Foundation. With this funding, New college at a rate higher intermediate school, with plans to ex- Tech was charged with expanding its than the national aver- pand to another high school next year. school model elsewhere.2 age. Arkansas-only sta- At fifteen schools, Arkansas is operating tistics are not available. the third most New Tech schools in the Today, New Tech operates 135 schools country, after California and Indiana.1 in 23 states and Australia.1 Some challenges of im- This policy brief will examine the histo- plementing New Tech are New Tech in Arkansas instilling community con- ry and proliferation of New Tech high schools, the model’s results, its chal- fidence in a new model New Tech came to Arkansas as part of and developing an infra- lenges, and its impact on Arkansas. an effort to improve STEM (Science, structure to support the History of New Tech Technology, Engineering and Math) technology component. education. In August 2011, Governor The first New Tech high school was Beebe and his Workforce Cabinet an- Rogers New Technology opened in 1996 in Napa, California. Lo- nounced a pilot program called STEM High School and Lincoln cal business leaders in Napa were con- Works, in order to help meet the in- High School are spot- cerned that some students were not grad- creasing demand for workers in high- 3 lighted in this brief. uating with the skills needed for a 21st tech fields. STEM Works is a two century economy. These business lead- prong approach, with programs focus- ers worked with the local school district ing on both post-secondary education to research changes that could be made, and secondary education. In the post- including incorporating project-based secondary space, some Arkansas uni- learning and the use of technology versities are implementing UTeach, throughout the curriculum. Napa New which recruits college students in Technology High School opened its in- STEM subjects to consider becoming augural year with 100 students. teachers. The secondary component consists of three different programs: www.officeforeducationpolicy.org Page 2 1) EAST Core: extends EAST-based Arkansas New Tech Implementation Types by Cohort principles into core math and science courses Cohort I 2) Project Lead the Way: offers a pro- School Year Implementation Type ject-based curriculum in pre- engineering for middle/high school Opened students and for biomedical science Cross County High School 2011 Whole school in high school 3) New Tech Network high school Lincoln High School 2011 Whole school model: integrates STEM education and project-based learning throughout Cohort II the curriculum School Year Implementation Type Becoming a New Tech School Opened Schools submitted a grant application to convert to a New Tech model and were Arkadelphia High School 2012 Whole school subsequently chosen by the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet. Those selected re- Dumas New Tech High School 2012 Whole school ceived some seed money to start the initiative. Marked Tree High School 2012 Whole school In 2011, Cross County School District Riverview High School 2012 Whole school and Lincoln School District became the first two districts to implement the mod- El Dorado High School 2012 Shared campus el. These two rural schools used a whole school conversion model, which means Highland High School 2012 Shared campus that every high school student in the dis- trict receives their education through the Hope Academy of Science & Technology 2012 Shared campus New Tech model. Other than whole school conversion, Van Buren New Tech 2012 Shared campus schools may implement the shared cam- pus model (the school shares a campus with the existing school and students Cohort III have a choice to attend New Tech) or the School Year Implementation stand-alone model, in which the high Opened Type school operates in its own building, sepa- rate from the traditional high school. In Blytheville High School-A New Tech 2013 Whole school the stand-alone model, students again School have the choice to apply to and attend Hillcrest High School 2013 Whole school New Tech. The shared campus and stand- alone models are more expensive for a Trumann High School 2013 Whole school district to implement because they re- quire two separate sets of faculty. Rogers New Technology High School 2013 Stand-alone The New Tech Model in Action So, what is the New Tech model? Dr. Cohort IV Lance Arbuckle at Rogers New Technol- School Year Implementation ogy High School and Courtney Jones at Opened Type Lincoln High School provided us with an Trumann Intermediate School 2014 Whole school informative description and examples to go along with it. Each component will be *All of these schools are currently implementing New Tech models. Texarkana-AR discussed in further detail. High School is scheduled to open as a New Tech school in the 2014-15 school year. www.officeforeducationpolicy.org Page 3 Three Main Components: do. Teachers can highly recommend that certain students attend a workshop if they perceive a need for it. 1. Teaching that engages 2. Technology that enables After these steps are completed, students will complete a project that is based on inquiry into the driving question. The project will often 3. Culture that empowers involve collaboration with classmates. Students will research, plan, design and create a product or presentation on what they learned. These projects should be structured in a way that students have Teaching That Engages “voice and choice” while operating within the boundaries of the pro- ject. Students learn as they need to know and revise and reflect on Project-based learning is at the heart of New their project. The last step includes students presenting their project Tech’s instruction. Arbuckle explained that to an audience.4 project-based learning can have different meanings: projects for assessment and projects Proponents of project-based learning believe that students are moti- for instruction. The New Tech model focuses vated by this approach because the driving question and correspond- on projects for instruction. ing project is designed to teach a course’s content on a deep and meaningful level. Projects start with a driving question. Arbuckle gave an example of a driving question used in Technology That Enables a team taught English/American History class- room at his school: The second aspect of the New Tech model is the technology compo- nent. All New Tech schools have a one-to-one computer ratio with “What freedoms and responsibilities are in- Web access; in both Rogers and Lincoln, each student is issued their sured in our form of government and why are own laptop. The New Tech website indicates that technology helps to they important ?” create “a self-directed learner who no longer needs to rely on teachers or textbooks for knowledge and direction.” At Rogers, some books In contrast, traditional instruction often con- continue to be used to supplement instruction, but Arbuckle points sists of a teacher opening class by letting stu- out that information in textbooks is at best, three years old. With the dents know that today they will be learning Web, students have access to the latest information. about the Bill of Rights and then launching in- to a lecture. New Tech teachers are called Another benefit to online learning is the use of online platforms, “facilitators” and assume the role of “guide on which Arbuckle believes helps prepare students for the college setting the side” rather than “sage on the stage” (the and allows teachers to provide immediate feedback. For example, a all-knowing instructor). teacher poses a question to students related to the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, and students post their responses online. The teacher Framing the learning objective as a question is can provide immediate feedback to the students about their responses intended to help students see real-world con- and recommend changes. This sort of instruction is common on to- nections to their learning-how content connects day’s college campuses, where most professors have an online com- to their life and why it is worth learning about, ponent to each of their courses. serving to engage and motivate students. Another important tool utilized by New Next, teachers guide students through a pro- Tech is Echo, which is a learning manage- cess of identifying what they already know ment system designed to support project- about this topic, what information they need to based learning and facilitate communica- know, and what the next steps should be.