High Tech High-Los Angeles

Narratives

Architect Narrative

High Tech High - Los Angeles (HTH-LA), scheduled for completion in 2004, will be the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) newest public high school campus and the only one designed specifically to train students for the high technology careers of tomorrow.

Located on the grounds of Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley, HTH-LA will stand as a separate, unique, and self-contained 33,000 square foot campus hosting 325 students in grades 9-12. The facility will be constructed to mirror leading-edge research centers built by corporate America and will feature smart building technologies that are wired, wireless, powered by renewable energy sources and that utilize environmentally friendly building materials. The design of HTH-LA will be visually exciting and people-friendly, incorporating natural light, an indoor/outdoor environment with study gardens, individual and collaborative workspace and commons meeting area, and colors and finishes that are creatively stimulating.

Enrollment in this exciting and challenging program will be available to all students in LAUSD regardless of prior grades or academic performance. Small class sizes, one-on-one tutoring, and a hands-on, project-oriented learning curriculum will give every student the opportunity to fulfill their potential for success. Student demographics are expected to reflect LAUSD’s enrollment, consisting primarily of minority and inner-city youth from low-income families and neighborhoods.

Teachers and staff at HTH-LA will reflect the best and the brightest the District has to offer. As a technology training ground for LAUSD teachers, the school will offer three to five-year terms for both tenured and novice instructors, who will then return to classrooms at other schools to share what they have learned in building best-practice, interactive learning environments. During the 9th and 10th grades, students will focus intensively on academic basics such as language arts, math, and science. Students will be expected to complete most of their graduation requirements during their first two years in the program. The last two years will focus on collaborations with the high technology business community and mentored projects that require students to apply the skills they have learned in the classroom to real-world challenges. A state-of-the-art network will support distance-learning projects and enable outside access to HTH-LA curriculum and classroom practice through streaming and real-time video. Graduating students will have certification in at least one area of technology such as computer repair, technical support or networking.

HTH-LA was created by educational entrepreneur, Roberta Weintraub, in partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District and a number of leading corporations in the technology industry, including High Tech High — San Diego, Cisco Systems, Microsoft Corporation, AOL-Time/Warner, Xerox Communications, Oracle Corporation, and Dell Computer Corporation.

Educator Narrative

HighTechHigh-Los Angeles (HTH-LA) is Los Angeles’ first public high school designed to integrate a rigorous college-prep curriculum with intensive high technology training that is intimately linked to the real world of work. The mission is to engage students, teachers and industry mentors with a creative, project-based curriculum presented in an inspiring environment that supports collaboration and team process. The HTH-LA experience is designed to stimulate curiosity, inquiry and the constant desire to push beyond limits. We want our students to become participants—and leaders—in the high tech industries as highly skilled, highly paid knowledge workers of the 21st century’s digital world.

In a small learning community of up to 325 high school students, 9th through 12th graders will receive a uniquely challenging educational experience focused on high-tech studies, including math, science and engineering, in a stimulating school complex that is designed to simulate the real work environments of high tech industries. Learning is organized around a central town square, the “commons,” that is surrounded by staff, faculty and classroom spaces. The school is divided into a lower school, for 9th and 10th grades, with flexible classrooms that include adjacent project rooms for collaborative team-work. The upper school includes a project-based “great room,” designed to model a workplace environment, for independent study projects. Technology and science labs are adjacent to the state-of-the-art prototype lab where students can build what they have designed on computers. Shaded study gardens outside the classrooms and commons provide a gathering place for individual work or discussions. The courtyard entrance serves as a casual meeting environment for students and visitors. All of the architectural elements of HTH-LA are brought together under the vaulted roof of the commons. Natural light fills the building, and bright colors are used throughout the school interior to create an uplifting and inspiring environment for students and teachers.

HTH-LA’s buildings are designed to serve as an important teaching tool for the curriculum. Using cutting-edge mechanical, lighting, electrical, and energy conservation systems, the school buildings are a hands-on, demonstration laboratory for students studying basic physics and environmental design. All data on energy-use and conservation of the photovoltaic roof panels and other mechanical and lighting systems, which are digitally controlled, is available for student analysis through the school Local Area Network (LAN).

From this “green” environment, HTH-LA addresses the changing needs of educators in the 21st Century as well. Developed as a model for contemporary secondary instructional programs, the school will serve as a technology training site for LAUSD teachers (including those from other schools). It offers training programs, in the classroom and online, in the effective use of technology in the classroom and workshops that explore how using technology as a teaching tool can change and improve instruction.

Teachers at the school are selected based on criteria including interviews with the selection committee, portfolios of work demonstrating a high level of effective integration of technology throughout the appropriate curriculum, and observations of the teacher with students. No teacher will be automatically assigned to HTH-LA from the District Office.

The innovative school-to-career curriculum is focused on preparing students for high-skill, high-wage careers.