New Tech: Challenges, opportunities

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Van Wert High School is betting its future on project-based education, but Principal Bill Clifton admits there have been some challenges as the school makes the changeover from traditional education to the project-based New Tech High School program.

While the innovative New Tech High School curriculum provides the kinds of 21st century educational skills businesses seek in their employees, school officials say it’s a big change from the way classes have been taught for the past century — and that can be a big challenge for both educators and students.

Clifton and Chris Covey, who heads the New Tech implementation, talked recently about the challenges the school is facing — and how they are working to overcome them.

Clifton said the year started with “a little bit of anxiety and frustration” from freshman students used to a more traditional way of education.

“We’re in the beginning stages and we’re still learning,” Covey said, noting that the district is “leaning heavily” on two coaches provided by the New Tech program, but also admits the program is having “growing pains.”

New Tech is an innovative learning environment that is fueled by engaging instruction, a collaborative culture and project-based learning. Students are taught 21st century skills needed to succeed in the future.

Covey said that, while many people think of New Tech as primarily technology-oriented, that’s a misconception. “It’s probably more new techniques, rather than technology,” he explained.

New Tech focuses on creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving skills and provides the kinds of education the business world has wanted students to learn for decades.

Implementation of the New Tech curriculum began with the current freshman class, and will add a grade each year until all four high school grade levels are included. The program could even expand into the middle school or beyond if it proves as successful in the high school as it has in other schools.

Specifically, the VWHS New Tech curriculum includes two “blended” classes, one called AmLit, an amalgam between American History and English 9, and one called ICAP (Integrated Concepts of Algebra and Physical Science), as well as a number of “stand-alone” classes, such as geometry and foreign languages. The curriculum also includes two programs that are already project-based: Project Lead the Way, a four-year pre-engineering program taught by Bob Spath, and the second-year biomedical program under the direction of Chuck Rollins.

In addition to the traditional “top down” style of education, where a teacher provides direct instruction to students, New Tech incorporates project-based education where students are placed in small groups and assigned projects by their teachers.

Clifton and Covey said the projects incorporate core educational instruction and are designed to be fun, as well as educational. Current projects include one on inductive and deductive reasoning in the geometry class where students try to figure out clues from a murder scene, and another on the science used in the insurance industry that includes collaboration with Purmort Brothers Insurance, a local insurance agency.

Instead of quiet students sitting in rows of desks listening to a teacher lecture, New Tech students are noisy, interacting with each other and teachers while desks are clustered in group settings to facilitate collaboration. While technology isn’t the focus of New Tech, it is definitely being used. Each New Tech student has access to a laptop computer each day, while video and other media are used in project development.

Using laptops is a negative for some students, though, who complain that it’s harder to get work done because they don’t have access to computers at home. It’s a problem the district is working to solve.

One challenge that is unique to Van Wert’s New Tech program is the fact that it is a “whole school” implementation, rather than the “school within a school” concept seen in New Tech implementations in northeast Indiana, such as one in Huntington, Ind.

That’s also what sparked a lot of the initial complaints from students and their parents, Clifton said.

“Those kids chose to go to that school,” he said was the statement from students, who complained they didn’t have a choice in whether to participate in the New Tech process. The VWHS principal added, though, that students didn’t have a choice on how they were taught in the old system either. Ironically, Clifton said New Tech students actually have more input in their education than ever before, due to the collaborative nature of the program.

Covey added that he empathizes with students, noting that freshmen already have a heavy load placed on them, transitioning as they are from middle school to high school, and now have to learn a new educational system on top of that. But he said he feels the New Tech program will provide more benefits to them overall by better preparing them for the “real world” of work and career.

The Van Wert school district is already attracting notice from educators nationwide for its embrace of modern teaching techniques, such as project-based education.

Clifton said Rollins had recently attended an education symposium that included a top national teachers’ group representative. He said that, while the educator talked about educational initiatives in bigger cities, such as Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo, “the only small community she mentioned was Van Wert. I think that’s powerful for our community to hear.”

Furthermore, while the New Tech program has often taken students out of their comfort zone, there are plenty of students who think that’s just fine with them. Freshman Wade Healey said that, although the project-based part of the program had him a bit nervous at first, largely because of the group projects, but said the initial impression that lazy students would pull fellow group members’ down doesn’t hold water, since students are graded individually, as well as for their group work, and groups can “fire” members who aren’t pulling their weight.

Students also have different team members, depending on the class and the project being developed.

“I think it’s exciting,” Healey said of the program and its use of technology to further education. He also said he liked the integration of subject matter in the blended classes.

Clifton and Covey said the program also includes a New Tech School Culture Contract (click here for a copy) that students must sign that commits them to being responsible and respecting others, as well as abiding by the school dress code.

Meanwhile, Clifton said that, while there was initial resistance to the new program, students are slowly seeing that there are some benefits to having a modern educational system.

“It’s really a higher level of thinking, of processing, that’s happening,” Clifton said. “They (students) are not convinced yet, but they’re starting to see it.”