Good Evening

Presentation to
AIM Program
PVUSD - November 2006

pDAT
internally built, managed, and customized Data Warehouse

High Tech High

a modern, ubiquitous-computing, performance-based learning, high school

by
Jeff Billings
Director of Technology, PVUSD
pDAT (Data Warehouse)
IGA between PVUSD and ASU

Multi-year agreement - we’re about 40% complete

Initial rollout phases started this Fall

Single sign-on, by job function, to access a variety of “disparate” data

Principal can see school - Teacher can see class

Identifying other data sources

 The Challenge

Free and Reduced MS Grades from

AIMS from ADE
Lunch Counts from PowerGrade
Meal Tracker HS Grades from
pOGB Reading from Dibels,
SAT9/TerraNova Accelerated Reader,
Attendance from
from CTB FastForward, etc.
PowerSchool and SASIxp
SAMs from Scanners
ES Grades from pIGB
and Moodle Needs and
Enrollment from SAIS Pull Outs, Push Ins,
Math Scores from
Tracking, Team
Carnegie and Data, Data,
Scheduling, Cohorts,
FasTMath and EVERYWHERE
HQP, and on it
Accelerated Math
goes....
 Bring it together in one Data Warehouse (pDAT)

Educator
AIMS
Analyze tabular and graphical data

Grades pDAT SAT/ACT/

PSAT
Attendance

Early
SAT9/ Reading
TerraNova
SAMs Discipline
Needs Demographics Others?

All linked by student and/or teacher ID #

https://pdat.pvschools.net (login screen)
Search by Student or Teacher (if access)
Search by Name, ID, Demographics
Historical AIMs for this Year’s Students
Last Year’s Grades for this Year’s Students
District Wide Search of Indian Grades
District Wide Search of Male Asian Boys who are Gifted
School and Year Search of Hispanic Girls Grades
School and Year Search of Hispanic Girls Grades
Item Response Theory and Analysis - SAMs
Statistics and Pass/Fail Rate of every Item
Distractor Analysis of every Item
Test Scores of Each SAM by student, teacher, school
 pDAT
Questions???
 High Tech High

HTH
a modern, ubiquitous-computing, performance-based learning, high school
HTH Founded on...

“No one knows who I am”

“I don’t see the relevance”

Consistent survey answers by high

school students across the country,
when asked about their high
school experience
The Metiri Group

http://www.metiri.com/resources.html
HTH

Nestled in San Diego,

in four years, the
model has developed
to opening a series of
High Tech High
partner and sibling
schools
High Visibility

Oprah Winfrey Show

Funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Governors, Business Leaders, Educational Leaders
Press
Multiple Schools

High Tech High High Tech High

International
High Tech Middle

High Tech Elem.

High Tech High International

Partner schools in Texas,

Chicago, Georgia, New Mexico
HTH Charter
Chartered by San Diego
City School District
Random drawings of
applications matching
SDUSD zip codes
They’ve compiled
impressive results
Dewey Theory

One of their common intellectual threads is based on John

Dewey, “Understanding derives from activity”
Everything is about “Completing Projects”
Based on Research
High Tech High was started by several education
reformers who had compiled years of research
They have remained true to their guiding design
principles at HTH
“Educational Entrepreneurs”
Three Design Principles

Personalization
Common Intellectual Mission
Adult World Connection
Personalization
Small schools (<400 students)
Small classes (<25)
Advisor (teacher) for every student - 4 years - home
visits
Team teaching - interdisciplinary - e.g., language/
physics
Loop teaching - 9/10 and 11/12
No Tracking - Heterogeneous Groups
Common Intellectual Mission

Walk the talk

No distinction b/w “College Prep” and “Career Ed”
The Curriculum is Projects - Project Based Learning
Modified Block Scheduling - Projects - Schedule Busting
Rubrics & Authentic Assessment
Digital Portfolios &“Presentations of Learning”
Student as Active Learner - Teacher as Facilitator
Ubiquitous Computing - Everywhere, yet Transparent
HTH has reversed a 100-year history of separating
technical and academic subjects in American high
schools, by linking the two in a project-based
environment. All HTH students use technology to
engage in scientific, mathematical, literary,
historical, and artistic pursuits.
Six A’s of Designing Projects

Academic Rigor

Authenticity

Applied Learning

Active Exploration

Adult Connections

Assessment Practices
PBL
Begin with the End in Mind – skills, standards, and habits of mind
Craft the Driving Question – samples
Plan the Assessments -- rubrics
Map the project -- the scope
Manage the Project -- project tools
Ubiquitous Computing

HTH - Presentations of Learning &

iPBL
Digital Portfolios

Ubiquitous Computing
Adult World Connection

“Some of our best learning occurs outside of school”

9th and 10th graders - “shadow” adult programs
11th grade semester internship (two afternoons a week)
with a business or agency
Substantial Senior Project on topic of interest or concern
to the community
 Results
3 years in a row, awarded
Three years running - 100% ten, scores of 10 - only school
of graduates go to college in San Diego to do so
80% - 4 year university score in top level on state
20% - 2 year college standardized tests
50% - 1st generation scored 2nd out of 100 similar
attendees demographic schools in
California
When I visited with some of their graduates (now in
college), I asked them how college was going. A
statement that stood out to me, was “college courses
are like projects and we know how to do them”.
 Additional Components
Presentations of Learning (POL’s) are embedded everywhere
Every student maintains a digital portfolio
Mobile, wireless, ubiquitous computing
Mechanical technology (sabre saws, drills, glue guns, etc.)
Traditional Calendar: September - May
High School Starts at 9am
Teachers meet every day from 8am to 9am to assess, plan, develop
HTH first school in California granted the charter to certify their own teachers
Digital Portfolios
Projects
Robotics
 Assessment
HTH ignores the march of “high stakes testing”
HTH focuses on continual “authentic assessment” -
continual rubrics of real life applicability
From information to knowledge to third order learning
(engineering)
Habits of Mind
Students Are Constantly Reminded

Significance - Why is it important?

Perspective - What is the point of view?
Evidence - How do you know?
Connection - How does it apply?
Supposition - What if it were different?
 Every student ponders his and other’s work
with the above habits, but can only critique if
the criticism is helpful, specific and kind
 Facility Design Principles

Circular Seminar

Shared Teacher Workrooms Open, Lighted, Commons

Student Team Seating

 Summary
HTH molds curricular content and technology together in relevant project-based
learning, infusing ubiquitous computing as “iPBL’s”
HTH focuses on knowing their clients, from small school and class size, to going to the
student’s home
HTH exhibits best practices of schedule busting, significant planning time,
interdisciplinary teaming, and heterogeneous grouping
HTH bridges the student world to the adult environment and vice versa, with relevant
business and community projects and internships
 HTH
Questions???