Setting

 

Demographics:

There are currently twelve High Tech High public charter schools in the San Diego area located in three different regions: Point Loma, San Marcos, and Chula Vista.  The San Marcos and Chula Vista campuses both have an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school.  The Point Loma campus has one elementary school, two middle schools, and three high schools.

 

All High Tech High schools embody four central design principles: personalization, common intellectual mission, adult-world connection, and teacher-as-designer.  All teachers implement a project-based curriculum in their classrooms.  All students are fully included in the classroom at High Tech High.  The total enrollment across the twelve schools is 4,761 students.  Of those students, 49% are girls and 51% are boys.  Students in Special Education comprise 12.31% of the total population.  The racial demographic breakdown is as follows:

 

Asian: 13%

Pacific Islander: 2%

American Indian: 3%

African American: 9%

Caucasian: 33%

Hispanic: 40%

 

Adult Learning:

There is a strong culture of adult learning already present High Tech High.  Each of the schools has many structures in place to facilitate collaboration and professional growth among adults, including morning meetings (in teaching teams, academic discipline groups, study/action groups, and entire staff/faculty meetings) and professional development meetings that occur on a regular schedule at each school.  High Tech High operates both a Graduate School of Education and a Teacher Credentialing Program that serve adults from both within and from outside the High Tech High community.  The presence of both programs on campus contributes to the ethos of adult learning throughout the community.

 

Each High Tech High school has at least one Inclusion Specialist.  The role of the Inclusion Specialist is to collaborate with classroom teachers and academic coaches to ensure that all students’ needs are met in the classroom.  Inclusion Specialists work individually and in small groups with students.  They are responsible for writing students IEP’s, including annual goals that they support the student to achieve.  Inclusion Specialists participate in professional development at their respective school sites.   Beginning in the winter of 2012, the Inclusion Specialists also began to meet as a whole group to explore topics specifically related Special Education and Inclusion.