HIGH SCHOOL GOES HIGH TECH

ASEE Prism, Apr 2004 by Hayden, Tom

Some experts point out that the selectivity of specialized schools - whether based on academic achievement or on interest - can be particularly beneficial for groups of students who are often underrepresented in math, science, and technology. Many students in regular high schools face social pressure to pretend not to be smart, says Iowa State's Bruning, and girls even more so than boys. "Girls' interest in math and science drops off dramatically in high school," she notes. Being surrounded by other intelligent, motivated students "can really benefit young women and help to nurture their interest, so they do pursue these tracks." Still, even with the best possible high school preparation, she says, engineering colleges continue to have a challenge attracting and retaining both female and minority students. "It's not utopia at college," Bruning says, "so it can be a real shock to come in and be one or two of 20 people in a class. Some are so committed that they plow through it. But many others don't because they don't have the community they arc used to having." Students from different backgrounds have different interests and ways of learning, she notes, but "engineering is still, to a large degree, a monoculture."

Thomas says that specialized math, science, and technology schools are already helping to address that problem. "There are significantly more women going into math and science majors" from specialized high schools, and "specialized schools are indeed an effective way to increase minority representation in the sciences," Thomas says. "The number is often very small because many of the schools are quite homogenous, but the consortium has made diversity one of its major priorities. It's in the front of everyone's minds," he says. "When some of the schools were first started," Malcolm says, "they didn't have the most diverse student populations, either in terms of gender or racial and ethnic groups. But the best pay attention to that issue, and it seems to be getting better."

Some education advocates charge that specialized schools rob the broader school system of both funding and potential student leaders. "Those of us doing schools like this do need to look at the effects of choice on nonchoosers," Rosenstock says. But, he says, there isn't much evidence that specialized schools are "creaming" the best students away from the general student population. Besides, he says, "locking students into schools that don't work isn't a solution either." The important thing, Malcolm says, is not to forget about science education in general high schools as well. Specialized schools "can be absolutely wonderful institutions for the student who is science or engineering intended," she says, "but there has to be attention to the system as a whole." Science and technology education "has to be upgraded there as well, or you'll leave a lot of students behind where they don't have the opportunity to move" to a specialized school.

The benefits of specialized schools need not be limited to the students who attend them, Thomas says. Teachers from NCSSSMST schools and other specialized schools work on curriculum development and offer professional development programs for teachers from regular schools, Thomas says, "so whether students end up at our school or not, at least they're getting a slightly different experience." And because many of the NCSSSMST schools run on a half-day schedule, with students returning to their regular schools for nonscience subjects, Lindeman says, the students' enthusiasm "can really help to spread that spark of interest back to their home schools." Students at specialized schools also often help to spread the word more directly. Among her other activities, Manuel has been a member of HTH' s "Got It Girls" outreach team, leading school tours and making presentations to students at San Diego schools. "During the first school year," she says, "there were more boys than girls. I think it's very important that girls should take advantage of the opportunity to attend High Tech High."