High (School) Tech: Building the Future

By Brittany Shoot, May 11, 2009

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Urban tech charter students build robots, master computing and look to make a bold impact on America's future.

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Over the past several years, journalists have seized on the idea that charter schools are failing in record numbers. Overlooking the larger combined successes of these schools in the past decade, this negative focus has created an atmosphere in which "charter school" has become a dirty term for those seeking to improve public education and reform No Child Left Behind.

As a result of the combined negative press and sometimes lagging achievements of students, schools across the country have been closing in an unfortunate backlash that hurts districts.

Charter schools have long filled niche areas in education -- whether teaching at-risk youth about media and technology or working to desegregate public institutions through thoughtfully implemented diversity plans. Particularly in urban areas, charter schools literally act as magnets, drawing students into different districts. This not only diversifies classrooms and hallways, it helps cultivate leadership skills important to working with dissimilar groups in the future. In particular, science and technology charters have enabled low-income students to learn a range of computing, science and robotics skills that are not only powerful tools in the workplace but may also help transform their personal outlook on life.

Charter and magnet high schools don't just cater to the wealthy or middle-class. In cities like San Francisco, New York and New Orleans, charter schools provide a way to merge the cities' culturally diverse neighborhoods. In Boston, MATCH Charter Public High School does not even provide busing. Students are responsible for their own transportation, often riding two trains to get to school each day. This kind of responsibility instills personal accountability early on. The majority of students live at or below the poverty level, with nearly three-fourths of the student body qualifying for additional state assistance like reduced price/free lunch programs. Yet among magnet and charter programs, these kinds of statistics are unremarkable; It is the students and their accomplishments that are extraordinary.

Dartmouth and Beyond

Lennie Polanco (pictured right) is currently finishing his sophomore year in mechanical engineering at Dartmouth. He offers one among many success stories representative of Boston's MATCH Charter Public High School. MATCH Principal Jorge Miranda is a Dartmouth grad, and many of the school's former students have gone on to other prestigious schools like Smith, Howard, Georgetown and Brown.

Polanco attributes his college success to MATCH's commitment to his future. Coming out of a high school with a focus on technology and science, Polanco fondly remembers his time in Boston-area engineering programs. "MATCH introduced me to the Saturday Engineering and Enrichment Discovery Academy (SEED) at MIT," says Polanco. "Before entering the program I had no sure idea of what engineering was, but this program enlightened my vision of the different fields of engineering and what engineers do."

In SEED, Polanco and a diverse population of students from around the city met every Saturday for ten weeks, learning about a specific field of engineering or working on a project. Polanco, who attended SEED for three years, says it helped him understand ways to apply his science and math skills to everyday problems. Working together also helped him learn to share new ideas and to problem-solve in a group setting.

MATCH's intimate school environment also made Polanco's transition to the Dartmouth campus easier. The concentration and discipline he learned in high school has paid off and Polanco is now on a path to graduate in four years with a bright future ahead of him in the engineering job of his choice. While he isn't yet sure what he'd like to do, Polanco says he's in the process of speaking with different engineering professors on campus about their research. It's all part of his plan to hone in on exactly what it is he wants for his future.

To Turkey and Back

While many students at an average public high school might enter a science fair with some helpful prodding from an interested parent, students at Bay Area Technology School in San Francisco have a different relationship to their mandatory school-wide science fair. Currently in its fifth year, the science fair has expanded its reach beyond a single event.

BayTech students Mario Rodriguez and Jason To will travel to Istanbul, Turkey this summer as part of the 17th International Environmental Project Olympiad (INEPO). The student conference, which focuses on the importance of youth and international cooperation, takes place in the first week of June, during World Environment Week.

Rodriguez and To's project, "Biodiesel Fuel," has a lot of real-world potential in a part of the country always looking for greener ways of doing things. Born out of many after-school hours spent with earth science and chemistry teacher Mr. Isaac, the young men's interest began in the classroom and quickly flourished under the guidance of their teacher. While everyone in the school completes a science project, with Isaac's help, Rodriguez and To entered the INEPO competition after previously working together on entries for the International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering & Environment Project (ISWEEEP).

Focusing on the renewable aspect of biodiesel, Rodriguez and To's project explores the production of biodiesel, examining whether it leads to more fuel-efficient automobiles. Their work also highlights a commonly overlooked fact: Biodiesel is an excellent and profitable alternative for manufacturers because of its low production cost.

The INEPO honor is unprecedented for BayTech, and the duo will be one of only three teams from the U.S. attending the conference. Zekeriya Temircan, the school's biology teacher who will accompany the boys on their trip, proudly reflected that they will be representing the United States at the event.

The Magnetism of Robotics

Though they are common in many science and technology charter schools across the country, not every magnet high school is lucky enough to have its own robotics club. Known for their elaborate designs, intricate programming and fierce competitions, robotics clubs have been steadily growing in popularity over the past decade.

At Whitney M. Young Magnet High School in Chicago -- a school attended by First Lady Michelle (Robinson) Obama -- physics teacher and robotics club coordinator Jan Dudzik says the group provides her students with something special. "They build together, but they also bring out the best in each other," she explains. Unique to magnet and charter high schools, Dudzik's students come from a wide range of backgrounds. In the robotics club, girls and boys work together as team co-captains, and in terms of ethnicity, Dudzik says, "It's like the United Nations in here!"

After disbanding several years ago, the club was reformed and re-energized with Dudzik's help in September 2008. With only several months to prepare, the club was off to the Illinois Institute of Technology's December competition. Dudzik's students took home a design award, ranking in the top four teams. Following the success with their two-and-a-half-foot programmable robot built on a grant from Friends of Whitney M. Young, they hope to expand their efforts and create a five-foot-tall NASA-funded robot next year. With $20,000, they plan to build this life-size programmable robot to compete in the next FIRST Tech Challenge.

Many of her students also take initiative on their own. Students sign up for summer computer programming classes, and many are interested in a school-sponsored summer enrichment program in robotics. Perhaps most notable, many of Dudzik's students believe colleges like Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are in their future. Here, they hope to translate their robotics club experience into careers in engineering, math, computer programming and computer animation.

Dudzik emphasizes that her students learn to define themselves and build strength of character through their work together in the club. In a magnet school like Whitney Young, students do not come in with friendship loyalties from their previous schools. When everyone gets a fresh start, Dudzik explains, students are much more likely to positively influence one another and lean on each other for support. This kind of affirmative environment leads students to quicker acceptance of their peers, challenging stereotypes about cliques. The experience teaches them how to handle different types of people more quickly, which Dudzik believes will greatly improve their ability to cooperate and lead later in life. "We help make leaders," she enthused.

What the Future Holds

While there are numerous skeptics who say that magnet schools are failing and charter schools are draining public funds, it's important to take a look at the many students who are succeeding. At charter schools that place an emphasis on science and technology, acquiring skills in computer programming and design is only part of the big picture. Students learn to integrate new technology into their academic studies, utilizing their schools' learning labs for help with homework and turning to computer programs for assistance with difficult subjects.

At schools like New Media Technology Charter High School in Philadelphia, the "project learning" model helps students apply their growing technical skills to their everyday lives. At Gateway High School in San Francisco, a 5:1 student-computer ratio gives students at every level an opportunity to use the learning labs for extra tutoring outside the classroom. At a time when teachers' time is stretched to the limit, technology facilities help pick up where the faculty and staff leave off.

Amidst all the negative news on charter schools, it's important to focus on the fact that students graduating from science and technology charter schools are adequately -- if not considerably -- prepared for college. Entering fields they've had time to previously explore, they often end up finding success in subjects about which they are truly passionate.

"MATCH definitely changed my outlook on learning," says Lennie Polanco. "I would not be where I am today and would not have the qualities and determination to push myself to achieve the goals I set for myself at college and anything else if it were not for my high school and the people there."

For more:

Watch New Media Tech's many excellent student-produced videos.

Brittany Shoot is a freelance writer and part of the Feminist Review editorial collective. Her work has appeared in make/shift, Bitch, and In These Times.