NORWALK, Conn. – A select group of next fall’s Norwalk high school freshmen will be able to write their own tickets in six years as a result of a revolutionary new educational collaboration, state and local officials said Friday.
“I don’t want to make it sound corny, but today is an historic moment in education in the state of Connecticut, because what you are seeing today is the tangible tearing down of the walls and the silos between K-12 and post-secondary education,” said Gregory W. Gray, Ph.D., president of the Board of Regents that governs the 17 Connecticut State Colleges & Universities (ConnSCU).
Gray was one of several high level dignitaries at a press conference at Norwalk Community College echoing the announcement of Connecticut’s first Pathways in Technology Early College High School, scheduled to open in Norwalk in September. Known as a P-Tech model school, the six-year academy is a collaboration with IBM, Norwalk Public Schools and NCC.
“This is a new school spanning grades nine to 14, where students will participate in both high school and college classes, job training and internships with IBM,” Gov. Dannel Malloy said. “These students will graduate with both a high school diploma and an associate’s degree in applied sciences from Norwalk Community College. These graduates will be first in line for jobs at IBM.”
Any current eighth-grade Norwalk student can apply for the lottery to get into the Norwalk Early College Academy (NECA); 100 will be selected for admissions, with no test or screening required, NPS Communications Director Brenda Williams said.
“Curriculum and classes are still to be finalized, but there will be a focus in certain areas to make sure students are on track for the college-level courses later in the program. There will also be academic support outside of regular school hours to make sure students are well prepared,” she wrote in an email.
“This is the best example of teamwork and collaboration among different governmental bodies, the private sector, other organizations, that I have ever been associated with,” Norwalk Superintendent Manny Rivera said.
NHS Principal Reginald Roberts said 400 students are expected to be enrolled in the new academy by 2018.
“We anticipate information sessions as early as next week, as well as a summer academy to go along with this program,” he said. “What I want my students to know … is that the walls are, in fact, false. The walls between business and industry and schooling are created walls. The walls that we create to say that we are different, and that we go from math to science to English, are walls that we created over time. The walls are in fact false, but they can be brought down.”
Two speakers linked the creation of the P-Tech school to the institution of high school as a mandatory requirement after World War II.
“The United States of America was the first country in the world to mandate high school education … and the United States of America is the first country to introduce P-Tech into its economy,” said Nicholas Donofrio of IBM and the board of regents.
The first P-Tech school created by IBM and partners opened in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2011, according to a press release. President Barack Obama applauded the model in his 2012 State of the Union address, saying, “This country should be doing everything in our power to give more kids a chance to go to schools just like this one.”
IBM’s second P-Tech school, called Sarah E. Goode STEM Academy, opened in Chicago in 2012, the release said.
The P-Tech model was designed to be both widely replicable and sustainable as part of a national effort to reform career and technical education, and there are eight such schools currently in operation, the release said. New York is expanding its commitment to P-Tech, opening 16 schools next September, with 10 more slated for September 2015, the release said.
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