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Metropolitan Regional Career
and Technical Center, Providence,
RI
The Met High
school opened in 1996 in Providence, RI, founded by Dennis Littky
and Elliot Washor. The initial site for 100 students was housed
at the downtown Sawyer Building. A second small MET of 100 kids
opened in 1999 on Peace Street, in a remarkable facility that includes
classroom workrooms, project rooms, advisory rooms, and a large
common room. Four additional small schools will open in Fall 2002
on a common campus using a similar facility design for each small
school.
Each 100 student
site "small school" at the MET has eight teachers in four
learning groups and 8 advisory groups. The small size is aimed at
personalizing student learning. A key slogan at the MET is "One
Kid At A Time". The Teacher/advisor works with 12 kids for
4 years and focuses on each kid as an individual.
At the Met the
curriculum is Learning Through Internships (LTIs) that are based
on the student's interests. Students work with mentors in the "real
world", come to school to reflect on what they are learning
on the job. Kids collaborate with their parents, teacher/advisor,
and workplace mentor to develop their own personal learning plan.
No school has gone as far and as radical as the Met in developing
this structure.
For more information
about the Met:
InterMET,
the web site of the Met
The
MET Center Portfolio
The
Big Picture Company, designer of the MET, designs break-through
public schools, researches and replicates new models for education,
trains educators to serve as leaders in their schools and communities,
and actively engages the public as participants and decision makers
in the education of our youth.
Materials
about the MET and the Big Picture Company
Building
on Experience, Education Week, Bess Keller, 5/3/00
A
New Model of Connected Learning, Converge Magazine Feature By
Justine K. Brown,
Profile
of Met Co-Director Elliot Washor, Digitopolis, Converge Magazine,
January 2001
Forty-Three
Valedictorians: Graduates of the Met Talk about their Learning,
Adria Steinberg, Jobs for the Future 10/18/00
High
School Will Never Be the Same, Business Week, August 28, 2000
Reformers are pushing for a curriculum that uses technology to prepare
students for the New Economy.
Replication
The Met is one of three new small high schools that have been funded
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support their replication
in ten sites each across the United States. If your school, district,
or community is interested in replicating this model, contact:
Elliot Washor
Co-Director, The Big Picture Company
401-222-4448
ewashor@bigpicture.org
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Met Students in Project
Room