This was a disturbing piece of news to get with my morning coffee. From my hometown paper no less:
Microsoft to design city high schoolThe article goes on to say that this is going to be a 700-student school. What isn't clear is if that's going to be the total population, or the size of the first freshman class. If that's the whole school, it's a tiny one; my sophmore class had about 1000 students in it; in my senior year, we started with 730 and graduated with 690. Class sizes have increased since then. Either way, this school is puny to average sized for a Philly high school.
A $46 million high school dazzling with the latest technology - from interactive digital textbooks and computerized tablets to electronic play diagrams for the basketball team - will be built by the Philadelphia School District in partnership with the Microsoft Corp., officials announced today. [...]Microsoft's contribution will not be monetary, but services worth millions of dollars, including a full-time on-site project manager, planning and design expertise, staff training and ongoing technology support. It plans to bring in other technology partners. [...]
"They will be in an advisory capacity. We're still running the school," said Ellen Savitz, the district's chief development officer. "There's no fear of a corporation somehow overtaking the educational focus."
I must admit that I'm a little uneasy of Microsoft getting their hand so firmly entrenched in education. But let's face it, they were the only game in town for all practical purposes.
That said, I'm in favor of the plan. The Philly school district has been hurting as long as I can remember. If this is one way to improve the education in that city, I'm all for it. Doubly so if it's Microsoft's money and not taxpayer funds backing this experiment. Philly has a history of "experiments in education", some of which were decidedly stupid (Parkway HS comes to mind). At least this experiment seems educationally sound.
(via /.)
Update: KYW reports that the entire school will hold 700 students, from grades 9 through 12. That's tiny.
