Jasmine Jones recalls her freshman year at Calumet High School, when she was mostly bored and work seemed pretty easy.

This school year has been light years away from last year with the introduction of project-based learning under the New Tech method. Calumet, in its fifth year of state academic probation and under threat of closing, instituted the program for freshmen and sophomore students as part of dramatic changes to turn the school around and get off probation.

“I like New Tech a lot,” Jones said last week during her biohealth class. After taking her English 10 end-of-course assessment Tuesday, Jones joined other sophomores who finished early in the gym.