The Road to Success in College And Career
New Tech Network was founded after a group of community leaders observed that graduates from the local schools were unprepared for the demands of the workplace. The graduates they hired didn’t value the importance of collaboration, weren’t confident in themselves, and couldn’t find motivation to drive their own learning. In response, community leaders designed the first version of the NTN model to harness potential of every student. When students are taught through school-wide project-based learning, they are educated in a collaborative environment that reflects the world they will enter after graduation.
We’ve since developed the five New Tech Network Learning Outcomes so that student assessment is aligned to our teaching practices. These research-based outcomes reflect the academic and emotional skills that are needed for lifelong success. The five Learning Outcomes: Knowledge and Thinking, Written and Oral Communication, Collaboration, and Agency serve as the backbone of our instructional approach and represent the real-world skills that each student develops at a New Tech Network partner school. Through NTN tools like our learning management system, Echo, school leaders and teachers can measure student successes and easily define areas for improvement.
Throughout the life of a project, students, as young as five-years-old, collaborate with their peers, facilitators, and outside experts to demonstrate oral and written communication by engaging with authentic audiences.
Engagement in relevant and challenging tasks help students develop ownership over their learning and a sense of agency – skills that are essential for college and career.
As we look to the future of work and take into account the rate at which new technology is developed, no one can be certain of the type of jobs that will need to be filled. We can, however, be confident in the skills we teach so that our students can navigate the world of work or college.
Critical thinking skills were measured using the College and Work Readiness Assessment Plus (CWRA+) administered by Council for Aid to Education (CAE). This nationally normed assessment, administered by the Council for Aid to Education, uses realistic performance tasks to assess four domains of learning: analytical reasoning and evaluation, writing effectiveness, writing mechanics, and problem solving. The assessment measures student growth of deeper learning from freshman to senior years in high school.
NTN high school students compared to non-NTN students consistently demonstrated that NTN students experience more growth than non-NTN students with an average growth of 42% more than the CAE sample over the last 4 years (CAE, 2014; CAE, 2015; CAE, 2016: CAE 2017). These findings hold when New Tech Network students are compared to matched similar students at non-NTN schools (CAE, 2014).
*Public high school 4-year adjusted cohort graduation rate (ACGR), available by year from the Common Core of Data (CCD) maintained by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Most current data available: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/tables/ACGR_RE_and_characteristics_2015-16.asp. New Tech data based on self-report with the number of schools reporting for each of the following years: 2010:10 2011:17 2012:15 2013:22 2014:35 2015:42 2016:55 2017:47.
*Comparison data from National Student Clearinghouse participating high schools (27% of All U.S. high schools): https://nscresearchcenter.org/snapshotreport-persistenceretention22/ New Tech data from NSC submissions with the number of schools reporting for each of the following years: 2010:10 2011:16 2012:18 2013:26 2014:40 2015:45
*Council for Aid to Education (CAE). (2014). Special Analysis: The New Tech Network, Matched Sample Results for 2012-13. (Unpublished internal report). New York, NY: CAE.
*Council for Aid to Education (CAE). (2014). Institutional Report 2013-14. (Unpublished internal report). New York, NY: CAE.
*Council for Aid to Education (CAE). (2015). Institutional Report 2014-15. (Unpublished internal report). New York, NY: CAE.
*Council for Aid to Education (CAE). (2016). Institutional Report 2015-16. (Unpublished internal report). New York, NY: CAE.
*Council for Aid to Education (CAE). (2017). Institutional Report 2016-17 and Special Analysis of a matched Sample and longitudinal Sample. (Unpublished internal report). New York, NY: CAE.