Tech Valley High’s first seniors to graduate

At Tech Valley High School, the halls and classrooms are painted in bold colors, the students type away at laptops and, much like a traditional high school, there are lockers, but they have no locks.

The absence of locks reflects the important role trust plays in learning at Tech Valley High, a role established by the now-graduating initial class that entered in 2007 and the school’s faculty. In a cooperative effort, students and staff decided they wanted a learning environment that emphasized core values of trust, responsibility and accountability.

A deviation from a traditional high school education, Tech Valley High School, located on the East Campus of the University of Albany, focuses on skills needed in the modern workplace. Faculty uses projects to help students develop those marketable skills, such as communication, teamwork, and hands-on experience, that can be applied to emerging technologies within the Capital Region.

“I think the way that Tech Valley teaches is making learning relevant to the real world,” said Molly Ennist, a senior from Schoharie.

Next month, Ennist and 27 classmates will be the first to graduate from Tech Valley High, out of the original class of 40. The remaining students left for various reasons, such as not knowing what to expect from the program, what it would be like because it was in its infancy when they entered or simply missing their friends from home.

They were the first to enter Tech Valley High, a regional public high school, when it opened in 2007. The school can accept students from 46 school districts, the result of a collaborative effort between Capital Region and Questar III BOCES originally housed in the MapInfo building in East Greenbush. It is a four-year program, like a traditional high school, and accepts only freshman. When it opened, there was only the Class of 2011, and school officials built the program from there. By adding a grade each year, it allowed those officials to identify specific needs and build not only the curriculum, but also the faculty, to meet those needs.

“It was a great opportunity. When you start small, you can build a comprehensive program, ” Principal Dan Liebert said. “Starting small was one of the best things we could have done.”

The school’s first graduating class will walk across the stage at University at Albany’s main campus in June, and many will also graduate with the home schools from which they were transported daily, such as Schoharie, Sharon Springs and Brunswick. Although they have spent the last four years at Tech Valley High, the students are still involved in their home schools by staying in touch with friends there and participating in plays, musicals and sports.

“Our environment is different,” Ennist said. “We only have 30 kids, and we’re really close.”

Twenty-six of the graduates will head off to colleges such as New York University, the University of Maine and the University of New England. The other two will enter the military.

“I couldn’t be more excited,” Liebert said. “They are extremely well-prepared. Wherever they are going, these kids are well, well prepared.”

While the core curriculum of English, social studies, science and math follow the traditional high school program, the methods of teaching don’t. The curriculum is mainly project-based, and the faculty determines what projects work for the students, Ennist said. The standards were made to reflect what the students were and were not able to accomplish.

“We were guinea pigs,” said senior Bruno Pinheiro of Sharon Springs, “but most of the time, when they can use our feedback, they do. They learn from us, and we learn from them.”

Part of this learning process was learning essentially in a giant fishbowl, Communications Director Mike McCagg said. There were constantly people from other schools, colleges and agencies wandering in and out of classrooms to see how Tech Valley High and project-based learning was working.

The classrooms reflect much more of a college atmosphere, with the teaching model of group work and lectures. When a representative for Johnson and Wales University toured Tech Valley High, he told James Hazzard of Scotia-Glenville that it was like being in a classroom on campus .

“I think when I go to Johnson and Wales, I will easily adapt,” Hazzard said.

“This is the closing of one chapter and the beginning of a new chapter,” McCagg said. That new chapter will involve telling other schools what Tech Valley High found with project-based learning and working with teachers to help implement different teaching styles.

“We want people to come and visit Tech Valley as a resource to the students of the region and the school districts, so we can be a learning laboratory for the whole region,” Liebert said.