| School Name | High Tech High (HTH) |
| Location | San Diego, California, USA (four campuses) |
| Sector | Public charter school network, Co-educational, Tuition-free |
| Year Levels | Kindergarten–Grade 12 (16 schools including 4 middle schools) |
| Enrolment (approx.) | 6,350 (across all schools) |
| Founded | 2000 |
| Fees | None, fee-free public school |
| School Website | hightechhigh.org |
| CEO | Rasheed Meadows |
Overview
High Tech High is a network of 16 tuition-free public charter schools in San Diego, serving approximately 6,350 students from kindergarten to Year 12 (High Tech High, n.d.). Students are admitted by zip-code-based lottery with no test or prior achievement requirements, and approximately 50% come from low-income families (High Tech High, n.d.). HTH demonstrates that project-based, student-centred learning can operate at scale within a publicly funded school system.
Founded in 2000 by Larry Rosenstock with backing from San Diego industry leaders (High Tech High, n.d.), HTH opened with 200 students in a former Navy training centre. It has since grown to 16 schools across four campuses (High Tech High, n.d.), with approximately five applicants for every available place. High schools are kept deliberately small (400–500 students) because HTH regards genuine personalisation at scale as impossible (High Tech High, n.d.).
What High Tech High Does Differently
HTH is structured around four design principles: personalisation (every student known well by an adult through a 15-student advisory system), adult world connection (learning connected to real problems, audiences and consequences through fieldwork, internships and community partnerships), common intellectual mission (all students engage in the same ambitious curriculum with no streaming, no IB and no textbooks), and teacher as designer (teachers design their own interdisciplinary curriculum rather than delivering prescribed programs) (High Tech High, n.d.).
Every school organises learning primarily around projects rather than subject-period instruction (High Tech High, n.d.). Projects are interdisciplinary, sustained over weeks or months, and culminate in publicly exhibited products or performances. Assessment is through exhibitions, portfolios and presentations of learning rather than standardised examinations. Presentations of learning at the end of each year level serve as gateways where students must demonstrate readiness to progress (High Tech High, n.d.).
The middle schools (Grades 6–8) apply the same design principles as the high schools and correspond directly to the Years 7–9 focus of this report. They offer a direct international comparison for what student-centred, project-based learning looks like when embedded in a public school serving students from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
HTH has also built substantial adult learning infrastructure. The HTH Graduate School of Education (accredited 2016) offers Master of Education degrees and is embedded within the K-12 schools (High Tech High Graduate School of Education, n.d.). The San Diego Teacher Residency produces project-based practitioners. Thousands of educators visit HTH annually, and HTH Unboxed, a practitioner journal produced by HTH teachers, provides a comprehensive public archive of school practice and student work.
Evidence of Impact
Approximately 95% of HTH seniors meet California’s A-G college requirements. Approximately 80% of graduates enter college, with the 2024 class achieving 95% college acceptance across UC, CSU and out-of-state institutions in 13 states (High Tech High, n.d.). For a public school serving approximately 50% low-income students, these are strong outcomes. Larry Rosenstock received the 2019 WISE Prize for Education (WISE, 2019).
However, the self-selection confound applies as families must actively enter the lottery, meaning HTH draws from an already-motivated subset of the population. The degree to which outcomes reflect the model’s effectiveness versus the social capital of families who choose to apply is unknown.
Enablers
- Fee-free public school ensuring socioeconomic diversity.
- California charter legislation providing operational freedom from district curriculum mandates.
- Deliberate small school size supporting personalisation.
- Embedded graduate school and teacher residency sustaining the model beyond individual practitioners.
- Extensive public documentation of practice and student work.
Key considerations
The charter school legislation that enables HTH has no direct equivalent in Victoria. Government schools here operate within VCAA curriculum frameworks, NAPLAN accountability and collective employment agreements. The specific enabling conditions are not automatically transferable.
The credential legibility question also remains. Without an IB, HTH students present portfolio-based transcripts to university admissions. Strong college-going rates suggest this is largely resolved within California, but the tension between authentic assessment and standardised credential recognition, the same tension Bedales faces with its BACs, is present.