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Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Del Norte High To Become Tech Magnet

By Andrea Schoellkopf
Journal Staff Writer
       Del Norte High will become home to an acclaimed national technology program aimed at drawing students into the city's smallest traditional high school.
    With a push from Sandia National Labs and Intel, Albuquerque Public Schools plans to offer the Napa, Calif.-based New Technology Foundation curriculum to between 400 and 500 students at the Del Norte campus starting in 2010 for ninth- and 10th-graders.
    APS has withheld $33 million earmarked for Del Norte's renovation until there was a definite plan for the school's future. The school has fewer than 1,400 students, and APS officials have been trying to create a magnet to increase enrollment.
    "This will be a classic school, and it will be great," said APS board President Mary Lee Martin, who heard a presentation Tuesday on the new concept.
    The program's $400,000 cost, which includes curriculum and five years of staff training and assistance, will likely be covered by Sandia and Intel or other members of the community, said Linda Sink, APS chief academic officer. Intel has already committed to donating 100 laptop computers.
    Sink said the program's other schools have been successful, with lower dropout numbers and higher achievement rates. There are 42 New Technology schools, but none currently in New Mexico.
    Del Norte principal Jo Sloan, who was among an APS delegation to visit New Technology schools in Texas, said she saw small groups of students working together on projects that were "exciting and relevant."
    "What really impressed me was students actively engaged in learning that they loved," Sloan said.
    A typical classroom has students divided into groups around tables. The emphasis is on project-based learning using new technology, according to information provided by the company.
    The program could be set up as a separate school within a school, or as a more integral part of Del Norte. Either way, the program's students would be able to participate in traditional high school electives and activities.
    "It's particularly good for that group of kids who may or may not be at the top of the class or very bottom of the class," said former Del Norte science teacher Kevin Gant , who now works for the Napa-based foundation and would be involved with training Del Norte teachers.
    It's not yet clear how students would be chosen for the program.