Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center, Providence, RI
The Met High school opened in 1996 in Providence, RI, founded by Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor. The initial site for 100 students was housed at the downtown Sawyer Building. A second small MET of 100 kids opened in 1999 on Peace Street, in a remarkable facility that includes classroom workrooms, project rooms, advisory rooms, and a large common room. Four additional small schools will open in Fall 2002 on a common campus using a similar facility design for each small school.
Each 100 student site "small school" at the MET has eight teachers in four learning groups and 8 advisory groups. The small size is aimed at personalizing student learning. A key slogan at the MET is "One Kid At A Time". The Teacher/advisor works with 12 kids for 4 years and focuses on each kid as an individual.
At the Met the curriculum is Learning Through Internships (LTIs) that are based on the student's interests. Students work with mentors in the "real world", come to school to reflect on what they are learning on the job. Kids collaborate with their parents, teacher/advisor, and workplace mentor to develop their own personal learning plan. No school has gone as far and as radical as the Met in developing this structure.
For more information about the Met:
InterMET,
the web site of the Met
The MET Center Portfolio 2001-2002
The Big Picture Company, designer of the MET, designs break-through public schools, researches and replicates new models for education, trains educators to serve as leaders in their schools and communities, and actively engages the public as participants and decision makers in the education of our youth.
Materials about the MET and the Big Picture Company
Building on Experience, Education Week, Bess Keller, 5/3/00
A New Model of Connected Learning, Converge Magazine Feature By Justine K. Brown,
Profile of Met Co-Director Elliot Washor, Digitopolis, Converge Magazine, January 2001
Forty-Three Valedictorians: Graduates of the Met Talk about their Learning, Adria Steinberg, Jobs for the Future 10/18/00
High
School Will Never Be the Same, Business Week, August 28, 2000
Reformers are pushing for a curriculum that uses technology to prepare students
for the New Economy.
Replication
The Met is one of three new small high schools that have been funded by
the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support their replication in ten
sites each across the United States. If your school, district, or community
is interested in replicating this model, contact:
Elliot Washor
Co-Director, The Big Picture Company
401-222-4448
ewashor@bigpicture.org