On a cold, wet, New England day, a typical high school would be filled with annoyed students, tired, rolling their eyes, barely able to keep awake. MET High School in Providence is different though. Instead of bored and disinterested students, the rooms are saturated with energetic learners collaborating in groups to solve problems and discuss their projects.
Co-Founder, Dennis Littky, offered his philosophy of MET High, “Most people take subjects like science and math and try to cram it in the student’s head, we look at students and ask them what they want to build.” Littky likened students to the way Michelangelo would see an angel in a block of marble and would continue carving until he set it free. “To me, that’s what each student represents.”
Co-Director, Nancy Diaz spoke about the impact the MET has had on her career. “I was a junior in college and did my student teaching in a dark and gloomy building with teachers who didn’t want to talk to me or help me or give me feedback.” A chance encounter in an art gallery drew her to the MET. “I overheard some high school students talking about how they love their new high school, and I thought, I want to work there.” Diaz’s career arc includes student teaching, teaching, principal and now co-director of the highly successful MET school, with a 98 percent college acceptance rate (22 points higher than the Rhode Island average).
“We’ve been in the current location for 18 years, no walls, no fences, the campus is respected by the community and the students,” Diaz explains. “We listen to our students and make sure that whatever a student wants to do, it’s our goal to make it happen.”
What makes MET High different is their advisory and internship system. Students don’t have teachers; they have advisors (although math and physical education are led by instructors). The advisor’s role is to guide students into an internship that will help them learn real life skills on the job with a local mentor. While a traditional high school has periods and lectures, the MET provides free time for students to explore their projects, collaborate on internship questions, and focus on self-improvement. One ambitious student took the train from Providence to Boston for his internship with the aerospace department at MIT. He later went on to become a finalist in the 2016 Breakthrough Junior Challenge.
“We allow students to see what adults do in the real world and it gets them excited to learn,” says Diaz who spoke at length about some of the opportunities their students have had. One student was currently speaking at a diversity conference in Kansas City, while another had been awarded a grant from a well-known cosmetics company to record their life on camera.
MET High Advisor Desiree Fair circles the room offering advice and guidance to a room of students about success gaps and how to fill them. “You’re all sophomores in high school, right, so there are of course gaps. None of you are ready to go off to MIT right now, right?” She implores the room to think about the gaps they have and ways they can close them. Students respond with educational ideas first: get a diploma, go to college, get your masters. Fair encourages them to think deeper, not just about educational gaps. “I need to have better time management,” says one student. “Yeah, me too, and being less sarcastic,” says another. The room erupts with laughter.
The MET School halls look like any other. There are inspirational quotes like “Color Outside the Lines” and reminders about upcoming social events, “MET Snow Ball Winter Dance.” But inside the rooms, advisors are preparing students for life in the workforce. Students will spend two days a week at a job site helping local businesses with projects that foster life skills.
“I love visiting the kids at their internship sites,” says Fair. “I’m not worried about what percentage of their classroom work is completed, I’m watching them grow into the role of responsible young adults.”
Tim Shannon, another advisor, is helping a student find a new internship. The student’s original internship wasn’t working out so they’ve found an alternative. Shannon takes Jill, a Junior, to a men’s clothing shop for an introduction and a discussion about possible outcomes and goals of the internship.
“I took an intro to computer science class and really enjoyed it,” says Jill, who wants to apply those skills to help rebuild and rebrand the shop’s website. Shannon, Jill, and the shop owner discuss at length the process involved and whether or not Jill would be a good fit.
“This is definitely something I can do,” Jill says. She and Shannon leave the shop enthusiastic despite the driving rain.
“Sometimes we have to move students to a new place to make sure they are getting what they want out of an internship,” says Shannon. “It’s not uncommon for these young students to have a change of heart. We do what we can to put them in the right situation for success.”
MET High is part of the Big Picture School network, with schools in 26 states, and growing. Big Picture School is opening a new high school in Boston, scheduled to open in September 2018. For more information about Big Picture School or MET High, visit their site.