Abstract:

New Tech Schools are designed to increase student engagement through project and problem-based learning and ultimately promote 21st century learning through deeper understanding of content and real world applications. The efficacy of the New Tech Design was tested in several schools in the southeast United States. Both academic outcomes and higher order thinking skills were measured during the 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 school years. For academic outcomes, results are provided for a sample of four treatment and four matched control schools. For higher order thinking skills, results compare NTN and non-NTN student performance on the College and Work Readiness Assessment (CWRA+) at one of the four schools and longitudinally over three years. Two samples were considered—a cross-sectional sample comprising 220 NTN students and 63 non-NTN students, and a longitudinal sample comprising 58 NTN students. For the cross-sectional sample, NTN and non-NTN students were matched on several variables, including demographics and prior standardized test performance. Results showed higher achievement scores for NTN students in comparison to non-NTN students.

Keywords:

21st century learning, college and career readiness, New Tech Network (NTN), Project-Based Learning (PBL), Problem-Based Learning (PrBL), STEM.