By embracing 'new tech,' Manor school district is finding success

MANOR — Five years after New Tech High School opened, graduation rates there have topped 97 percent.

That's enough to convince Manor school district leaders that the project-based learning program should be expanded districtwide. Administrators at the 7,600-student Manor district on Travis County's northeastern edge — where two of its 11 traditional schools received the state's lowest rating this year — see the program as transformative.

Manor will be the first traditional public school district in Texas to bring the concept to kindergarten through 12th grades, New Tech Network organization officials said. The Napa, Calif.-based nonprofit is recognizing the Manor district as the first certified training site for project-based learning, which calls for using hands-on collaborative projects to teach various core subjects.

The idea behind the teaching model is that students learn better when teachers scale back their roles as lecturers, allowing students to think independently.

Manor's New Tech High School has had only two graduating classes. All 40 students in the inaugural class of 2010 graduated. That feat was almost repeated with the class of 2011, in which 97 percent of students have graduated so far. The remaining students have not dropped out and are still pursuing their diplomas.

The accomplishment bucks statistical expectations: In both graduating classes, most students are members of minority ethnic groups, and 65 percent of the class of 2010 and 60 percent of 2011 seniors came from low-income families.