Glenn Hillegas, executive vice president of the San Diego AGC Training and Trust and former principal of Stanley E. Foster Construction Tech Academy (CTA), was one of four speakers invited to Washington, D.C., recently to discuss San Diego’s high school reform initiative and the experiences of two of its small high schools.
Mr. Hillegas spoke to nearly one hundred educators, administrators, policymakers, and other key stakeholders gathered on February 25, 2009 at High School Renewal: Big Success for San Diego’s Small Schools, a forum hosted by the Alliance for Excellent Education. The event focused on the challenges of high school redesign, policies and practices to successfully overcome those challenges, and the implications of these experiences for national and federal efforts to improve America’s schools.
CTA’s approach to education is based upon the theory that successful schools employ strategies that address a school’s structure, culture, and instruction. Schools must be designed to provide students with rigorous coursework, relevant experience, and supportive relationships through thematic pathways.
Industry partners, including the San Diego AGC and many AGC members, play an important role at CTA. The school’s board of directors is comprised of stakeholders from local industries (half are union-affiliated and half are not). The board members provide essential feedback and direction with the school’s funding, curricula development, and mentorship program. Mr. Hillegas noted that without these resources, both financial and in-kind, CTA would not be the success it is today.
A video of Mr. Hillegas’s speech and a copy of his Powerpoint presentation are available through the Alliance for Excellent Education’s website.
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