Design Tech High School

Design Tech High School (d.tech) is a free public charter school founded in 2014 and open to residents of California. Entrance is by lottery when the number of students seeking enrollment exceeds the number of spots available. So why is the school called ‘Design Tech’? 'DESIGN' - refers to d.tech's design thinking program. It offers applied practice in a problem-solving method developed at the Stanford Design School, and shared through their K-12 Lab program. When applied to real-world challenges, this develops self-efficacy, collaborative confidence and emotional intelligence. Students learn to adopt feedback as useful and actionable information, and embrace the idea that effort is needed to push through anticipated set-backs. 'TECH' - refers to students learning to handle new technology comfortably. It’s common for entering high schoolers to know either very little, or a lot about technology. Students become accustomed to 3-D printers, laser cutters and design software as potential tools to express and realize their ideas. Over time, they gain confidence in applying whatever tools are needed to accomplish their academic and design goals. This confidence and open-mindedness remains with them even as the resources around them evolve. At d.tech we are guided by the following mission and vision: MISSION To build in students the understanding that the world can be a better place and that they can be the ones to make it happen. VISION These beliefs, described below, guide the culture of the school. Empathy Empathy is often described as being able to understand someone else’s feeling or perspective and sharing those feelings. This is important because problems involve people. In order to design effective solutions, innovative students must first understand and empathize with the end user. Empathy is a common theme in all that we do. Swim in a Big Pond The size of a Koi fish can be influenced by the size of its pond. We believe the same things about our students, metaphorically speaking of course. We believe that if we have big expectations for our students that they can grow to meet them. For students to reach their full potential they must seek out challenges, and we will also ask students to do thingsthat otherschools do not expect ofstudents. In ourshort history, we know thatstudents will grow when we expect them to swim in a big pond. Self-Direction 2018-19 School Accountability Report Card for Design Tech High Page 3 of 14 Solutions are only the start. After creating a design, students turn their ideas into action by creating and executing a plan. All great innovation required the designer to be self-directed. Starting Oracle was not an assignment from another person. We expect students to project manage their course work and take appropriate action without being told to do so. Self- direction is at the top of the direction ladder. At a level below self-direction is peer direction, this means that students have appropriate behavior when directed by another student. This is followed by adult direction, which means a student can refocus when an adult asks them to do so, and lastly, is consequence direction, which occurs when a student demonstrates effective behavior only when given a punishment. Student Superpowers We believe that all students have the ability to make a unique contribution to the world and it’s our job as adults to help students uncover that ability. We will help students find their superpower but ultimately, the student will have to be the one to apply it. Everything has an Expiration Date At d.tech, we live by the idea that everything has an expiration date. No matter how good something is, there will be a time when it’s no longer working. Sometimes things expire very quickly, and one of our strengths as a school is that we are flexible and willing to change. Changes can cause frustration at times, but it’s important for our community to understand that we embrace this mindset. Once you adopt a mindset that things change because the solution has “expired”, it can help us move forward.