The school day has no beginning and no end. Classes go year-round. Students can learn in a variety of ways, including in traditional classrooms, through digital textbooks, at a community college and/or at a career and technical education center. Teachers and parents can track students’ daily work and progress online.
That school of the future is opening this month in Salt Lake City in the form of Innovations High. Local and national experts say the approach may be one of the first of its kind in the country — a regular public school that allows students to build their own schedules, cherry-picking classes from Salt Lake Community College, the district’s career and technical center, the district’s traditional high schools, and the school’s own face-to-face classes, which will be taught using digital textbooks through which students can move at their own speeds, on and off-campus.
Robyn Bagley, board chairwoman of Parents for Choice in Education, said she hopes traditional schools can learn from the new venture. She said she believes the flexibility and combinations of classes will entice kids who might otherwise drop out of school.
Grover said Innovations could help teens at all ends of the academic spectrum. He said traditional high schools are doing a great job with most kids — 76 percent of the Class of 2011 graduated, according to the State Office of Education. Salt Lake Tribune
