Teachers at New Tech Network strive for a big turnaround

Mark Keierleber, a senior writer-reporter at The 74, pens an extensive article about New Tech Network, a national nonprofit that has partnerships with nearly 200 schools across the country, including 12 in South Carolina. Furman University’s Riley Institute helped bring New Tech to South Carolina based on the nonprofit’s ability to raise academic achievement in districts with high poverty and low graduation rates. Said Riley Institute executive director Donald Gordon, “We homed in very quickly on the New Tech Network. Other New Tech schools across the country were graduating kids at a much higher rate than traditional public schools with the same demographics, and in addition to that higher graduation rate, there were a substantially larger number of kids that were going on to higher education.”

Keierleber gives special attention to Colleton County High School, and describes the Riley Institute’s and Dick Riley’s involvement in bringing New Tech to the state.

New Tech Network, with its “deeper learning” approach to education, boasts a high school graduation rate of 92 percent — about nine points higher than the national average.

The 74 is a nonprofit news site that covers education and education reform issues around the country.