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Silicon Valley High Tech High to close

Stefanie Olsen Staff writer, CNET News
Stefanie Olsen covers technology and science.
Stefanie Olsen

High Tech High Bayshore, a Redwood City-based charter school backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, plans to close at the end of the year, according to an article published this weekend in InsideBayArea.com. (By way of Valleywag.)

The board of directors of the otherwise successful charter program (HGH), which opened its first school seven years ago in San Diego, said that the Bayshore school couldn't support itself because of lack of enrollment and funding. Bayshore opened in 2005 and has 220 students.

The news came the same weekend that Microsoft Chairman Gates, in a Washington Post editorial, applauded the efforts of HTH and called for more government support of such schools. (Gates' foundation granted funds to HTH in 2000 and then again last year.)

Gates wrote: "Last year, I visited High Tech High in San Diego; it's an amazing school where educators have augmented traditional teaching methods with a rigorous, project-centered curriculum. Students there know they're expected to go on to college. This combination is working: 100 percent of High Tech High graduates are accepted into college, and 29 percent major in math or science. Contrast that with the national average of 17 percent."

He added that that's how the United States will remain competitive in a global economy. "We must build on the success of such schools and commit to an ambitious national agenda for education."