Dear Commons Community,

NYC Department of Education Chancellor Dennis M Walcott announced yesterday that three new early college and career technical education high schools, modeled after the Pathways in Early Technology High School (P-TECH) will open in 2014.

The original P-TECH was launched in 2011 and quickly earned local praise for its six-year program in which students start in ninth grade and stay until they’ve earned associate’s degrees in a partnership with IBM and the City University of New York.  P-TECH received a good deal of national recognition when President Obama gave a shout-out to P-TECH in his 2013 February State of the Union address as a model for new schools across the nation.  Two weeks later, Gov. Cuomo announced his plans to open 10 P-TECH style schools across the state — and in April, Obama set aside $300 million for similar schools nationwide.

As reported in the Daily News:

“It’s been a real game-changer for education,” city schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott told a group of reporters Thursday at the midtown offices of Microsoft, which will team with the city and CUNY to run one of the new schools.  “These schools are a cornerstone of our work to prepare every single student for college and a career,” Walcott said. “It’s a partnership that changes lives.”

Like P-TECH, the new schools will deliver a six-year, career-focused program that ends with an associate’s degree and first dibs on a job at the school’s partner company.

One of the schools is planned for Manhattan and will be based on a city partnership with Microsoft and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, with a specialty in technology targeted for the health-care industry.

A second school will open in Queens, with a computer science and business tech theme created by city educators working with SAP, the global business technology giant.

The third school, set to open in Manhattan, will partner with the American Association of Advertising Agencies to give students an education in marketing, design and technology through classroom training and internships.

The trio of new programs will join the existing P-TECH in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and two other grade 9-14 schools opening in September, creating about 2,000 seats for city students when they’re all complete.”

Congratulations to Mr. Walcott for his efforts in opening these schools.

Tony