Dennis Littky founded the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center 20 years ago, and it has been a rousing success, even if not embraced as much by the educational mainstream as it should be.
Brought to Rhode Island by CVS Health Corp.'s founder Stanley Goldstein, Mr. Littky has disrupted the educational model in existence for generations.
Working at the secondary school level, Mr. Littky created the Met school, a four-year program with no classes, tests or homework. Instead, students spend two days a week at internships, identifying their passions while learning real-world skills that will increase their chances of success. This approach, Mr. Littky says, keeps children from sitting in the back of the room and getting lost in the shuffle. And it works.
Just ask the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has awarded $20 million over the years to the nonprofit Big Picture Learning that is the Met school's parent. Or the 65 U.S. Big Picture schools. Or the 80 more of them in six nations around the world.
The students still have to meet the same graduation requirements as all public school seniors. One-fifth of the Class of 2016 students were hired by the companies they interned at. Two-thirds of them went to college.
The state Department of Education recognizes the Met's value, and has internalized some of its approaches to pedagogy. But it's clear there is still resistance to the full Met experience. With too many public schools in Rhode Island performing poorly, perhaps it's time for a little more disruption, Littky-style. •