Just five years ago, Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown, Delaware was a vocational school with declining enrollment and low academic achievement. Today Sussex Tech is a much sought after Technology Magnet school of choice - challenging students to rise to new heights of academic and technical achievement. Each cluster has a challenging study program of both academic and technical courses. Integration is stressed throughout to help students appreciate the relevance of daily coursework. I think it opens up doors that might not otherwise be open.
Narrator says - The daily schedule was radically redesigned to promote integration.
Classes are block scheduled, with technical classes meeting each day for 90 minute periods and academic classes meeting every other day for 90 minutes as well. First of all, it takes the teacher out of the traditional role of just lecturing. It provides an opportunity to break up that 90 minute section into theory, into hands-on, into group work. It allows them to integrate a project with either another academic class or a technical class. At Sussex all students exceed State graduation requirements for math and science.