Penn to help launch 'School of the Future'

About 170 West Philadelphia students will receive free laptops this fall just for going to class.

These students are slated to attend the Microsoft High School of the Future, which the Philadelphia School District plans to open at 41st and Parkside streets in September as part of an ongoing initiative to increase the number of high school options in the city.

Penn's Graduate School of Education and School of Engineering and Applied Science are working with the high school to coordinate educational programs.

Senior Vice President for Development Ellen Savitz said that Penn's involvement has already shaped the direction of studies.

"The Penn connection has had a major impact on what the school looks like and how it will operate," she said.

Penn representatives have been sitting on the Curriculum Working Committee for the past year, developing curriculum and achievement goals for the high school's students, said the Engineering School's director of academic affairs, Joseph Sun, who also sits on the committee.

"Our work has focused mostly on how this new school can provide an innovative approach" that might indicate what the future of education could look like, Sun said.

He added that once the High School of the Future opens, students and faculty in the Engineering School will work with the high school students in academically based, community-service courses in technology and engineering.

Lisa Bouillion, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education, said she expects that there will be a partnership between the Engineering and Education schools in working with students.

The high school is also partnering with Microsoft Corp., which will provide software and Internet programming, including an online portal for students, said Mary Cullinane, the head of Microsoft Partners in Learning for the United States.

However, the $62 million school building project is being fully funded by the Philadelphia School District, Savitz said.

She added that the Microsoft High School will be maximizing enrollment at 700 students. In the first year, the school will accept 170 ninth-graders of the 1,500 who applied, and a new class will be admitted in each subsequent year.

Applications will be chosen through a computerized lottery.

"I'm really proud because it's a completely fair process and we're willing to take whatever kids it brings us," Savitz said. "This is a school for the West Philadelphia community, and it has the same [acceptance] criteria as any other neighborhood school in the district."

The school's main goal for its students involves the use of technology as an effective learning tool.

"This is not The Jetsons -- it's not about gadgetry stuff," Savitz said.

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