Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High

Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High
Northeastern end of High Tech High
Address
2861 Womble Rd. San Diego, California 92106 United States
Information
Type	Public
Established	2000
School district	San Diego Unified School District
Dean	Marcus Bell
Head of school	Brett Peterson
Faculty	30
Grades	9–12
Number of students	527
Athletics	Cross country, track & field, soccer, softball, surfing, baseball, golf, basketball, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, water polo and fencing
Website	http://www.hightechhigh.org/

Gary and Jerri-Ann Jacobs High Tech High Charter School, often referred to as High Tech High (HTH), is a public charter high school in San Diego, California, United States. The school is now one of several schools operated under the High Tech High charter schools umbrella organization.

Beginning in 1998, forty public and corporate partners, led by current board chair Gary Jacobs, began meeting to discuss the current state of education in San Diego. Faced with a shortage of workers for the locally strong high tech and biotech industries, the group wondered why the local school system was not better able to produce more qualified workers. Having given money to the school district in the past and questioning the return on that investment, these local entrepreneurs decided to open a new high school and christened it High Tech High.

Soon thereafter, longtime educator was asked to present to this group about different possible governance structures for the school. He then became the founding principal of the school, and is now the C.E.O. of the network of schools.

The school was founded in September 2000 with 200 students and currently educates 527 students.

High Tech High occupies a building on the former Navy Training Center in the Point Loma area, which is now known as Liberty Station. The school is organized that on a project-based learning model (most learning comes from multi-subject projects, rather than the more traditional approach, where teachers talk and students listen), real-world connection, personalization, and having a common intellectual mission (no ability grouping). Together with several of the other HTH schools, the school is called the "High Tech High Village", which most students simply call "The Village".

At the High Tech High schools, the method of teaching is based on "project-based learning", in which students are given a project which involves working independently or in groups and doing research to complete it. Some classes have projects where grades from different subjects will be all part of the same project.

Projects the students have worked on include designing a human-powered submarine, genetic manipulation, designing a water treatment plant, writing a book on the Harlem Renaissance, creating a sitcom and building a robot out of old computer parts.