Explore

America's Innovative High Schools

2023 Road Trip: We've spent the year traveling the country, visiting cutting-edge campuses coast to coast. Meet the leaders, educators & communities reimagining high school.

Competency-Based Parker Essential School Succeeds by Doing More With Less

The ground-breaking charter school is known for small classes, no grades and huge focus on personalization.

Greg Toppo

Philadelphia’s Building 21 Tackles ‘Unfinished Learning’ While Pushing Students to Find Their Passions

Founded by two Harvard classmates, it prioritizes internships, asking why learning must stay confined to ‘this place called school.’

Greg Toppo

Campus Road Trip Diary: 8 Things We Learned This Year About America’s Most Innovative High Schools

Reporters at The 74 fanned across America to find some of the nation’s most inventive and personalized high schools. Here’s what we learned.

Greg Toppo & Emmeline Zhao

Alaska Natives Are Claiming Their Seat at the Table

The Alaska Native Science and Engineering Program is combating the belief that “natives were not smart enough” to hold degrees or jobs in STEM fields.

Emmeline Zhao & Jim Fields

Their Post-Grads Got Off Track. Then a Brooklyn High School Launched ’13th Grade’

Thousands of young adults are not working or going to college. How high schools like NYC’s MESA Charter can bolster support well after graduation.

Marianna McMurdock

Hip Hop Is Saving Teen Lives in Minnesota

By connecting with at-risk youth through music that is embedded in Twin Cities culture, one high school is getting students to learn — off the streets

Jim Fields & Emmeline Zhao

Internships Rule at The Met, Where High School is a Matter of ‘Trial and Error’

For more than 27 years, this legendary Providence institution has devoted itself to placing students ‘in an environment where they want to work.’

Greg Toppo

A High School for Dropouts: Goodwill Offers Adults a Second Chance at a Diploma

From the organization known for second-hand records and cookware comes a school devoted to personalized attention and ‘small wins.’

Greg Toppo

Build Your Own High School: Phoenix Students Choose from 500 Classes, Internships, College Courses, Career Programs & More

At Phoenix Union City, high school doesn’t refer to a building but a personalized path of experiences that teenagers create for themselves.

Beth Hawkins

How a California Wine Region Is ‘Growing Futures’ By Turning Vineyards Into State-of-the-Art Classrooms

Through a collaboration across industry and schools, Lodi is revitalizing a vital wine growing community.

Jim Fields & Emmeline Zhao

With 1,000 Applicants for 140 Seats, NYC’s Harbor School Set for Major Expansion

The high school, where students can graduate with industry certifications in marine science or tech, will more than double its enrollment by 2030.

Jo Napolitano

To Combat Nursing Shortage, Rhode Island Charter Turns to High School Students

As COVID and other factors decimate nursing profession, a Providence high school trains students to start their careers as young as 14.

Greg Toppo

‘Meaningful, Big Things’ at One Stone, the Student-Led High School of Invention

Teachers are 'coaches,' classes are 'workshops' and students get treated as adults in a school where traditional instruction gets turned on its head.

Greg Toppo

In This School District’s ‘Test Kitchen,’ Teens Go Beyond the Classroom to Build Drones, Research Cancer & Try Out Careers

At Kansas’s Blue Valley CAPS, high-schoolers spend 3 hours a day dipping their toes in adult professions — real life, but with ‘bubble wrap,’ one says

Greg Toppo

From Textiles to Tech: How Rural South Carolina Trains Students for New Industry

Anderson County school districts and local industry are collaborating to educate and train its next generation workforce for an evolving economy.

Jim Fields & Emmeline Zhao

Opportunity Grows in Brooklyn: How One High School Rebounded From COVID By Re-engaging Students & Restoring Teacher Morale

After the pandemic, leaders at Brooklyn Laboratory Charter High School prioritized team-taught classes, full special ed inclusion & student advisories

Marianna McMurdock

A Tinseltown High School Where the Syllabus is Lights, Props and Makeup

L.A.’s celebrity-backed Roybal Film and Television Production Magnet program seeks to link minority students to behind-the-scenes jobs in TV and film.

Linda Jacobson

Robotics-Themed NYC High School Fills Roster in Inaugural Year

Students who spent their childhoods picking apart their toys to see how they worked find new home in program aimed at growing STEM skills.

Jo Napolitano
Sharpen Up!

Sign up for our free newsletter and start your day with in-depth reporting on the latest topics in education.

On the 74 Today