Boston Blog

Obama in Boston to visit public tech school

Update: Globe “Your Town” report:

Leaning over one table, Obama listened as Ronny De Leon, 18, a senior from Dorchester, explained how a photospectrometer works. Nodding intently, Obama told De Leon that he was following the young student’s lesson. “I got you,” Obama told De Leon. “You’re pitching. I’m catching.”

DeLeo told Obama he was leaning toward studying biology in college.

“We’re proud of you guys,” Obama told the class. “You’re doing really great. Keep it up.”NECN report.

(NECN: Ally Donnelly, Boston, Mass.) – President Obama’s visit to TechBoston is a huge showcase of the school’s mission and different approach to learning.

Reporter Ally Donnelly spoke to some excited students about the President’s visit. ———————-

Boston is not known for its public schools, which were the setting for violent bussing battles in the 1970s. But Obama comes to town today to visit a bright spot —TechBoston Academy.

TechBoston is located in Dorchester, which was the setting for one of Ben Affleck’s girtty Boston films. (“Gone Baby Gone,” not “The Town” which takes place in equally gritty Charlestown.)

Aided by UMass and several foundations, the school can now boast one the highest graduation rates in the city.

More from the Globe.

The academy was one of Boston’s first pilot schools, which means its headmaster has unique flexibility that would allow her, for example, to buy laptops for each student, make the day longer than typical city schools, and tailor curriculums to address shortcomings of individual students.

Perhaps more central to Obama’s message today, TechBoston was created by a unique collaboration between government, philanthropy, and private industry.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and The Boston Foundation helped provide seed money to launch the school, which is now largely funded by the city.

Partnerships with private businesses have continued to nurture the academy as it has grown from 75 students in 2002 to almost 800 this year, with an upper and lower campus with students in grades 6 through 12. Help has come from Microsoft, which donates software and sponsors think tanks for teachers.

Cisco helped build a wireless network in every classroom. And local colleges such as the University of Massachusetts Boston have sent some of their brightest graduate students to the school as part of a yearlong teaching residency.

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