Breaking Barriers: Redesigning High School for All Students

P-Tech Founder Stanley Litow speaks with former Education Secretary Arne Duncan and P-Tech Principal Rashid Davis about his new book and the P-Tech model for school reform.

Despite visions of an American Dream where grit and determination equal success, today a child's zip code is a better predictor of success than any amount of hard work or talent. That's what inspired Stanley Litow to create P-Tech (Pathways in Technology Early College High School), a public education reform model focused on college attainment and career readiness. P-Tech schools span grades 9–14 and enable students to earn both a high school diploma and a no-cost, two-year postsecondary degree in a STEM field. Started ten years ago in one school in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood, P-Tech now operates in 240 schools across 12 states and 28 countries.  

Stanley Litow charts P-Tech's story in his new book, Breaking Barriers, and discusses difficult issues in education such as opportunity and achievement gaps, low college completion rates, college debt, income equality, and the need for skilled, diverse STEM employees. He speaks with former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and P-Tech founding principal Rashid Ferrod Davis. 

This program will be streamed live on the NYPL event page.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Stanley Litow is Professor of the Practice at Duke University where he also serves as Innovator in Residence. He teaches at Columbia University and writes a monthly commentary for Barron's. His latest book, co-authored with Tina Kelley, is titled Breaking Barriers: How P-TECH Schools Create a Pathway From High School to College to Career. Prior to his authorship and teaching, he served as President of IBM's International Foundation and as the Global Leader of IBM's corporate social responsibility program serving as IBM's Vice President for Corporate Affairs. At IBM he was twice voted CEO of the year by Corporate Responsibility Magazine where he developed the P-TECH program as well as IBM's corporate version of the Peace Corps, the Smarter Cities Challenge and innovative technologies in education, health care research and environmental affairs. Prior to his IBM service, he was Deputy Schools Chancellor for New York City, the nation's largest school system, founder of the think tank, Interface, and executive director of the Educational Priorities Panel. Prior to that he served the Mayor of New York as Executive Director of the New York City Urban Corps. He serves as a Trustee of the State University of New York (SUNY) where he chairs SUNY's Academic Affairs Committee. He served on Presidential Commissions for Presidents Clinton and Obama and is also the author of The Challenge for Business and Society: From Risk to Reward. 

Arne Duncan, Managing Partner, Chicago CRED, was U.S. Secretary of Education from January 2009 through December 2015 as part of the Obama Administration. Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Duncan served as chief executive officer of Chicago Public Schools. From 2001 to 2008, Duncan won praise for uniting the city's stakeholders behind an education agenda that included opening 100 new schools; expanding after-school, summer learning, early childhood, and college access programs; dramatically boosting the caliber of teachers; and building public-private partnerships around a variety of education initiatives. He currently leads Chicago CRED, a nonprofit trying to achieve neighborhood transformation and a reduction in gun violence in Chicago. He is also the managing partner at Emerson Collective, an organization dedicated to removing barriers so people can live to their full potential. Secretary Duncan graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1987, majoring in sociology. Duncan serves on the boards of: Ariel Capital Management, Aspen Institute, Communities in Schools, Lucas Museum, My Brother's Keeper Alliance, National Association of Basketball Coaches, Pluralsight, Revolution Foods, Thrive-Chicago and Catapult Learning, LLC. He also serves as Co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. 

Rashid Ferrod Davis is the founding principal of Pathways in Technology Early High School (P-TECH) which opened in 2011. P-TECH is a grade 9-14 model with a pathway from high school, to college, to a career in industry. The first P-TECH school in Brooklyn is partnered with New York City College of Technology and IBM. He has 25 years of service in education and prior to P-TECH he was principal of Bronx Engineering and Technology Academy (BETA). He is a 1992 graduate of Morehouse College with advance degrees from Pace University, Teachers College Columbia University and Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education. He is a 2012 Cahn Fellow with Teachers College Columbia University. He is the first recipient of Fordham University’s Graduate School of Education Lifetime Achievement Award. He wrote the Afterword of Stanley Litow’s latest book, co-authored with Tina Kelley, Breaking Barriers: How P-TECH Schools Create a Pathway From High School to College to Career. In 2013, President Obama mentioned P-TECH in the State of the Union and then followed up with a visit to P-TECH.

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