[ti:President Obama to visit Manor New Technology High School] [ar:Bob Doughty] [al:Education Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]From VOA Learning English, [00:00.00]this is the Education Report. [00:02.03]An unusual high school in Texas [00:05.27]recently welcomed a special visitor. [00:08.76]president Obama visited Manor New Technology [00:12.48]High School near the city of Austin. [00:15.91]The visit was part of what the White House called [00:20.00]a "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour." [00:24.43]Manor New Technology High School [00:27.68]seeks to help prepare students [00:30.41]to meet the increasing demand for technology workers. [00:35.49]The school has gained nationwide recognition for its program. [00:40.58]It focuses less on teacher lectures, [00:44.26]and more on student projects in so-called "STEM subjects", [00:51.24]Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. [00:56.36]Most of the teachers who helped start the school six years ago [01:01.35]were graduates of a program called "UTeach" [01:05.84]at the University of Texas in Austin. [01:09.48]They are still working at the high school today. [01:13.26]Lawrence Abraham is one of the directors of the "UTeach" program, [01:19.05]he praises the program [01:21.38]and the teachers at Manor New Technology High School. [01:26.11]"They put together the curriculum, [01:28.00]which has elevated this school, [01:31.10]among all the new tech schools in the network around the country, [01:35.41]to be the premier site, [01:36.86]and we think it is the marriage of the UTeach program, [01:40.45]which prepares teachers and encourages teachers [01:43.23]to teach in a project-based way, [01:44.78]with the new tech curriculum model, [01:47.47]which is designed to incorporate that." [01:49.51]Manor New Technology has 332 students, [01:54.08]68 percent are from ethnic or racial minorities, [01:59.46]52 percent are from poor families. [02:03.70]The Texas school sent 97 percent of its graduates [02:08.11]to college in 2011 and all of its graduates in 2012. [02:15.09]Most schools, however, do not have the financial support [02:19.83]that Manor New Technology receives. [02:23.36]It gets help from private organizations and state and federal funding. [02:30.39]And technology schools are sometimes criticized [02:34.77]for not paying enough attention to the arts and social sciences. [02:40.84]Last year, Texas governor Rick Scott proposed an end [02:46.33]to state financial aid to university programs [02:50.31]in subjects like psychology and anthropology. [02:55.29]The goal was to put more money into STEM programs [02:59.48]that he said that would provide people with jobs. [03:03.52]But some educators say that kind of thinking [03:07.85]ignores the gains possible with the learning. [03:11.40]University of Texas history professor Jeremi Suri says [03:16.97]the goal of education goes beyond preparation for employment. [03:22.26]"Obviously science and math literacy are crucial, [03:25.39]but democratic citizenship requires that people [03:28.23]have a sense of our historical background as a society, [03:31.91]a sense of how our society functions [03:34.05]and an understanding of what democracy [03:36.21]looks like in theory and in practice." [03:38.60]Professor Suree says today more than ever, [03:42.28]workplace success depends on good communication, [03:46.11]and ability to work well with others as a team. [03:51.74]And that's the Education Report from VOA Learning English, [03:57.82]I'm Bob Doughty.