Taking a National Call to Arms—With a Twist

Case Study: Vancouver iTECH Preparatory (Vancouver, Washington)

How a district built a high-quality STEM school of choice, while giving equal due to social emotional learning

Vancouver Public Schools’ Vancouver iTECH Preparatory—a STEM-based, early college school for students grade 6-12—was an innovation in it of itself. It was established in response to the national effort to bring more STEM learning opportunities to more students of all ages. As a school built from scratch, its leaders had the unique chance to conceive a thoroughly modern institution to meet the needs of a rapidly changing and technology-driven world. It was the attention they put on social emotional learning, though, that elevated this new STEM school into an institution of truly leading edge learning