Chris Stinson

Principal

Webster defines the word distinction as “an accomplishment that sets one apart.” This definition also aptly fits Anson New Tech.

Just recently Anson New Tech was named a “School of Distinction ABCs of Public Education” by the North Carolina State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction. This award is for the 2007-2008 school year. A fact that makes this achievement even more remarkable is that the 2007-2008 school year was Anson New Tech’s very first year in operation.

A common belief among the community is that Anson New Tech, at its inception, was given the privilege of picking only the best, straight A students and that gave them an advantage. This is not the case. While we do consider our students to be elite, they were selected through a lottery and the ethnic makeup of the school had to mirror the demographics of Anson High School. This put Anson New Tech on a level playing field. The only advantage might be that Anson New Tech had small numbers in their first class and this aided them in implementing their culture of “Trust, Respect, and Responsibility.” Everything at New Tech was new, new administration, new teachers, new curriculum, and a new method of instruction, Project Based Learning. Project Based Learning is the model of instruction for the 21st Century learner and Anson New Tech is considered a model school on the East Coast of the United States.

To earn the title of School of Distinction, Anson New Tech had an overall proficiency rating of 85.5 percent. The overall proficiency of the students entering that first year was 72 percent. The school demonstrated growth of 13.5 percent on the state mandated tests in Algebra I, English I, and Geometry. To help you to understand this growth, fourteen students entered Anson New Tech as non-proficient in Algebra I. At the end of that first year, thirteen of the students moved to proficient and three made the leap from level 1 to level 3. In English I 93% of the students scored at a level 3 or 4.

The students, staff, and administration of Anson New Tech are to be commended for their efforts, but most of all the students should be recognized. They were asked to start from zero, learn a new instructional system, have the burden of responsibility placed on their shoulders, and to trust and respect their peers, their teachers, their administrators, and mostly themselves.

What will the current school year do to compete with the last? Who knows, the field has changed. The first class of freshmen is now a sophomore class, a new freshmen class is in place and the bar has been set high. New, more challenging courses are on the horizon and a new day is dawning in education.