Most of the teachers who helped start the school six years ago were graduates of a program called UTeach at the University of Texas in Austin. They are still working at the high school today.

Lawrence Abraham is one of the directors of the UTeach program. He praises the program and the teachers at Manor New Technology High School.

“They put together the curriculum, which has elevated this school, among all the schools in the new tech network around the country to be the premier site. And we think it is sort of the marriage of the UTeach program, which prepares teachers and encourages teachers to teach in a project-based way, with the new tech curriculum model, which is designed to incorporate that.”

Manor New Technology has 332 students. Sixty-eight percent are from ethnic or racial minorities. Fifty-two percent are from poor families. The Texas school sent 97 percent of its graduates to college in 2011 and all of its graduates in 2012.

Most schools, however, do not have the financial support that Manor New Technology receives. It gets help from private organizations and state and federal funding.

Technology schools are sometimes criticized for not paying enough attention to the arts and social sciences -- subjects like psychology and anthropology. University of Texas history professor Jeremi Suri says the goal of education goes beyond preparation for employment.

“Obviously science and math literacy are crucial. But democratic citizenship requires that people have a sense of our historical background as a society, a sense of how our society functions and an understanding of what democracy looks like in theory and in practice.”