School Sees Better Days in the Future

The promise of technology and change, so far, has fallen short at Philadelphia’s School of the Future.

Philadelphia

As it was conceived, the School of the Future was to be a study in contrast to the typical big-city high school.

When the $62 million facility opened in 2006 with a relatively small student population, a computer-based curriculum delivered with the latest technology tools, and a unique partnership with corporate giant Microsoft , it set out to upend a secondary school model that had changed little since the industrial era and had spelled failure for too many students here and in cities around the country.

Now in its fourth year, and with its first class of seniors heading toward graduation, Philadelphia’s School of the Future remains just that: an ideal whose realization remains...