PHILADELPHIA—When the Microsoft-designed School of the Future opened, the facility was a paragon of contemporary architecture, with a green roof, light-filled corridors and the latest classroom technology, all housed in a dazzling white modern building.
It might as well have been a fishbowl: Educators and the media from around the world watched to see whether Microsoft could reform public education through innovation in technology.
Although the U.S. school's creative ambitions have been frustrated by high principal turnover, curriculum tensions and a student body unfamiliar with laptop computer culture, the school graduates its first senior class Tuesday with every graduate headed for an institution of higher learning.
"The first three years were definitely a challenge," said Mary Cullinane, Microsoft's liaison to the school. "They're hitting they're groove now. I'm excited to see what's in store."
From the beginning, everything about the $63 million School of the Future was designed to be different.
Built in Philadelphia's rough Parkside section with district money, the school partnered with Microsoft on new approaches to curriculum, instruction and hiring. It attracted reform-minded teachers and students bent on avoiding older high schools.
The vision was for a paperless, textbook-less school that embodied the motto "Continuous, Relevant, Adaptive." Each learner would get a take-home laptop on which to keep notes, do homework and take tests.
But students are chosen by a lottery of public school students. Most are low-income and without home computers, yet they are expected to manage their
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