Reality Check - Student Videos from New High Schools

Six college-bound students talk about the schools that prepared them to move on.

Students in innovative schools share their own stories.

The new and redesigned high schools that KnowledgeWorks Foundation has helped launch are ushering in whole new ways to teach teenagers. They are small, demanding and set high expectations for all students.

What is the experience like for the young people whose lives are being touched by these changes? To find out, we gave students video cameras and asked them to tell us about themselves and their schools. Scroll down to see additional student videos.

Are you having trouble viewing the videos? (Click for help) About these Videos The videos on this page are hosted on YouTube and require the Adobe Flash plug-in to be installed and enabled in order to be viewed. Are you using a dial-up or slower wireless connection? You'll need a broadband connection with at least 500+Kbps for the best viewing experience. For best results, you may want to start the video player and then click on the PAUSE button immediately. Then, wait until the progress bar has reached the end of the video before playing it. Allowing the entire video buffer lets you watch it without interruption. Does your video start but then quickly stop? There may be an issue with your installed Flash plug-in. One solution for this problem is to completely uninstall and reinstall the plug-in. You can use the following instructions for this: To uninstall Flash, please follow Adobe’s instructions, listed here: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14157 Once you're done, restart your computer and follow Adobe’s instructions for reinstalling Flash: http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash If the instructions above don’t resolve the issue please try the following: Temporarily disable popup blocking software installed on your computer to test. Allow YouTube.com as a trusted site in your Firewall software. Ensure other applications like Quicktime, iTunes, Real Player, or Windows Media Player aren’t set as the default streaming application, as this might affect the video player.
Six college-bound students talk about the schools that prepared them to move on.	Renaissance, Cleveland Heights High - Cleveland Heights, OH Aldous Huxley - What Isaac never wants to have to worry about.	Dayton Early College Academy - Dayton, OH What Makes Me Monica - Monica tells about living with 17 people and shares things people don’t know about her.
The Next Level – Students from the Reality Check project reflect on their experiences in Ohio’s new high schools. (6 minutes)	Dayton Early College Academy - Dayton, OH Four Blocks Down - Meghan travels from where she lives to her mom's "loud and fast, hectic" house.	SMART School, Libbey High - Toledo, OH Man in the Mirror - Cutting hair, Hemingway and corn dogs - glimpse's of Tremain's life.
SMART School, Libbey High - Toledo, OH My School - If Keandre had a magic wand, here's what she'd change about her school.	Legacy, Cleveland Heights High - Cleveland, OH What We Like to Do - Meet Michael's "crazy" friends.	Mosaic, Cleveland Heights High - Cleveland, OH The Past, The Present, The Future - Jordan explains his "Number One Rule to Go By."
Dayton Early College Academy - Dayton, OH What Makes the #1 Baby Gurl Who She Really Is – Why family matters.	Toledo Early College High School - Toledo, OH This is Who I Am - A freshman talks about music, friends and the future.	Toledo Early College High School - Toledo, OH Me, Movies, Music, Church... Christina's life now and after high school (unless she becomes Indiana Jones).
Toledo Early College High School - Toledo, OH Heroes: How Writing Affects Pretty Much Everything - A student novelist prefers heroes who are human over those with magic swords.	Toledo Early College High School - Toledo, OH All About Me - If you can dream it, do it: A future kindergarten teacher wants to make a change in the world.	Toledo Early College High School - Toledo, OH The Life of Steven Klepacz - The transition from home schooler to high schooler.