Starting with two small pilot courses in 2017, Elizabethton has gradually adopted more project-based learning (PBL) classes. Designed by students, for students, Elizabethton High School now retains the best traditions of a comprehensive high school—with its football team, marching band, and clubs—while also providing a new model for high school that encourages students to play a much more active role in their learning.

Project-based learning isn’t used in every class yet, but students and teachers have taken it in impressive directions. Elizabethton’s students cracked cold cases from the 1980s, leading the authorities to identify the suspect in a series of murders. Their work became the subject of iHeart radio’s true-crime podcast series “Murder 101.” In another sociology class about wrongful convictions, students researched a childcare provider who’d been sentenced to murder for the death of a baby. They examined medical evidence and concluded the child’s death wasn’t her fault. Then, they wrote to authorities arguing for her release from a California prison (she was denied before she was later given clemency during COVID). In a completely different example of PBL, students wrote children’s storybooks developed in College Prep English.

Elizabethton students love exploring their community’s rich history through media. One group won an NPR podcast challenge with an unusual story about a local circus elephant killed over a century ago. EHS students also won a national 2022 journalism challenge with a video investigation of why their school has no windows and an audio report about how to make school more engaging.

Caring, trusting relationships

EHS educators intentionally show students what is possible—beyond the possibilities they may have initially imagined for themselves—and then help them build the knowledge and skills necessary to take advantage of those expanded opportunities. Librarian Dustin Hensley builds relationships with students by asking them what they like to read, encouraging even reluctant readers to feel more comfortable—which can lead to success in their classes. “This is just the place where you can come and learn, and I will help guide you to what you’re wanting to learn,” he explained. Hensley was named one of Library Journal’s Movers and Shakers in 2021.

Youth voice and choice

EHS is committed to not only listening to students but to giving them a say in their educational experience. The school started a course on teaching as a profession in response to student requests. The school has a student liaison to the local school board and a Cyclone Student Center, designed at the request of students to make the former main office an inviting place for getting information. EHS added two college and career counselors to the Center after students expressed a need for more help. In response to students’ desire to start a business, there’s now a coffee shop in the building designed and run by students. Staff also adjusted the school’s schedule to create a fourth-period elective block for trying things suggested by students. For example, a teacher who couldn’t figure out how to make an idea for a project about poisons fit into chemistry class managed to make it work as an investigation in an interdisciplinary elective class that incorporated biochemistry, ecology, history, and ethics.

Smart use of time, space, and tech

Elizabethton High School has dual enrollment classes with six postsecondary institutions in the region, including East Tennessee State University and Tusculum University. EHS also has a thriving Career and Technical Education program. The school’s CTE classes, such as health science, are very popular because students can get certifications. EHS also has a state-of-the-art virtual and augmented reality lab where students can explore how industries use these technologies. 

Community partnerships

EHS students stay in close connection with their community as they plan, execute and celebrate their projects. These include placements at a local elementary school for students learning about the teaching profession, an art show to raise funds for a local nonprofit for children in the child welfare system, growing plants in science classes for the Keep Carter County Beautiful free plant drive, and so many more. Students present and display their projects to the Community Partnership Advisory Group and to panels of community members teachers call to their classes throughout the year. These presentations encourage the ongoing involvement of partners who sponsor new projects, serve on judging panels, and mentor students as industry experts. In 2021, the principal hired a community coordinator to strengthen partnerships with local businesses. This led to the Community Partnership Advisory Group, which meets monthly—so local businesses and higher education institutions stay connected to students exploring their future.