PSI High prioritizes real-world learning through a student-centered approach. Dubbed a “program of emphasis” within the district, PSI High offers a unique experiential learning curriculum that seamlessly integrates project- and place-based learning through the lens of design thinking. With an enrollment of just over 200 pupils, it also nurtures caring, trusting relationships between adults and students in a smaller, more personalized environment than a typical school. Leaders listen to and consider student feedback before making decisions.

Each student at PSI High gets assigned to an advisory cohort of peers they stick with for their entire high school tenure. The teachers leading these advisories guide students through social, academic, and cognitive needs beyond the classroom. Classroom teachers also forge close bonds with students to ensure their students are supported well when achieving their academic and personal goals. With restorative practices at the heart of the school’s behavior management approach, teachers receive coaching on trauma- and poverty-informed practices to better support student needs.

At PSI High, students learn in an environment that looks more like a high-tech office than a classroom, with teams of students working together to solve real-world problems. Projects organize student learning around three interdisciplinary tracks: Humanities, STEM, and Innovation and Design, focusing on entrepreneurship. Students experience rigorous learning through authentic, community-connected projects within these three blocks. Each project must then meet a driving question centered on an issue close to students, engage an authentic audience within the student’s community, and produce a quality deliverable that lives beyond the classroom.

Students can freely choose how to engage with each project and demonstrate mastery of course skills and content. The program’s mastery-based grading system also helps ensure students are fully prepared for college, career, and beyond. The program abandons the traditional assignment-driven grade book, replacing it with standards-based grading using rubrics that define when a student has mastered a competency. 

Student Outcomes

• PSI’s graduation rate was 100 percent for two years in a row (class of 2021 and 2022). In comparison, Seminole County’s graduation rate was 93 percent, and the state of Florida’s was 87 percent.
• For the class of 2022, the average SAT score was more than 50 points higher than the statewide average (1037 versus 983).
• On XQ’s Senior Survey for the class of 2022, more than 9 in 10 PSI graduates reported feeling at least somewhat prepared for the future (94 percent), with nine in ten of those students saying PSI High helped them develop creativity and problem-solving skills that would empower them as adults.
• 100 percent of PSI’s 2022 graduates participated in AP courses and exams, nearly triple the rate of 35 percent among US high school graduates in 2022.
• With a dedicated administrator focused solely on business partnerships, teachers at PSI High can easily identify and work with partners that bring authentic learning experiences to the students. Students have worked on projects with Siemens Engineering, Fairwinds Credit Union, the Central Florida Zoo, the University of Central Florida, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, G.R.O.W Central Florida, and the Sanford Museum, among other partners.
• PSI students have won top prizes in the Integrated Business Challenge at the University of Central Florida. This event allows students to identify how their school projects can serve the business community and exist in the real world beyond school.