Called upon by the San Diego Economic Development Corporation and Business Roundtable, these members met regularly for the next two years to discuss how to engage and prepare local students for high-tech careers.

[12] The focus was on inner-city high schools using school-to-work strategies, including internships and other forms of field work, as a leverage for whole-school change.

[13] HTH is structured around four design principles, including three from NUHS and one developed by HTH:[14] These principles determined the schools' organization, including their small size, the openness of the facilities, personalization, emphasis on integrated and project-based learning, and display and exhibitions of student work.

[24] In pairs, students created paintings large piece of wood with cut-outs for a student-created informational video.

Building on the work of democratic educator James Beane,[25] Shaddox and Wong asked students to generate questions they had about themselves and the world around them.

Students were asked to tune project components, utilize peer feedback, and meet regularly as a whole-class community to make decisions about the process and product.

[26] The Raptors for Rodents Project In the fall of 2014, fifth-graders at High Tech Elementary Chula Vista were visited regularly by the field mice that populated the open landscape surrounding the building.

Students led by teacher Jeff Govoni researched the local predators of these rodents to determine which might be the safest and most effective way to reduce the population.

In order to raise funding to build life-size versions, students wrote persuasive letters and created multimedia presentations.

Upon funding, students built the nests, erected their original owl boxes and did, in fact, reduce the population of field mice in their school.

Students are mentored by local engineering experts, including Holy Cows alumnus Jon Jock of Seabotix,[28] to accrue skills through the building of robots.

[29] The Holy Cows have traveled to the FIRST Robotics World Championship eight times, as of 2013[28] and won the top prize, the Chairman's Award, in 2013.

[32] While HTH distilled its first three learning principles from The Urban School Project, it added a fourth: "Teacher as Designer" and employs a rigorous hiring process.

In addition to touring the schools and mingling with prospective co-workers, they implement an hour-long lesson to class of students.

In response, CEO Rasheed Meadows cancelled promised raises, retained representation, and fired a teacher who helped organize the unionization effort.

upon hiring and demonstrate subject-matter competence may apply for employment under the condition that they will enroll concurrently in a credential and induction program.

Graduates of the program present a portfolio of their work, demonstrating that they have met the qualifications to be licensed as a teacher in the state of California.

[51] Like the credential program, the graduate school emphasizes a clinical and practical approach while also exploring educational theory.

Students are required to complete an “action research” project during the second year of the program, in which they explore a learning problem or wondering within their own school site.

[57] Contributors have included current faculty and graduate school students, as well as educators and researchers from various national and international institutions.