The City of Chicago has announced the creation of five new "early college" STEM schools for grades 9-14. Part of the IBM "Smarter Cities Challenge," the new schools are based on the model of Brooklyn's Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH).

CCT has worked with the New York City Department of Education, CUNY, and IBM to document the design and launch of P-Tech, as well as its first year in operation. Strategies and lessons learned during this time were compiled by CCT researchers as the basis of the "STEM Pathways to College and Careers School Guide-the IBM Playbook," which will be used to help guide Chicago in setting up the new schools.

Background on the P-Tech and Smarter Cities projects is available in this article from US News and World Report. P-Tech Student Tahmel Anderson has blogged about his experience at the school on IBM's "Students for a Smarter Planet" website.