Q & A : Dennis Littky
CityState : Q & A l by Lauren Clem
The co-founder of the Met high school and College Unbound is headed for a new adventure .
Dennis Littky is not afraid to shake things up . The internationally known educator first gained a reputation as a reformer in New Hampshire , where his efforts to overhaul the local high school inspired the film A Town Torn Apart . After moving to Rhode Island in 1995 , he and Elliot Washor co-founded the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center , later followed up by the college access program , College Unbound . Both schools use an individualized approach to reach students traditionally locked out of academic success .
Though his unorthodox methods have ruffled a few feathers along the way , the Met ’ s model has been replicated in more than 200 schools globally , while College Unbound has several locations nationwide . After more than five decades in education , Littky is finally ready to turn his eye to retirement and plans to spend part of this year living in Costa Rica . Rhode Island Monthly caught up with Littky on his history and how he feels about education today .
What ’ s next for College Unbound and the Met ? College Unbound ’ s expanding . We started with fifteen students . We now have 400 in Providence , 150 in Philly . We ’ ll start with twenty in Seattle and Greenville and we have twenty in Chicago . For College Unbound , [ the goal is ] to continually get better . Adam Bush is taking it over , who was my provost and he ’ s now president . And it ’ s really to keep getting better and to expand its influence . And the Met , it ’ s kind of the same thing . The philosophy is so right . It ’ s just based on learning theory . You learn when you ’ re motivated . You learn when you ’ re doing real work . Somebody who ’ s doing research on diabetes because of the younger sister keeps doing it , you know ? It ’ s about finding that interest and passion and putting people out in the community .
What was your experience with education like growing up ? I grew up in Detroit . Middle class family . But I always knew school was a joke and a game . In seventh grade , they ’ d show a movie and the teacher would open up the questions and just ask us . For science , we had to do these big posters . People would just copy them out of the encyclopedia and we put them all around . And same with high school . I just did what I had to do . I went to University of Michigan for college , and I ’ m trained as a psychologist . I have a Ph . D . in psychology , and I got one in education .
This interview has been edited for length and clarity .
How did you end up working in education ? When I was graduating , my dream job was to work at a university and run my own psychiatric home . Well , at twenty-five years old , the head of my department recommended me for the children ’ s orthogenic school in Detroit . So I applied . Turns out I didn ’ t get it , but I was the runner-up . Ocean Hill- Brownsville was set up as a demonstration school district in New York City to give the power back to the people . Someone called me and asked me to come to New York . And so I took the job . But as I accepted the job , the guy who got the job at the orthogenic school came down with cancer , unfortunately . And they offered me that job . So I sometimes think , ‘ You know , I could have been a psychologist living in Detroit .’ Versus [ part of ] the biggest thing going on in education .
I understand Stanley Goldstein , the CVS co-founder and Woonsocket native who recently passed away , was a good friend . How did you meet him ? When I was in New Hampshire , I got a call . There was a man , Peter Karoff , who ran the Philanthropic Initiative , which helps rich people give away their money . He was a friend of Stanley ’ s , and they heard about my school in New Hampshire . Everyone heard about it somewhere . He brought Stanley to my school in New Hampshire to meet me . And Stanley fell in love and
PHOTOGRAPH : COURTESY OF THE MET . RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l SEPTEMBER 2024 29