William T. McFatter Technical College and High School is a public adult technical college that also includes a

magnet high school In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities (usually school boards) as school ...

. The campus is located in

Davie, Florida Davie is a town in Broward County, Florida, United States, approximately north of Miami. The town's population was 110,320 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. Davie is a principal town of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to ...

and is part of the Broward County Public Schools district. Adult enrollment is approximately 1000 students. The magnet high school maintains an average of 600 pupils in the school at one time, about 150 students per grade. These students are picked out of a lottery after they have met the requirements to get into the school. Certain requirements include a

GPA Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements for varying levels of achievements in a course. Grades can be assigned as letters (usually A through F), as a range (for example, 1 to 6), as a percentage, or as a numbe ...

of at least 2.5 and an FCAT score of a Level 3 or higher.

History

McFatter Technical College and High School originally opened in 1985 as a vocational center for adults, known at the time as William T. McFatter Vocational-Technical Center. The campus is part of the South Florida Education Center in Davie, Florida which consists of Broward College, Florida Atlantic University, Nova Southeastern University, and the University of Florida. In 1998, the campus added a magnet high school which focused on college preparation and technical training. In 2002, William T. McFatter Technical High School was honored as Florida's model high school. It was also named a New Millennium High School, being only one of twenty in the state of Florida. The high school has received an "A" grade from the State of Florida continuously since 2002. In 2009 the high school has recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private schools based on one of two criteria: 1) Schools whose students, regardless of background, achieve in the top 10 percent of their state on state tests or in the case of private schools in the top 10 percent of the nation on nationally normed tests; and 2) Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that demonstrate dramatic improvement of student performance to high levels on state tests or nationally normed tests. In June 2014, the name of the school changed to William T. McFatter Technical College and High School.

Operation

Adults take either a daily 5 or 6 hour hands-on technical program which gives them training to enter the workforce. They are taught by professionals in their respective fields. In the high school, for their freshman and sophomore years, students are required to take a "Tech Studies" course, in which they explore the aspects of all the technical programs that the college has to offer. With the end of their sophomore year, students are required to choose their technical program for the rest of their high school years. All students take honor classes or classes on higher levels, and many take Advanced Placement courses. Adult hours range between 7:30am and 2:30pm, with some evening and/or Saturday classes, as well. The high school operates from 9:15am to 4:10pm. Students that use school buses as transportation home must take a shuttle bus to

Nova High School Nova High School is a public high school located in Davie, Florida and is part of the Broward County Public Schools district. It is one of four schools that comprise the Nova Center for Applied Research and Professional Development, the others ...

, where they then get on their buses. There are many clubs and organizations for students to participate.

High school

There is currently one main high school building for academic classes. Because the campus does not have any sports teams, Physical Education and Health Management classes are required to be taken as a freshman and sophomore. The school symbol is a Storm, represented by a storm design. The first high school class to graduate from McFatter was in 2002.

Demographics

As of the 2021-22 school year, the total student enrollment was 591. The ethnic makeup of the school was 65.3%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 19.8%

Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

, 45.9%

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

, 9.3%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, 4.2%

Multiracial Mixed race people are people of more than one race or ethnicity. A variety of terms have been used both historically and presently for mixed race people in a variety of contexts, including ''multiethnic'', ''polyethnic'', occasionally ''bi-ethn ...

, 0.8% Native American or Native Alaskan, and 0.5% Native Hawaiian or

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe the original p ...

. Note that the adult enrollment in this school is not reflected in the total student enrollment number.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mcfatter Technical College Broward County Public Schools High schools in Broward County, Florida Public high schools in Florida Magnet schools in Florida Davie, Florida 1985 establishments in Florida Educational institutions established in 1985