About Ironwood

Ironwood opened in 2017 with one idea worth arguing about: that asking a fifteen-year-old to choose between college and a trade is a question the school should refuse to ask. We built the schedule so nobody has to.

Our mission

Ironwood Technology Charter School prepares students in Travis County for skilled work and for further study at the same time. Every student carries a college-preparatory core load and a chosen career track, and every student is expected to finish a paid or credit-bearing work placement before graduating. We are tuition-free, open to any student in the county, and we do not screen applicants by test score, audition, or previous grades.

Why two tracks instead of one

The Austin labor market rewards both software and skilled trades, and it rewards them in ways that do not track neatly onto a four-year degree. An electrician who understands building automation and a developer who has actually wired a panel are both rarer and more valuable than the school system tends to assume. Running the two tracks in one building, with shared core classes, means students see each other's work instead of being sorted into separate buildings at fourteen.

Taught by people still doing the work

Our career instructors are working professionals who teach part of the week and practice the rest of it. A cybersecurity course taught by someone currently responding to incidents is a different course from one taught out of a textbook, and the same is true of a welding lab run by a certified welder who takes contracts in the summer. It makes scheduling harder. We think it is worth it, and it is the single thing families mention most often on tours.

Ironwood by the numbers