OSSE Ed Digest
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Vol. 4, Issue 7
July 2007
Bringing urban P-16 education resources to policymakers, parents, advocates, and district and school staff in the District of Columbia
Research on DC Schools
National Lessons Learned
New Ideas
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education does not endorse the views expressed in the resources and reports contained in the OSSE Ed Digest.
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There is growing concern across the country that America’s high schools are failing to adequately prepare many students for work, higher education and citizenship. Research conducted by the National Governor’s Association, on state assessments reveals that approximately one in three high school students fails to meet standards. And studies supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation predicted that 1.23 million U.S. students – nearly 30 percent – would fail to graduate with their peers. On the other hand, more and more jobs require at least some postsecondary education. In response to this dilemma, education leaders, policymakers and business leaders across the country are pushing for reform efforts to transform the traditional high school into a 21st century learning institution that prepares students for the demands of college and work. This issue of the OSSE Digest presents a range of research and information on how to transform high schools so that students are taught 21st century skills, including critical thinking skills, communication and teamwork skills, and technology literacy skills.
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America’s high schools are failing to prepare many students for work and higher education. On state assessments, roughly one in three high school students fails to meet standards. Nearly a third of high school graduates who go to college require remedial education classes. This is a major issue because 60 percent of the jobs in today’s labor market need at least some postsecondary education. 21st century work skills require employees who can write and communicate clearly, analyze information, conduct research, and solve complex problems. Consequently, all students need to have comparable preparation in high school. The demands of college and work are dramatically different today than a generation ago, but American high schools remain virtually unchanged. To ensure that all high school graduates are prepared for postsecondary education and work, governors and business and education leaders must develop a comprehensive plan for their states to restore value to the high school diploma. Actions include: 1) restoring value to the high school diploma by revising academic standards, upgrading curricula and coursework, and developing assessments that align with the expectations of college and the workplace; 2) redesign the American high school to provide all students with the higher-level knowledge and skills, educational options, and support they must have to succeed; 3) giving high school students the excellent teachers and principals they need by ensuring teachers and principals have the necessary knowledge and skills and by offering incentives to attract and retain the best and brightest to the neediest schools and subjects; 4) holding high schools and colleges accountable for student success by setting meaningful benchmarks, intervening in low-performing schools and demanding increased accountability of postsecondary institutions; and 5) streamlining educational governance so that the K–12 and postsecondary systems work more closely together.
In “A Call to Action: Transforming High School for All Youth,” the National High School Alliance identifies six core principles and recommended strategies that will foster high academic
achievement, close the achievement gap, and promote civic and personal growth among all high-school-age youth in our high schools and communities. At the center of the framework is the Alliance’s belief that the purpose of high school is to ensure that all high-school age students are ready for college, careers, and active civic participation. This report provides leaders at the national, state, district, school, and community levels with a common framework for building public will, developing supportive policies, and actually implementing the practices needed to radically change the traditional, factory-model high school that tracks and sorts students. The six core principles are: 1) personalized learning environments; 2) academic engagement of all students; 3) empowered educators; 4) accountable leaders; 5) engaged community and youth; and 6) an integrated system of high standards, curriculum, assessments, and supports. To create deep and lasting change, all six core principles must be addressed. The principles are interdependent and must function as part of a comprehensive plan focused on ensuring that all students are ready for college, careers, and active civic participation. For each core principle in A Call To Action, specific strategies are recommended. The strategies represent the partners’ research- and implementation-based knowledge of the effective policies and practices that drive the transformation of high schools.
This document is a progress report on what states are doing to align high school standards, graduation requirements, assessments and accountability systems with the demands of college and work. The results are promising: states have made steady progress over the past year, and a greater number have made high school reform a priority this year. The most progress has occurred in the areas of standards and graduation requirements. Nearly every state has aligned — or is in the process of aligning — their high school standards with the expectations of college faculty and employers. One-quarter of the states are requiring all students to complete a college- and work-ready curriculum to earn a diploma; only two states had such requirements in place in 2005. Most states also are working to develop data systems that can track the progress of individual students from kindergarten through postsecondary education, an essential component of a strong accountability system. There has been less progress in high school testing and accountability. Very few states are measuring whether their high school students are ready for college and work, and few are making college and work readiness part of their high school accountability formulas. Without better assessments and incentives for schools to improve student readiness, necessary dramatic changes in U.S. high schools are not likely to occur. Given the complexity of this policy agenda and the multiyear effort it will take to implement fully, state leaders must maintain a sense of urgency. If states are to succeed, it will take: gubernatorial leadership, the ability to move on multiple fronts, addressing challenges, and cross-state partnerships.
While great attention has been paid to increasing early childhood education opportunities and reaching the national goal of making sure every child can read by the third grade, little has been done to confront the real and growing problem: Hundreds of thousands of high school students can barely read on the eve of their high school graduation. The problem begins earlier, in our nation’s middle schools. Less than 75 percent of all eighth graders graduate from high school in five years, and in urban schools these rates dip below 50 percent. The Alliance for Excellent Education calls for the adoption of four research-based national initiatives that constitute a Framework for an Excellent Education for all middle school and high school students. The Framework addresses the problems of low literacy skills, poorly prepared teachers, absence of academic and social supports, lack of motivation, and other roots of student failure by pulling together resources and strategies that have been shown to improve outcomes for youth. These include: high-quality teachers, focused learning time, effective instructional methods and rigorous curriculum, counseling that encourages parental involvement, and smaller learning environments. Specifically, the Adolescent Literacy Initiative, Teacher and Principal Quality Initiative, College Preparation Initiative, and Small Learning Communities Initiative make up the research-based components of the Framework. The Alliance strongly recommends that Congress and the President support and fully fund these four initiatives for middle and high school students. Doing so will reinforce the commitment to improving public education made when President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.
High Schools for the New Millennium
This report outlines ideas for transforming high schools to prepare students for today's economy. Many changes are needed to increase graduation rates and bring America’s high schools into the modern era. Educators must re-define what the American high school looks like and create high-quality, dynamic schools that provide all students with a new version of the Three R’s: rigorous
academic coursework, meaningful relationships with instructors who can help students meet high standards, and relevant learning opportunities through internships and community partnerships. Ideas include: small schools, collaborative relationships, challenging and coherent instruction, instruction that has real world applications, schools getting the mission right, and equal choice in choosing schools.
This is the first in a series of reports for policymakers, practitioners, and others who must make hard choices about how to change high schools. It discusses three comprehensive initiatives — Career Academies, First Things First, and Talent Development — that have grappled with the challenges of improving low-performing urban and rural schools. Together, these three interventions are being implemented in more than 2,500 high schools across the country. MDRC’s evaluations of these programs provide unusually strong evidence about each intervention’s effects. This report offers research-based lessons from across these evaluations about five major challenges associated with low-performing high schools: (1) creating a personalized and orderly learning environment, (2) assisting students who enter high school with poor academic skills, (3) improving instructional content and practice, (4) preparing students for the world beyond high school, and (5) stimulating change in overstressed high schools. The overall message of this synthesis is that structural changes to improve personalization and instructional improvement are the twin pillars of high school reform. Small learning communities and faculty advisory systems can increase students’ feelings of connectedness to their teachers. Especially in interaction with one another, extended class periods, special catch-up courses, high-quality curricula, training on these curricula, and efforts to create professional learning communities can improve student achievement. School-employer partnerships that involve career awareness activities and work internships can help students attain higher earnings after high school. Furthermore, students who enter ninth grade facing substantial academic deficits can make good progress if initiatives single them out for special support. These supports include caring teachers and special courses designed to help entering ninth-graders acquire the content knowledge and learning skills that they missed out on in earlier grades.
NASSP Legislative Recommendations for High School Reform (2005)
The historical structure and purpose of the U.S. high school is no longer adequate to serve the needs of all of the nation’s youth and provide them with the skills necessary to compete in the global marketplace of the 21st century. Significant improvement is needed, but such improvement can only be attained through a substantial change in the structure and culture of the high school. This report recommends that this should be accomplished through support for the following: (1) increased academic rigor that reflects the integration of curriculum, instruction, and assessment; (2) personalized instruction and learning that is based on the academic needs of individual students; (3) schoolwide initiatives to improve reading and writing literacy skills; (4) targeted strategies to raise achievement scores of low-performing students to grade-level proficiency; multiple assessments that are aligned with state standards and include performance based measures to provide schools with individual student data to improve teaching; (4) collaborative, inclusive leadership and the strategic use of data; (5) improved subject area competency and content pedagogy of current and incoming faculty; and (6) technical assistance provided to high schools identified as “in need of improvement.” The report also provides recommendations to meet these goals.
With support from the Gates Foundation, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is working to increase state legislators' understanding of the need for high school reform and the wide range of policy opportunities available for state legislatures. NCSL's High School Redesign Project is focused on supplying the specific tools, information, networking, and support that state legislators need to build effective state policy for high school redesign. Their "High School Redesign: Tools for Policymakers" includes the following publications: Innovative State Strategies for High School Redesign, Costs of New High School Designs, No Child Left Behind Act and High School Reform, State Legislation and High School Reform, Effective High School Reform: Research and Policy That Works, and A Picture of High School Redesign: Eight Great Schools.
This report advocates for clearly focusing American high schools on the goal of preparing every student for full participation in a spectrum of college opportunities, meaningful work, career advancement, and active citizenship. The authors suggest a number of strengths and resources career and technical education (CTE) can bring to the table for overall high school improvement. CTE should: support students in the acquisition of rigorous core knowledge, skills, habits and attitudes needed for success in postsecondary education and the high-skilled workplace; engage students in specific career-related learning experiences that equip them to make well-informed decisions about further education and training and employment opportunities; and prepare students who may choose to enter the workforce directly after high school with levels of skill and knowledge in a particular career area that will be valued in the marketplace. In light of the current and future challenges facing youth, a new working model for high school is long overdue. The following recommendations are made to reinvent the American high school: 1) establish a clear system goal of career and college readiness for all students; 2) create a positive school culture that stresses personalization in planning and decision-making; 3) create a positive school culture that stresses personalization in relationships; 4) dramatically improve how and where academic content is taught; 5) create incentives for students to pursue the core curriculum in an interest-based context; 6) support high quality teaching in all content areas; 7) offer flexible learning opportunities to encourage re-entry and completion; 8) create system incentives and supports for connection of CTE and high school redesign efforts; and 9) move beyond “seat-time” narrowly defined knowledge and skills.
This report outlines a compelling framework for 21st century learning that focuses on the results that matter for today’s high school graduates. It presents three fundamental ideas about high schools that are not yet widely perceived. First, there are results that matter for high school graduates in the 21st century — and these results are different from and go beyond traditional metrics. Second, improving high schools requires the nation to redefine “rigor” to encompass not just mastery of core academic subjects, but also mastery of 21st century skills and content. These 21st century skills include learning and thinking skills, information and communications technology literacy skills, and life skills. Third, the results that matter — 21st century skills integrated with core academic subjects — should be the “design outcomes” for creating high schools that prepare students for success in the 21st century. Only by setting clear goals that incorporate 21st century skills can high schools truly prepare students to succeed in postsecondary education, workplaces and community life. The report also outlines the following opportunities for working collaboratively with high school reform advocates to improve high schools: a vision for 21st century learning which highlights core subjects, 21st century content, life skills, thinking, learning and innovation skills and 21st century assessments; a set of principles which include advocates working together and preparing students, students demonstrating achievement, high school designs strategically integrating 21st century knowledge, skills and assessments, and partnerships between advocates and the business community, and next steps for actions, which include recommendations at the federal, state and school district and local leader level in the areas of leadership, assessment, professional development and infrastructure
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