E-News for Better High Schools

December 2009

In This Issue

The National High School Center would like to wish you a very happy holiday season! As we close the 2009 year, we would like to share our latest report, Webinar, and Ask the Expert column regarding dropout among students with disabilities, as well as our ARRA resources designed to help schools and districts improve high schools.

New Report Details How Students with Disabilities Can Stay On-Track and Graduate High School

CCSR Report cover The National High School Center is pleased to announce the publication of a report, What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public Schools: A Focus on Students with Disabilities. Co-released with the Consortium on Chicago School Research, the report determines that freshman year course performance—more than background characteristics such as race, gender, socioeconomic status or prior achievement—predicts which students with disabilities are most at risk for dropping out of high school. The report, authored by Julia Gwynne, Joy Lesnick, Holly M. Hart and Elaine Allensworth, found that absences, course failures, course credits and GPA can all be used to accurately predict whether ninth-graders with disabilities will graduate from high school. Identifying these early warning indicators is especially crucial for students with disabilities who drop out of high school at alarming rates.

View the report

View the press release

 

Webinar: “What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public Schools: A Focus on Students with Disabilities”

The National High School Center recently hosted a Webinar for Regional Comprehensive Centers and TA&D Centers featuring What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public Schools: A Focus on Students with Disabilities report authors Julia Gwynne, Joy Lesnick, and Holly M. Hart from the Consortium on Chicago School Research, as well as Mindee O’Cummings from the National High School Center. Report findings were presented, and participants discussed graduation rates and on-track indicators for students with disabilities as well as how to put an early warning system in place using these indicators. The presentation materials and recorded playback are now available.

 

Submit Your Questions Now to Our Ask the Expert column!

Ask the Expert photoVisit the National High School Center’s Ask the Expert column during the month of December as authors of What Matters for Staying On-Track and Graduating in Chicago Public Schools: A Focus on Students with Disabilities take questions on the report and research.

This interactive portion of the Web site hosts a monthly topical discussion led by an expert on a specific high school improvement area. The column allows viewers to pose questions on a particular topic via our email account and receive a posted answer on the Web site within a short time span. Additional resources about the given topic will also be provided to further educate readers.

 

Using ARRA Funds to Drive High School Improvement !

To help school administrators, policy makers, educators and other interested stakeholders understand the provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and how to use the appropriated funds, the National High School Center has organized its resources around the four core ARRA areas: (1) adopting rigorous college- and career-ready standards and high-quality assessments; (2) establishing data systems and using data for improvement; (3) increasing teacher effectiveness and equitable distribution of effective teachers; and (4) turning around the lowest-performing schools. View our pages that contain resources that can help states and districts in their planning on how to use ARRA funding so that it has the greatest impact on high school improvement, or read a summary document of all the resources here.

 

Follow Us Through Our RSS Feed and Twitter Account

RSS & Twitter icons The National High School Center is pleased to announce our new RSS feed and Twitter account, which offer quick and easy methods for accessing our newest publications, resources, and the latest information on high school improvement. Visit our Web site to subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/nhscatair and have the latest National High School Center news sent directly to you.

 



Upcoming Conferences

The National High School Center wants to keep you informed of upcoming conferences and events pertinent to your work. The High School Events Calendar on our Web site lists national conferences, workshops, and dialogues sponsored by organizations around the country focused on high school improvement. If you are sponsoring a high school-related event, we encourage you to submit the event for posting on the Calendar through the online form on our Web site.

About Us

The National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), in collaboration with its partners, strives to provide the most up-to-date, accessible information on breakthroughs in high school improvement, vetted best practices, hands on technical assistance to the Regional Comprehensive Centers, and an easy-to-use navigation of the latest research on creating and maintaining excellent high schools. The National High School Center does not endorse any interventions nor does it conduct field studies. The National High School Center Web site is available at www.betterhighschools.org.

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