Topics for High School Improvement

The National High School Center provides, in each of the focus areas described below, in-depth knowledge, expertise, and analyses that are specifically geared to high schools for use by the Regional Comprehensive Centers and the States to help ensure that every student receives the knowledge, skills, and support he or she needs to graduate from high school prepared to succeed in postsecondary education and the workforce.

High School Curriculum and Instruction
High School Literacy
High School Teacher Quality and Professional Development
High School Dropout Prevention
High School Assessment, Accountability, and Data Systems
High School Community Engagement
High School Innovation and Improvement
Use of Technology in High School
Prevention of Delinquent and Disorderly Behavior in High Schools
Transition Into High School
Transition Out of High School
Equity in High School Learning
Access for High School Students with Disabilities
High School Graduation
Calls to Action - Overarching Strategies for High School Reform

High School Curriculum and Instruction

As the U.S. workplace continues to change, the skills and knowledge required of high school and college graduates change as well. Global economic forces and rapidly changing technology are placing an increased demand on students to graduate ready to perform at jobs that demand strong academic skills such as critical thinking, analytic capabilities, and literacy, as well as increased math and science proficiency.

The good news is that every State and the District of Columbia has established standards in core subjects.

Many States are adopting policies and standards to increase math and science course-taking as well as to ensure that reading is taught at the secondary school level, and they are making graduation requirements reflect these changes.

National data indicate that many schools are offering Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and dual enrollment as strategies to promote higher-level course-taking, including math and science, which helps ensure that more students enter college or the workforce ready to succeed.

The National High School Center is dedicated to offering information, guidance, and support regarding what instructional approaches and curriculum are proven to work.

The A-G Curriculum: College-Prep? Work-Prep? Life Prep.
The A-G Curriculum is a sequence of 15 required and 3 recommended high school courses that any student wishing to study at a four-year college in California must complete. This guide from The Education Trust-West explains how the curriculum contributes to student achievement, presents success stories of the curriculum in action, and provides tools for educators to assist students in acquiring necessary academic and life skills.

Closing the Expectations Gap 2008
This report updates Achieve’s annual review of states’ progress on improving standards, graduation requirements, testing, P-16 systems, and accountability systems. Though focusing specifically on the progress made by the 29 states that comprise the American Diploma Project network, it touches on the development of these systems within out-of-network states as well.

Courses Count: Preparing Students for Postsecondary Success
This ACT policy report discusses and investigates the inconsistencies between a typical high school curriculum and what a student needs to know in order to be prepared for the workforce or postsecondary education. The report also stresses that the lack of academic rigor found in many high schools plays a part in the ensuing disconnect.

Crisis At the Core: Preparing All Students for College and Work
Even with a high school diploma, many students leave high school without the necessary skills that will assist them in college or the workforce. ACT’s report recommends that schools strengthen their core curriculum to better prepare students for post-secondary success, as research demonstrates that students at all levels of achievement benefit from taking rigorous courses.

Deshler, D.D., & Tollefson, J.M. (2006). Strategic interventions: A research-validated instructional model that makes adolescent literacy a schoolwide priority. The School Administrator 63(4), 24-29. To access this article please click here.

Expanding Learning Time in High Schools
This paper from Hilary Pennington and the Center for American Progress examines high schools that implement an extended learning day as part of a required educational program for all students, explores issues related to implementing such a program, presents examples of how schools accomplish this, and analyzes the implications for school design, capacity, and financing.

High School Coursework: Policy Trends and Implications for Higher Education
This brief from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities suggests that the current trends of strengthening the high school curriculum and changing state policies could positively benefit from the involvement of the postsecondary community. For example, as noted in the brief, there has been discussion of aligning high school graduation requirements with college admissions requirements, but alignment efforts must continue to be strengthened.

Increasing Academic Rigor in High Schools: Stakeholder Perspectives
This National High School Alliance report summarizes literature on rigor from national and research organizations, examines major policy trends, and describes how six organizations define, structure, and engage their stakeholders on the issue of increasing academic rigor in high schools.

Learning for the 21st Century: A Report and MILE Guide for 21st Century Skills
This Partnership for 21st Century Skills report identifies and examines 6 key elements and skills of 21st century learning.

Mixed Messages: What State High School Tests Communicate about Student Readiness for College
This 2003 study analyzed 66 state-administered standardized tests from 20 states to determine whether they adequately gauge whether students are prepared for introductory level college courses. The report concludes that state exams are largely not aligned with the standards generally thought to lead to college readiness and success.

On Course for Success: A Close Look at Selected High School Courses that Prepare All Students for College
This report from ACT, Inc., and The Education Trust examines the components of high school courses that prepare students for successful entry into postsecondary education. The report includes model course syllabi and descriptions of key courses in English, mathematics, and science drawn from the materials submitted by the teachers, interview transcripts, and classroom observations.

Raising Academic Achievement: A Study of 20 Successful Programs
This study from the American Youth Policy Forum identifies and evaluates 20 models for raising high school academic achievement. Each evaluation includes an overview of the program, evidence of effectiveness, key components, and factors that contribute to the success of the program.

Results that Matter: 21st Century Skills and High School Reform
Authored by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, this report outlines a framework for redefining high schools in the 21st century by incorporating traditional high school core academic subjects with 21st century skills and content.

The New Educational Imperative: Improving High School Computer Science Education
This report draws attention to the need for an increased presence and standardization of a computer science curriculum within high schools. The report’s author, the Computer Science Teachers Association, compares and contrasts the ways in which computer science is taught in the United States to how the subject is taught internationally. It concludes by making suggestions to stakeholders of all levels on how to adopt a standardized and effective national computer science curriculum.

High School Literacy

High school literacy is key to a high school student's overall prospects for success. Out of a student’s ability to read comes the capacity to graduate and the opportunity to gain access to the workplace and/or post- secondary education.

The tie between graduation rates and literacy rates is evident when we look at the reading skills of those students who fail to finish high school. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy reports that 19% of students that dropout are only able to perform at basic or below-basic levels when presented with prose literacy tasks like reading editorials, news stories, and instructional materials.¹ The implications of illiteracy extend outside of the classroom as the student moves into the workforce. Research shows that a student’s inability to read at a functional level while in school has drastic implications for his or her life in the future.

To help educators, parents, and the general public gain awareness on this topic, the National High School Center has compiled key documents that present resources and best practices on how to effectively combat illiteracy in schools.

Sustaining Focus on Secondary School Reading: Lessons and Recommendations from the Alabama Reading Initiative
The Alabama Reading Initiative (ARI) addresses literacy and includes a focus on high school students. This research brief summarizes student and teacher outcomes, lessons learned, and other findings from a recent evaluation of the Alabama Reading Initiative at the secondary school level.

Double the Work: Challenges and Solutions to Acquiring Language and Academic Literacy for Adolescent English Language Learners
This report from the Alliance for Excellent Education identifies a series of teaching/learning challenges particular to English language learners as they work to gain academic literacy, while learning English concurrently. It also provides potential solutions and specific policy prescriptions for remedying each of the challenges presented.

Interventions for adolescent struggling readers: A meta-analysis with implications for practice
This report from the Center on Instruction is a meta-analysis of 31 individual studies on reading instruction for adolescent struggling readers. It provides an overview of current research, concluding that teachers can positively influence reading outcomes of older students with reading disabilities. It offers nine practical implications for the teaching of literacy within schools.

Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas: Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement
This report from the Alliance for Excellent Education contends that content teachers at the middle and secondary levels should engage their students in literacy training through integrated reading and writing activities that teach students how to recognize the particular conventions specific to the different subjects. The report concludes with practical policy goals to foster a greater integration of literacy training and content matter.

Reading Between the Lines: What the ACT Reveals About College Readiness in Reading
This report from ACT recommends that considerable experience with complex reading texts in high school is the key to development of college-level reading skills, and is the clearest differentiator of students who are ready for the post-secondary world of college and/or work versus those who are not. The report also defines the types of materials that need to be included in all high school courses, and offers recommendations to educators and policymakers on how to help to increase the numbers of high school graduates who are ready for college-level reading.

Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy
This 2004 report from the Alliance for Excellent Education outlines important steps schools and teachers can take to improving adolescent literacy. The report delineates fifteen elements currently aimed at improving middle and high school literacy achievement and calls on public and private stakeholders to invest in the literacy of middle and high school students today, while simultaneously building the knowledge base.

Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches
This report, prepared by the International Reading Association, describes the ideal knowledge and skills a literacy coach should possess in order to deliver leadership and support in individual content areas to schools.

Urgent But Overlooked: The Literacy Crisis Among Adolescent English Language Learners
This Alliance for the Excellence in Education issue brief examines the rapid enrollment growth of English Language Learners (ELLs), and recognizes that the nation’s schools must do far more to help these students build strong literacy skills. This piece examines some of the unique challenges facing adolescent ELLs who struggle to read and write proficiently, as well as to complete a rigorous math, science, and social studies curriculum, in a language they have not yet mastered. Appropriate assessments for ELLs, professional development needed for teachers, and policy changes needed to improve education for ELLs are described.

Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High School
Published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, this report examines different research-based teaching techniques that help 4th through 12th grade students improve their writing skills in preparation for college and work.

High School Teacher Quality and Professional Development

Highly qualified teachers exert a strong influence on student success and, for this reason, remain a top priority for high schools. In light of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) goal of every student having a "highly qualified" teacher, more high school students stand to learn from the best-prepared instructors.

To best meet their students' needs, even the most talented high school teachers benefit from ongoing professional development opportunities offered within the context of explicit standards and vetted goals. The National High School Center offers a variety of resources and services to help states enhance teacher quality, by helping them reach and maintain standards for what teachers should know and be able to do.

The National High School Center is committed to helping to ensure that high school teachers are dedicated to students and their learning, knowledgeable in the subjects they teach and instructional methods, responsible for monitoring student achievement, reflective of their professional experiences, and active in their own learning communities.²

Available resources through the National High School Center related to teacher quality and professional development include supporting networking with and the development of learning communities, sharing information to promote and share best practices, and advancing the available research base.

Improving the Distribution of Teachers in Low-Performing High Schools
This policy brief produced by the Alliance for Excellent Education suggests ways that local, state and federal government actions can improve the teacher labor market, including the establishment of effective recruitment and retention policies of high quality teachers.

Leadership Succession Planning Guide for Maryland Schools
The Maryland Department of Education's Division for Leadership Development recently published a guide that focuses on how one state is building instructional leadership capacity and addressing the issue of strengthening leadership across a system. The three main components of the guide include: Catalyst for Conversation (how conversations about leadership succession in school systems may be stimulated), Outline for Planning (suggestions for school leaders on developing a succession plan), and Succession Plan for Example School System (an example of a succession plan).

Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Range Plans
A report by Public Agenda and the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality finds that new high school and middle school teachers are more concerned about administrative support, more frustrated by student motivation and behavior, less likely to see teaching as a lifelong career choice, and less likely to believe that all students can achieve in school, as compared to new elementary school teachers.

Maryland Instructional Leadership Framework
Developed by the Division for Educational Leadership at the Maryland Department of Education, this framework describes outcomes expected of Maryland principals as they provide instructional leadership for their school, and provides examples of the minimum of what principals are expected to know and be able to do to achieve a respected leadership outcome.

Qualified Teachers for At-risk Schools: A National Imperative
This report outlines reasons why there are relatively few effective or highly qualified teachers teaching in at-risk urban and rural high schools when compared to their suburban counterparts. It suggests research-based solutions on how to attract and retain these highly skilled teachers to at-risk high schools.

Tapping the Potential: Retaining and Developing High-Quality New Teachers
This report, published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, advocates an increase in teacher induction programs to better prepare educators in their first years of service and also provides many follow-up resources.

High School Dropout Prevention

Far too many high school students drop out of school long before graduation day. Nationwide it is reported that only 71 percent of students graduate from high school and only about half of Black and Latino students graduate.³

The economic consequences of leaving high school without a diploma are severe. According to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, on average, dropouts are more likely to be unemployed than high school graduates, and earn less money when they do secure work. High school dropouts are also more likely to receive public assistance than high school graduates who do not go on to college, a reality due at least in part to the fact that young women who drop out of school are more likely to have children at younger ages and be single parents than their counterparts who do graduate.⁴

Compounding the issue of high school dropout rates is the fact that many of these students also have disabilities. Given that students with disabilities drop out of school at over twice the rate of their same-age peers, states and local education agencies are in need of dropout prevention interventions that yield positive results.⁵

The National High School Center provides a variety of valuable resources in the area of dropout prevention. A relatively strong research base exists for student dropout prevention, and when it comes to these types of high school interventions, researchers know a great deal about what works. The National High School Center helps bridge those research-based findings with real-life practice in schools.

Essential Tools—Increasing Rates of School Completion: Moving From Policy and Research to Practice
Published by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET), this report presents a research synthesis of dropout prevention interventions for students with disabilities and provides additional tools and resources for educators and policymakers at the state, district, and school level.

Fifteen Effective Strategies for Improving Student Attendance and Truancy Prevention
Jay Smink and Mary S. Reimer outline strategies schools can implement for improving attendance and truancy, and subsequently dropout rates. Accompanying each strategy are recommended resources and model programs.

The High Cost of High School Dropouts: What the Nation Pays for Inadequate High Schools
This issue brief, published by the Alliance for Excellent Education, summarizes the negative economic impact that high school dropouts have on their own earning potential as well as on the nation as a whole over their life time. Additionally, the brief breaks down the negative lifetime economic impact that high school dropouts have on the economy by state and uses this data to make the case for high school improvement.

Identifying Potential Dropouts: Key Lessons for Building an Early Warning Data System
This report, prepared by Achieve, Inc. for the project Staying the Course: High Standards and Improved Graduation Rates, pushes for states and districts to build longitudinal data systems to track student progress and engagement in the hopes of identifying potential dropouts and at-risk students early enough for successful intervention.

Locating the Dropout Crisis
Using data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), researchers Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters measured the "promoting power" of 10,000 regular and vocational high schools with enrollments of more than 300 students. According to Balfanz and Legters, schools have "weak promoting power" if the freshman class shrinks by 40 percent or more by the time students reach their senior year.

New Hampshire's Multi-Tiered Approach to Dropout Prevention
Many states and districts across the country struggle with designing and implementing coherent dropout prevention initiatives that promote academic advancement, especially for special needs students, who drop out at much higher rates than the general student population. New Hampshire has been recognized for its innovative use of data collection and analysis as the key to unlocking the dropout problem.

The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts
This report, produced by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, surveys young dropouts aged 16-25 from around the country to better understand and contextualize the circumstances that led these young people to drop out of high school. Student perspectives are integrated with data synthesized from other studies and papers to meld individual student insight with macro-level research.

Solving California's Dropout Crisis
This report from the California Dropout Research Project examines the dropout crisis in California and ways in which state policymakers, districts and schools can combat the crisis. The piece examines the depth of the dropout crisis, the issues contributing to students dropping out, the impacts of high dropout rates, and strategies that can address the problems facing California.

Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristics of Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis, 2000-2005
This comprehensive research report by Ruth Curran Neild and Robert Balfanz of the Center for Social Organization of Schools at the Johns Hopkins University, analyzes data from the Kids Integrated Data System (KIDS), housed at Cartographic Modeling Lab of the University of Pennsylvania, and provides a detailed picture of when and why Philadelphia’s young people drop out of high school. The study contains both crosssectional and cohort analyses, and is the first to provide analyses of school and social service records.

What Your Community Can Do to End Its Drop-out Crisis: Learnings From Research and Practice
In this publication, Robert Balfanz shares over a decade’s worth of research at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at Johns Hopkins University. The paper is written as a practical guide for community members that spells out a three step plan to end the dropout crisis and provides numerous practical resources and exemplars.

High School Assessment, Accountability, and Data Systems

Academic accountability and assessment systems have been gaining momentum since the mid-1990s, but all states are now putting into place comprehensive accountability systems as they implement the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Under the act's accountability provisions, states must test students annually on their mastery of academic content standards and produce state and school district report cards that inform parents and communities about state and school progress. Schools that do not make progress must take corrective actions and provide additional services to students.

Nationally, there is strong public support for educational accountability systems.⁶ Although NCLB currently requires testing during the high school years only in the 10th grade, many states are requiring high school exit exams for increased accountability on the secondary school level.

As a result of new assessments, a wealth of new data regarding student performance is now available. States and districts are working to refine systems of data collection and analysis to inform instruction and curriculum choices. Many educators and analysts have expressed particular interest in tracking longitudinal data for individual students to show academic growth from year to year so that incremental progress can be tracked.

The High School Center provides guidance and support for a variety of groundbreaking as well as practical issues related to assessment, accountability, and data systems at the high school level.

Do Graduation Tests Measure Up? A Closer Look at State High School Exit Exams
This piece from the American Diploma Project presents an in-depth look at high school exit exams to examine how rigorous they are, and how well they align with the knowledge students need to succeed in post-secondary institutions and the workplace.

Student Success: Statewide P-16 Systems
This State Higher Education Executive Officers report describes how state and local leaders from around the United States have developed and implemented successful strategies to increase student achievement in their schools. It also emphasizes the importance of an integrated educational system in obtaining positive student outcomes from preschool to grade 16.

Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Students with Disabilities
The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) have developed a Tool Kit that provides the most current information -- including research briefs and resources designed to improve instruction, assessment, and accountability -- for students with disabilities that assists state personnel, schools, and families in their efforts to ensure that all students with disabilities receive a quality education.

High School Community Engagement

Family and community members are important partners in ensuring that high schools succeed in providing learning opportunities for all students. In order to meaningfully engage community members, it is critical that they remain informed and invested in issues relating to high school reform. Research shows that school improvement initiatives are more likely to succeed if supported by parents.⁷

However, it can be difficult to engage and motivate community stakeholders to become active participants. Further, it can be challenging to sustain active engagement. The National High School Center aims to provide practitioner-oriented resources on successful strategies that tap into this often underused resource key to creating and sustaining excellent high schools.

A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement
This report from the Southwest Educational Development Lab examines identified characteristics of high-performing schools that focus on parent and community involvement and their role in impacting student achievement. The report is provided as a useful tool for educators, researchers, policymakers, community leaders, and others interested in the impact of school, family, and community connections on students’ learning.

Making the Difference: Research and Practice in Community Schools
The Coalition for Community Schools released a report which synthesizes research on 20 different community school initiatives to demonstrate how student learning and achievement connect with other fields, such as health, community building and engagement, mental health, and youth development.

High School Innovation and Improvement

Work toward raising student achievement and improving the educational experience for high school students has led to the development and implementation of a variety of reform strategies and innovations across the nation. Although these innovations, by their nature, are diverse, they share the goals of improving and personalizing high school instruction, supporting a rigorous high school program of study, and increasing student achievement.

Recent improvement efforts have included reforms or innovations in school structures, staffing, academic calendars, use of technology, vocational training, and school governance.

The following are examples of prominent high school innovations receiving recent attention:

Distance learning options now allow many high school students to take some or all their classes online. This innovation offers students access to advanced or specialized coursework that would not otherwise be available at their school, more flexibility in structuring their school day or a more challenging home-schooling experience.

Charter schools are independently-run public schools that operate under a performance contract with an authorized supervisory agency, and are free from some of the regulations of the traditional school system. Many charter schools have been established with the specific goal of educating an underserved population or community. Although some charter schools offer non-traditional class structures or course work, others have adopted very "traditional" instructional philosophies emphasizing core academic knowledge and high standards.

The National High School Center makes it a priority to inform, guide, and support stakeholders on the existence and benefits of innovations in education.

CCSSO Secondary School Redesign Web Portal
This web portal provides resources on secondary school redesign initiatives, more specifically those in supporting instruction, facilitating transitions, and providing leadership. This portal was designed with state-level administrators and policymakers in mind, and shares resources about state initiatives, particularly as they relate to secondary school redesign efforts.

ECS StateNotes: Virtual High Schools State Database
This database, available from the Education Commission of the States, compiles and organizes information regarding each state’s virtual high school program. It contains a range of state-specific resources for virtual high schools including information on curriculum and access, finance, and accountability among other topics.

Evaluation of New Century High Schools: Profile of an Initiative to Create and Sustain Small, Successful High Schools
This report finds that students enrolled in new small high schools as part of the New Century High School Initiative in New York City were more likely than comparison students to graduate on time. The report, produced by the Policy Studies Associates working with New Visions, shows that the initiative faces challenges in increasing the proportion of graduates who earn Regents diplomas, however, rather than local diplomas.

Laboratories of Reform: Virtual High Schools and Innovation in Public Education
A report from Education Sector calls on reformers to recognize that long-sought improvements in teaching and learning already are being applied successfully in online education. The report provides new approaches to issues such as who should teach, how instructional responsibilities should be divided, and where to direct limited financial resources for the greatest educational benefits.

New CSRQ Center Report on Middle and High School CSR Models
The Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center has released a new report on middle and high school comprehensive school reform and schoolwide improvement models. This report offers a scientifically based, consumer-friendly review of the effectiveness and quality of 18 widely implemented middle and high school comprehensive school reform or schoolwide improvement models. To read this report, visit the CSRQ Center Web site at http://www.csrq.org/reports.

States' Progress Toward High School Restructuring
As many Title I high schools approach their fifth year of failing to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP), many states and districts are struggling to navigate the new waters of school restructuring as required in such cases as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. The following brief outlines the provisions of the law related to restructuring and includes strategies that states and districts are undertaking to meet their obligations under the law, particularly at the high school level.

Use of Technology in High School

Use of technology is an increasingly large part of Americans' lives in the work place, at home and in higher education. With more and more information, including instruction, available on the Internet, and new technologies making computers increasingly portable, high schools are presented with many new opportunities for enhancing and supplementing classroom instruction through technology. At the same time, high schools are faced with the challenge of making sure that all students are equally well prepared to access technology's benefits.

Increasing assimilation of technology in high schools presents both special challenges and special opportunities for the education of students with disabilities. As more and more content is available online, sometimes exclusively, it is important to ensure that the information is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. However, the thoughtful use of assistive technologies may help disabled students access high-quality curriculum and participate in mainstream classrooms.

As every effort is made to accelerate learning for all high school students, harnessing the benefits of technology becomes increasingly important. The National High School Center is designed to optimize access to technology for stronger student outcomes.

Connecting Students to Advanced Courses Online
Connecting Students to Advanced Courses Online highlights six providers of academic coursework who are delivering advanced on line courses to students through technology. The primary audiences include district and school decision-makers who are looking for ways to give their students greater access to advanced course work.

High School/High Tech
This guide, released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, is intended to assist educators in planning, establishing, building, and managing a High School/High Tech project for high school students with disabilities. The program is designed to develop career opportunities, provide activities that will spark an interest in high technology fields, and encourage students to pursue higher education.

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: A Review of State-Level Policy and Practices
This report reviews information regarding numerous k-12 online programs, as well as related state policies across the United States. It suggests that while online learning is taking off, and making a difference, more oversight by the states and districts is required.

Moving Toward Solutions: Assistive & Learning Technology for All Students
This report, authored by the National Center for Technology Innovation, summarizes and describes the current state and needed direction of assistive technology (AT) within the general education classroom. It makes a series of recommendations geared toward stakeholders at various levels on how to improve the utilization of AT within the general education, while building teacher capacity to understand and adapt AT into the classroom for a greater number of students.

Prevention of Delinquent and Disorderly Behavior in High Schools

Delinquent and disorderly preventions at the high school level focus on assisting both students and schools with approaches that work to increase the prosocial behaviors of violent or disorderly students. These preventions include schoolwide reforms, class-based curriculum or specific after-school activities. These preventions share a common goal of working to increase the academic and occupational success of juveniles and of others by creating a safe learning environment for all.

As violent incidents in high schools continue to be of major concern, administrators and other high school personnel need to identify and access more information on delinquent and disorderly interventions. The National High School Center will provide resources for school-based personnel on available interventions regarding delinquent and disorderly conduct.

Transition Into High School

Transition Into High School: The transition from middle school and junior high to high school represents a significant event in the lives of adolescents, one that necessitates support from and collaboration among teachers, parents, counselors, and administrators at both educational levels. In order to pave the way for the smoothest transition possible, issues involving new academic challenges as well as emotional and social needs need to be addressed. Many preparatory activities building up to this transition occur before students even begin thinking about their first day of high school. Successful transitions place particular emphasis on 9th-grade initiatives that stand to create one of strongest bridges in the K-12 learning continuum.⁸

The Education Pipeline in the United States, 1970-2000
This pivotal report, written by Walt Haney and published by the National Board on Educational Testing and Public Policy, introduces and analyzes the “ninth grade bulge,” where too many students are stuck in their Freshman year of high school and fail to move on to tenth grade.

Keeping Students Moving Forward on the Journey from the Middle Grades into High School
This brief, published by the Southern Regional Educational Board, outlines best practices for a smooth transition into high school.

The Ninth Grade Bottleneck
Published in The School Administrator, this article reviews the challenges resulting from student retention in the 9th grade with a look at alternative approaches that better keep students moving through high school.

The Pivotal Year
Susan Black’s article features promising reform options for strengthening the first year of high school and provides a snapshot of what a successful ninth grade experience can look like.

Quick Stats Fact Sheet: The First Year of High School
This fact sheet highlights statistics related to the transition into high school for U.S. students.

Supporting Successful Transitions to High School
This research brief from The Council of the Great City Schools gives several recommendations to policymakers about how schools and school districts can support kids during the important transition from middle to high school. Most students who eventually fail to graduate face challenges during this transition, and improved support will increase graduation rates.

Transition Out of High School

Transition Out of High School: The transition from high school into the collegiate or workforce environments is also a key turning point in the lives of young people. The vast majority of jobs in today's economy require education attainment and technical skills. Regardless of their career or academic path after high school, young people must be knowledgeable and informed about the world in which they live and have the capacity to grapple with complex problems in order to maximize their professional and personal success. Students who enter the workforce immediately upon high school graduation now need at least the same level of skills and knowledge as students entering college, as both universities and employers seek the same core abilities.⁹

Add and Subtract: Dual Enrollment as a State Strategy to Increase Postsecondary Success for Underrepresented Students
This Jobs for the Future (JFF) publication, authored by Nancy Hoffman, advocates for dual enrollment in college courses and high school classes as a vehicle for promoting postsecondary access for underserved youth . The report includes a state funding model for dual enrollment and profiles three states with dual enrollment initiatives, highlight ing programs geared towards those students traditionally under-represented in institutions of higher learning. The report outlines some steps states need to take to broaden the scope and sustainability of these programs.

Aligned Expectations? A Closer Look at College Admissions and Placement Tests
This report by Achieve, Inc. strives to help inform state decision-making regarding the inclusion of college admissions (ACT, SAT) and placement tests (ACCUPLACER, COMPASS) into their high school assessment and accountability systems.

CTE’s Role in Secondary-Postsecondary Transitions
This issue brief, released by the Association for Career and Technical Education, draws links between career and technical education (CTE) and improved student outcomes in making the transition from high school to postsecondary life. The brief discusses the positive impact of CTE on transitions and postsecondary outcomes within the context of dual enrollment, tech prep, and early and middle college high school models.

High School Standards and Expectations for College and the Workplace
This report compares existing state standards for what students should know and be able to do in English language arts and mathematics with expectations common to two national studies on skills needed for entry to college and the workplace. The report was produced by the Regional Education Laboratory at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning.

Integrating Grades 9 through 14: State Policies to Support and Sustain Early College High Schools
This report, authored by Nancy Hoffman and Joel Vargas of Jobs for the Future (JFF), provides an overview of ECHS models. It includes research on why they are beneficial and outlines what states need to consider in terms of legislation and collaboration in order to increases access to Early College High Schools and maximize the benefits and rewards to students who choose to participate.

The Link between High School Reform and College Access and Success for Low-Income and Minority Youth
An extensive, methodical resource from the American Youth Policy Forum and Pathways to College Network which describes comprehensive school reform models designed to increase college access for low-income and minority youth.

Smoothing the Path: Changing State Policies to Support Early College High School
This report from Jobs for the Future (JFF) looks at successful state-level strategies and policy lessons learned from four states (Georgia, Ohio, Texas, and Utah) during the development of schools that undertake dual enrollment. It builds on an earlier JFF study, Integrating Grades 9-14: Policies to Support and Sustain Early College High Schools, that identifies barriers to implementing these innovative schools.

State Dual Enrollment Policies: Addressing Access and Quality
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education, this report explores state statute and policy related to dual enrollment. It provides a state-by-state snapshot of policies and programs, and details how some policies might be limiting or skewing the reach and access of these programs. Additionally, it provides recommendations for policymakers.

Update to State Dual Enrollment Policies: Addressing Access and Quality
This resource is an updated report to the 2004 study by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education. It corrects and clarifies information, updates any policy or legislative changes in states, and identifies two additional states (Hawaii and New Mexico) with dual enrollment policies.

The National High School Center supports educators who are involved in student transitions into and out of high school.

Equity in High School Learning

Every high school student in the U.S. public school system should have the opportunity for a high-quality and challenging academic experience. There have been great strides in recent years to recognize promising practices that work for all types of learners.

The National High School Center provides access to vetted resources and tools to improve educational outcomes for all students on the high school level. A special focus of the National High School Center is special needs students and English Language Learners.

The Funding Gap
This brief looks at the funding patterns of 49 of 50 states (Hawaii is excluded because it operates as a single district), comparing the amount of money spent per student across districts. Data collected between 1999 and 2005, revealed that only 10 states increased funding equity between low and high-poverty districts, while three states not only decreased the funding gap, but also began spending more on high-poverty districts. The brief also notes that in most states with a large population of ELL students, districts with greater numbers of ELL students receive less funding than those with fewer ELL students.

Gaining Traction, Gaining Ground: How Some High Schools Accelerate Learning for Struggling Students
The Education Trust, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reports findings from their analysis of achievement data and school practices at seven public high schools. Four “high-impact” schools were compared to three other “average-impact” high schools. In addition to the many similarities between the two groups of schools, researchers found some significant (though sometimes subtle) differences. These key findings were organized into five “spheres”: 1) Culture, 2) Academic Core, 3) Support, 4) Teachers, and 5) Time and other resources. This resource will be of particular interest to schools working to improve the learning on behalf of below grade-level students.

High Schools for Equity: Policy Supports for Student Learning in Communities of Color
This report by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University presents a case study of four schools in California, which have unique programs, graduate a greater percentage of their students, and send a greater percentage of their students on to college than similar schools. The report investigates what makes these schools work, and offers policy prescriptions for states to improve public high schools.

The Last Have Become First: Rural and Small Town America Lead the Way on Desegregation
This research brief, released by the Human Rights Project at UCLA, addresses the current state of segregation within America’s public school system, disaggregating school demographics by race/ethnicity and urbanicity. The research finds that the lowest level of segregation is found in the nation’s small towns and rural areas, while urban areas are home to the most intensely segregated schools and school districts.

A Plan for Success: Communities of Color Define Policy Priorities for High School Reform
This report, authored by the Campaign for High School Equity, a group of nine national organizations representing communities of color, offers a framework of policy priorities to improve the underperforming high schools serving students of color. The report outlines a menu of priorities for high school improvement meant to address the needs of those at-risk students attending the nation’s lowest-performing high schools.

Quality Counts: National Highlights 2008
This report by the Editorial Projects in Education Research Center evaluates the success of the50 states and DC to improve their citizens' lives through education. Using six indicators to assess the states, the report offers a grade on each indicator for each state, as well as an overall grade for each state and the nation (C+) as a whole.

Access for High School Students with Disabilities

High school students with disabilities deserve complete access to general education courses, electives, tests required for a high school diploma, and all other aspects of a full high school experience, regardless of the school they attend. Considering that a significant portion of nearly 7 million students in the United States receive special education, it is a national imperative that each one of them is given the opportunity to fulfill his or her potential.¹⁰ Information on best practices, technical assistance, and other valuable resources to benefit students with disabilities are included throughout all of the National High School Center's high school topics.

Building the Legacy: A Training Curriculum on IDEA 2004
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA) guides how states and school districts provide special education and related services to children with disabilities. This online curriculum, offered by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities (NICHCY), provides training models on IDEA 2004 through the use of PowerPoint slides, handouts, and resources for trainers.

Deshler, D.D. (2005). Adolescents with learning disabilities: Unique challenges and reasons for hope. Learning Disability Quarterly 28, 122-124.

Diploma Options for Students with Disabilities: Synthesis of the NCEO Document
This policy brief includes findings regarding graduation requirements for youth with and without disabilities, diploma options available, state use of exit exams and consequences of graduation requirements. The brief indicates a leveling off of the use of exit exams as a requirement for receiving a high school diploma, showing that states continue to experiment with a wide range of high school diploma options for students with and with out disabilities.

The No Child Left Behind Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Act: A Progress Report
This report by the National Council on Disability looks at the impact that NCLB and IDEA have had on special education students. The study included interviews with disability policy, education, and advocacy leaders from ten of the largest states, representing approximately half of the U.S. population. The report concludes with recommendations about the further alignment of NCLB and IDEA based on these interviews.

Twenty-five Years of Educating Children with Disabilities
The American Youth Policy Forum and the Center on Education Policy have produced a report that highlights the progress of students with disabilities over the past twenty-five years and also draws attention to areas that need improvement.

High School Graduation

Students who graduate from high school significantly increase their prospects for a productive, stable and successful future. Graduation from high school is a critical indicator that students will be able to benefit from and contribute to the workforce, economy and society. The goals of No Child Left Behind include ensuring that all students learn to high levels and that they also graduate from high school prepared for college, work and beyond. Our nation’s prosperity and economic competitiveness depends on ensuring that every child graduates from high school.

In order to ensure more students graduate, it is imperative that there is clear understanding about who currently graduates, who does not graduate, why, and how more students can remain on track to a diploma. Recently there has been a national conversation around how best to capture graduation data as well as which indicators predict early on who may be on or off track to completing high school.

Aligning High School Graduation Requirements with the Real World: A Road Map for States
This policy brief provides information about how states are improving and increasing the rigor in their core requirements for graduation to ensure that students are ready for college or the workplace. The brief describesstates'requirements in English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies, as well as electives, and it offers specific suggestions for raising graduation requirements to better prepare students for life after high school.

America's High School Graduates: Results from the 2005 NAEP High School Transcript Study
The Nation’s Report Card (2005) communicates the courses taken and grades received by high school graduates in the United States. The report examines the relationship between coursetaking patterns and student achievement, as well as comparing performance among student demographic groups. It also compares students’ achievement longitudinally.

The Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate for Public High Schools From the Common Core of Data: School Years 2002-03 and 2003-04
Based on data reported by state education agencies to the National Center for Education Statistics, this report presents on-time graduation rates for public school students in the school years 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. The Department of Education has identified this Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate as an important interim measure in response to a growing concern regarding the accuracy and compatibility of state-reported graduation data. Because this measure does not capture information about individual students who transfer in and out, as does the preferred National Governors Association recommended measure, it is considered an interim approach.

Graduation Counts: A Report of the National Governors Association Task Force on State High School Graduation Data
The seminal report of the National Governors Association relays the recommendation to states for calibration of nationwide graduation rate calculations and definitions.

Graduation Matters: Improving Accountability for High School Graduation
This brief from the Education Trust explores the need for stronger federal policy that requires high schools to adopt graduation rates – in addition to achievement indicators – as a measure for student and school progress. By identifying varying state-based definitions of Adequate Yearly Progress and successful state policies, it suggests ways in which No Child Left Behind can be altered when reauthorized to improve outcomes for all student sub-groups across the country.

Implementing Graduation Counts: State Progress to Date
One year following the recommendation by the National Governors Association (NGA) for all states to use the Compact formula (the recommended standard calculation for the graduation rate) the NGA’s Center for Best Practices gathered plans and information from governors’ offices and state education agencies regarding implementation.

Multiple Measures Approaches to High School Graduation
This report from the School Redesign Network contrasts the teaching and learning outcomes of states that use a broad range of measures for awarding high school diplomas to those that use single-test approaches. By profiling the assessment systems of nearly 30 states, this report evaluates what types of assessments are appropriate criteria for granting high school diplomas.

National Institute of Statistical Sciences/Education Statistics Services Institute Task Force on Graduation, Completion, and Dropout Indicators: Final Report
Produced by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), this report discusses conceptual, data, and implementation issues related to the calculation of graduation, completion, and dropout indicators (GCD).

The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation
This report, written by Elaine M. Allensworth and John Q. Easton of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, examines how indicators such as course failures and credit accumulations can be utilized to predict whether or not a student is on track to graduate from high school.

Raising Graduation Rates in an Era of High Standards: Five Commitments for State Action
This report from Jobs for the Future calls upon state policymakers to commit to five key outcomes for high school age youth, and suggests strategies and action steps they can take to focus high school reform efforts on ensuring that these commitments are met.

This white paper provides state-level policymakers with a framework for raising graduation rates in their states. The five commitments offered in this piece are: 1) A High School Diploma That Signifies College and Work-Readiness, 2) Pathways to High School Graduation and College for Overage, Undercredited, and Out-of-School Youth, 3) Turnaround of Low-performing High Schools, 4) Increased Emphasis on Graduation Rates and College-Readiness in Next Generation Accountability, and 5) Early and Continuous Support for Struggling Students. Each of the commitments is accompanied by action areas to guide states in fulfilling the commitments.

Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma that Counts
A report issued in 2004 by the American Diploma Project (ADP) released new benchmarks for high school students that emphasize the need for increased English and Mathematics mastery in order to meet the demands placed upon them by employers and colleges. To read the executive summary of this report, please click here.

Rethinking High School: Preparing Students for Success in College, Career, and Life
This case study of five schools looks at their successes in improving graduation and college acceptance rates. The researchers have pulled out five lessons from each of the schoolsregarding: helping students see college as an attainable goal; strengthening academic programs; ensuring a coherent curriculum from middle grades through high school; providing extra support during students’ critical freshmen year, and drawing out-of-school youth back into the classroom.

Understanding High School Graduation Rates
This brief from the Alliance for Excellent Education illustrates the differences in graduation rates reported by government and independent sources and describes three core policy areas that are fundamental to calculating, reporting, and improving accurate graduation rates.

What Counts: Defining and Improving High School Graduation Rates (requires login)
This examination of the high school graduation rate by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) highlights the necessity and need for a comprehensive, universal formula to be used across states, a vision shared by many stakeholders in high school reform.

Who's Counted? Who's Counting? Understanding High School Graduation Rates
This Alliance for Excellent Education report discusses the role of graduation rates in accountability, the debate surrounding graduation rates, the different methods for calculating graduation rates, and the need for a common graduation rate across all state school systems.

Calls to Action - Overarching Strategies for High School Reform

As leaders in education reform across the nation call for change in America’s high schools, many have developed overarching frameworks to help guide the national conversation. These frameworks and calls to action are designed to build a shared vision and sense of urgency around the many key elements related to creating better high schools. The National High School Center offers links to some of the most influential reports that have been produced to build capacity to implement research-based practices and policies across schools, districts and states.

Advancing High School Reform in the States: Policies and Programs
This report, published by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and underwritten and authored by KnowledgeWorks Foundation and Monica Martinez, offers the Breaking Ranks II recommendations to state-level agencies.

Breaking Ranks II: Strategies for Leading High School Reform (Executive Summary)
The executive summary of Breaking Ranks II, authored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), offers recommendations to administrators and teachers who wish to implement updated reform strategies originally outlined in the first edition of Breaking Ranks: Changing an American Institution.

Building a System of Excellent High Schools: A Framework and Tol for Discussion and Action
This tool from the Academy for Educational Development and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform provides guidelines for district leaders, community stakeholders, educators, administrators, parents, and students on how to map the process of transforming their high schools to meet the needs of all students. It was created for the seven schools in the Schools for a New Society project.

A Call to Action: Transforming High School for All Youth
This report from the National High School Alliance presents six core principles important to lasting high school reform including: personalized learning environments; academic engagement of all students; empowered educators; accountable leaders; engaged community and youth, and an integrated system of high standards, curriculum instruction, assessments, and supports.

The Catalog of School Reform Models (last updated 2004)
This website offers educators a database of descriptions for external, whole-school models that can be adapted to the needs of individual schools. It includes an analysis of each model’s approach, results, implementation assistance and costs. Additionally, it includes demographic data and contact information for at least four samples sites per model.

High School Reform: National and State Trends
This report was commissioned by California Teachers Association’s (CTA) High School Restructuring Task Force, and authored by WestEd, a nonprofit research, development and service agency, synthesizes the major initiatives on high school reform taking place nationally and in California. The publication provides: 1) clear synthesis of the problem and context; 2) research on high-performing high schools, comprehensive school reform models, and the barriers to improvement; 3) current reform proposals and their research base; and 4) suggestions for further discussion and exploration by CTA.

Hopes, Fears, & Reality: A Balanced Look at American Charter Schools in 2007
This report looks at how charter schools are organized and led, who teaches at them, and if they are meeting their goals. Reviewing data about the students and educators, the report provides a review of who is attending these schools, and the schools’ successes and failures.

Mapping the Field
This website offers a collection of resources intended to inform state- and local-level policymakers what national education organizations and grant-making foundations operate within their jurisdictions. In addition, this resource contains information about what national education policy initiatives are taking place in each state as well as how much grant money individual organizations contribute to high school-specific initiatives.

Measured Progress: A Report on the High School Reform Movement
This report from Education Sector examines and summarizes some of the various methods that have been used to gauge the effectiveness of high school reform movements over the last few years. In particular, the report finds that creating a more supportive high school environment for students produces significant improvements in student learning when combined with more rigorous instruction and high expectations.

Reinventing the American High School for the 21st Century
This report suggests a framework for undertaking comprehensive high school improvement through the use of career and technical education (CTE) throughout the redesign model. It offers nine overarching recommendations along with specific steps for national, state, and local policymakers to implement each recommendation.

A Sum Greater than the Parts: What States can Teach each other about Charter Schooling
This report from Education Sector reviews the policies that impact the success of charter schools. The authors examine 12 states’ regulations and outcomes, and make recommendations to improve charter school quality and maximize the benefit of public charter schools.

Strategies to Improve High Schools
This guide from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and Learning Point Associates examines high school reform strategies that work, and provides next steps, research, and examples that demonstrate how educators can meet high school challenges.

Works in Progress: A Report on Middle and High School Improvement Programs
According to a report produced by the Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center, school safety, drug use, high school dropout, literacy, and transitions in and out of high school are some of the key challenges students face in today’s schools. This report provides an overview of the main issues found in America’s middle and high schools, accompanied by listings of leading high school and middle-grades improvement programs, and suggests some approaches to address these challenges.

¹ National Adult Literacy Survey, NCES, U.S. Department of Education; courtesy of the Education Statistics Quarterly (Vol. 3, Issue 4, Topic: Lifelong Learning).

² "About NBPTS." 1 December 2005. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. http://www.nbpts.org/about/index.cfm

³ Greene, J., and Forster, G. "Public High School Graduation and College Readiness Rates in the United States." September 2003. Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

⁴Source: Kaufman, P., Naomi Alt, M., & Chapman, C. (2004). Dropout Rates in the United States: 2001. National Center for Education Statistics, 1.

⁵ Source: Cobb, B., Sample, P., Alwell, M., & Johns, N. (2005). The Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions on Dropout for Youth with Disabilities. National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities, 8.

⁶ Education Week. "Reality Check 2002." Available from http://www.publicagenda.org/specials/rcheck2002/reality.htm. Posted March 6, 2002.

⁷ Butler, Kelly. "Implementing Effective Communications Plans." New American Schools Academy on Parent, Educator and Community Engagement. Parents for Public Schools. Arlington, Virginia. 12 October 2001.

⁸ Hertzog, C. J., & Morgan, P. L. (1999). Transition: A process not an event. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.

⁹ "Who's In, Who's Out: America's Sorting Machine." 1 December 2005. WETA. 2004. http://www.thecollegetrack.com/whosin/.

¹⁰"Fiscal Year 2006 Budget Summary: Overview." 12 December 2005. U.S. Department of Labor. http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget06/summary/edlite-section2b.html#overview.