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Calls to Action - Overarching Strategies for High School Reform
Frameworks for High School Improvement | NCLB and High Schools | Comprehensive School Reform | Breaking Ranks | Charter Schools
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.
Frameworks for High School Improvement
Eight Elements of High School Improvement: A Mapping Framework
This National High School Center's goal is to encourage researchers, policymakers, and practitioners at all levels to engage in comprehensive, systemic efforts to maximize attainment for all high school students, with a focus on those students who have been historically underserved. To this end, we have developed a framework that consists of eight core elements and provides a lens for mapping school, district, and state high school improvement efforts. (July 2008)
A Coherent Approach to High School Improvement: A Needs Assessment Tool
Building off of Eight Elements of High School Improvement: A Mapping Framework, this tool is designed to help districts and schools assess current high school education policies and practices, identify areas of strengths and limitations, and implement coherent and sustainable school reform initiatives. (December 2009)-
Eight Elements of High School Improvement: An Annotated Bibliography
Report on Key Practices and Policies of Consistently Higher Performing High Schools
This National High School Center report focuses on successful high schools, highlighting the ways in which many superintendents, principals, and teachers are setting and meeting high expectations for all students. Developed specifically for state leaders, it provides them with suggestions on how they may support initiatives that are linked with accelerated learning. (October 2006)
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.
Accelerating the Agenda: Actions to Improve America's High Schools
The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) measures the progress states have made improving high schools in this 2009 report. The report, produced in partnership with the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), also cites the challenges that remain in ensuring high school students are prepared for college and career success in today's world. Additionally, the report highlights emerging trends, such as greater appreciation for international benchmarking and an increased focus on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education that have the capacity to improve student success in the global economy.
Answering Questions about What Works in Improving Low-Performing Schools and Districts
This brief from the Education Commission of the States (ECS) summarizes key findings and policy recommendations from research on improving low-performing high schools and districts.
Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education
This report, co-authored by the National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers, and Achieve, Inc., provides states with a roadmap for benchmarking their K-12 education systems against those of top-performing nations. The report explains the urgent need for action and outlines what states and the federal government must do to ensure U.S. students receive a world-class education that provides expanded opportunities for college and career success.
Building a System of Excellent High Schools: A Framework and Tool 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.
Crafting a New Vision for High School: How States Can Join Academic and Technical Studies to Promote more Powerful Learning
This report from the Southern Regional Education Board emphasizes the importance of career/technical education (CTE) and the benefits states can realize by utilizing CTE to improve high schools. Programs that incorporate CTE along with rigorous college- and career-ready curricula can challenge and engage students by enabling them to think critically and apply their studies in real-life situations.
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.
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.
Relationships, Rigor, and Readiness: Strategies for Improving High Schools
This report offers lessons from a conference sponsored by MDRC, the Council of the Great City Schools, and the National High School Alliance, which brought together leaders from 22 midsize school districts to describe their reform initiatives and to discuss ways in which research and evaluation can inform and complement school change, including helping students transition successfully into high school, stay on track to graduation, and be prepared for moving into postsecondary education, training, or the workforce.
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.
