Transcript Slide 1

All Students Ready for Success:
State Efforts to Improve High Schools
Becky Smerdon, Vice President & Deputy
Director, U.S. Education and Workforce
Development
June 19, 2008
High School Students Want to
Go to College………
• Most students expect to attend college (High
School Survey of Student Engagement, 2005; U.S.
Department of Education, 2006).
• The number of students entering college after high
school has increased nearly forty percent over the
past 30 years (U.S. Department of Education,
2006).
But Too Many Are Not Prepared….
• Only one-third of high school seniors scored “proficient” on the
reading portion of National Assessment of Educational Progress,
with less than one-quarter scoring proficient in mathematics (U.S.
Department of Education, 2006a).
• Among high school juniors and seniors taking the ACT college
entrance exams, only half of the students were ready for collegelevel reading assignments in core subjects like English,
mathematics, and science (ACT, 2006).
• Nearly one-third of all freshmen enroll in at least one remedial
course in a community college or four-year institution and the
costs are high (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2006).
• We spend a billion dollars a year to make up for what students
didn’t receive in high school (Alliance for Excellent Education,
2006).
And Too Many Are Not Even
Graduating High School
Approximately three-quarters of public high school
students graduate in four years (NCES, Average
Freshmen Graduation Rate, 2006), with graduation
rates significantly and alarmingly lower in high-poverty
and high-minority districts (EPE Research Center,
2006).
Great Opportunities:
The Perfect Storm?
• Significant funding has been committed to
creating data systems that track students over
time.
• Accountability provisions require that students
who have been under the radar become
visible.
• Chronically low performing schools are
mandated to reinvent themselves.
• Even Oprah has talked about educational
challenges and opportunities.
EDVisions
Center
for Urban
American
Coalition of
U.S.
Department
of Schools
Perspectives
Youth Policy
Knowledge
High
Essential
Schools Works
Education-Adult
Literacy
National Association
of
Charter
Forum Schools
Great Lakes East
and FamilyState
Literacy
Act
Expeditionary
Boards of Schools
That
Comprehensive
Knowledge
Works
ATLAS
Jobs
Learning
for
the
Learning
Education
Noble
Network of
Assistance
Center
Foundation
Communities
FutureWork
ChicagoFirst ThingsCouncil
Paideia
of Chief
State
Charter
FirstTrust
Community
EDC Schools
School Officers Talent
National
Association
Modern Red
U.S School
of Secondary School
Development
National Forum to
U.S.Principals
Department of
House
Institute
Department
High
Schools
Grades
AcceleratedAccelerate Middle
Education-Carl D.
ReformNational Governorsof EducationPLUS
Alliance
for
Excellent
Perkins Grant
Association-Phase State
One
Education Institute for Research
Honor States High Scholars
Chicago
Project
GRAD
and
Reform
in
Southern Regional
School
Grants
Asia
Initiative
Charter School Education, First
NewSociety
Tech
Foundation
Career
Education Board
International
Foundation
Academy
Things
First
Academy for Urban
Great
Lakes
West
Schools Network
Support
Bill and Melinda
Development
Comprehensive
Forum for Youth The
Learning Point
Achieve
Inc.Network,
Gates
Foundation
GEAR
Up
Assistance
Center
Investment
Associates
American
Consortium
on
UC
Big Picture Schools
College Board,
National Conference
ofSchool
StateDiploma
Chicago
Berkeley
Academy
for
Educational
EXCELerator Schools Legislatures Research
Project
Rural School and
Christo
Rey
Model
Development
Community Trust
Annenberg Institute
Great Challenges
• A majority of states and districts are unable to
track individual students over time.
• Test participants, disaggregation and reporting
requirements (and waivers), and accountability
measurement and benchmarks have been
contentious, decentralized, and difficult to
interpret.
• “Reinventing” low performing schools has been,
in practice, merely tinkering around the edges.
• Oprah hasn’t fully mobilize her Miracle Network
for Education
• Coordination vs. Chaos
Key Foci
• Readiness: Intensive focus on transition into
high school
• Rigor & Multiple Pathways: Standards &
Coursetaking, data and monitoring system to
diagnose and monitor, personalized learning
environment
• Capacity: Build human capital and school
capacity
State Policy: High School Readiness
• Course requirements
• Intensive focus on literacy and math skills
– PD, incentives for certified math teachers
• Secondary defined as 6-12
– Individual Learning Plans
– Postsecondary planning
– Drop out rates
State Policy: Rigor
• Graduation Requirements
– 4X4
– Core Academic Curriculum
• Focus on CTE
– Meet academic and career requirements
• Expand AP Access
– Funding
State Policy: Postsecondary Pathways
• Bridging Programs
– IL: 3 yr College and Career Readiness Program
– OH: Graduation Coaches
• Dual Enrollment
– Credit transferability/alignment
– Funding (PPE, College Tuition and Fees)
• University/K-12 Partnerships
– IN: Authorize contractual relationships btw districts and
universities, Lab school, teacher training
– Early College High Schools
State Policy: Building Capacity
• Teacher Quality provisions
– NCLB Requirements
– Recruitment and retention incentives
– Targeted PD
• Principal Development
– IL: year-long mentorship
Broad Strategies
• Support innovation: Incentivize and learn from
“chaos”
– Fund R&D, including significant and continued commitment to
the technological requirements of usable data systems.
• Leverage existing funding streams to improve
and align services/programs
• Commit to equalizing opportunity, or as the
Forum for Education and Democracy calls it:
Pay Off the Educational Debt that we owe our
most underserved children.
Policy
School Change?
• What does it mean to change? How do we
know if it has happened? How do we know if it
makes a difference for kids and teachers?
– “Reinventing” low performing schools has been, in
practice, merely tinkering around the edges.
High School Reform
Implementation Toolkit
• Project Overview:
– Urban Institute, Johns Hopkins, Academy for
Educational Development (Nettie Legters, Becky
Smerdon, Kristine Early)
– Funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
– Launch October 2008
– Policy, practitioner, and research audiences
– 80+ reform elements
Example: Early Warning Signal
• Definition
• Research
• Best Practices
• Implementation Checklist
1825 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009-5721
Phone: (202) 884-8000
Fax: (202) 884-8400
www.aed.org