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NATIONAL NETWORK OF CONSTITUENT ORGANIZATIONS E-NEWSLETTER January 2007
CONTENTS NETWORK RESOURCES AND INFORMATION NETWORK RESOURCES
AND INFORMATION HS Alliance Resources Please share this resource with your networks. Consider the following ways to get the word out:
View the Resource Guide for Action NNCO
Web Site National
Calendar of High School & Youth Events National
High School Alliance Policy Center National
High School Alliance Resources
Other Resources Moving Indiana Forward: High Standards and High Graduation
Rates ECS Research Studies Database
ORGANIZATIONAL
UPDATES Achieve, Inc. Achieve is convening state policymakers and developing tools and publications to assist states in raising academic standards and strengthening graduation requirements. Meetings have included the following:
Forthcoming tools and publications include the following:
American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) AYPF continues to educate state policymakers from the NGA Honor States by organizing site visits for policymakers to learn about effective practices in high school redesign. Recent site visits include the following: State Policy Trip to North Carolina, October 5-6, 2006: STEM and Early College. Highlights from this trip include visits to the School of Health and Life Sciences, Information Technology High School, and Robeson Early College High School, as well as meetings with state legislators and representatives from the Governor’s Office, Department of Public Instruction, Community College System, and the business community. For more information, see the trip report summary. State Policy Trip to Indiana, November 15-16, 2006: Supporting Students At
Risk of Dropping Out and Increasing Course Rigor. Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) CCSSO is providing opportunities for State Education Agencies to learn about and discuss high school redesign. CCSSO recently completed its quarterly newsletter that includes
the latest information on federal legislation and programs that pertain to
high school reform, articles about secondary school redesign efforts and best
practices across the states, and descriptions of recent and relevant
resources and publications. This specific edition includes a “save the
date” for CCSSO’s Secondary School Redesign Conference, which
will take place in Austin, Texas from April 1-3. It also includes articles
about New Hampshire’s high school redesign efforts and Ohio’s
Striving Readers grant initiative.
National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE) NASBE is hosting forums and developing publications to educate State Board members about high school redesign and the NGA/Achieve action agenda. NASBE hosted a post-election conference with Achieve in
December to help state board chairs and other leaders address the question of
how high school redesign would be affected by changes in leadership. NASBE has also completed publication of the recent issue
of the State
Education Standard, NASBE's policy journal, focusing on high
school redesign. National
Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) NASSP continues to hold Breaking Ranks trainings in the Honor States and is providing forums for participants to learn from each other. On January 30-31, NASSP is convening Breaking Ranks high schools in San Diego to share their programs and strategies for success. Breaking Ranks high schools are chosen to present on the basis of their outstanding reputations for quality and innovative practices with challenging populations.
National
Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) NCSL has developed a number of publications to inform legislators about the NGA/Achieve Action Agenda and high school redesign more generally. NCSL has completed two recent publications: an article in State
Legislatures magazine, "A+ for Rigor," and an NCSL LegisBrief
"Accurate High School Graduation Rates." The article explains why
increasing academic standards and graduation requirements will not increase
dropout rates. The brief explains why accurate graduation rates are important
for high school accountability and describes the adoption of the Graduation
Rate compact by the National Governors Association. National Governors Association (NGA) NGA is reporting on the progress of the honor states, providing opportunities for the honor states to learn from each other, and developing publications to inform states' high school reform efforts. NGA will convene honor states for a dicsussion of mid-term progress on February 15 in Washington, DC. A midterm report of the states' progress will be released at the February meeting. Forthcoming publications will focus on integrating career/technical education into high school reform and teacher compensation. New NGA Chair Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano has announced an Innovation America agenda which features 3 strands: developing regional economic clusters, postsecondary institutions as engines of innovation, and K-12 STEM education. State
Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) SHEEO is working to educate and engage the higher education community in high school reform through its meetings and publications. In the December 15, 2006 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, in
collaboration with ACE, Achieve, and NASH, SHEEO published an op-ed piece
co-authored by Michael Cohen (Achieve, Inc.), Paul Lingenfelter (SHEEO), Tom
Meredith (NASH), and David Ward (ACE), making the case for higher education
involvement in high school reform and highlighting ways the higher education
community can be engaged. In the Winter 2007 issue of the the ACE magazine, The Presidency, SHEEO
worked with ACE, NASH, and Achieve to publish a special supplement focused on
higher education engagement with high school reform. The supplement began
with an introductory article by Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, Inc.,
and Jaci King, director of the ACE Center for Policy Analysis, describing
state engagement through the American Diploma Project. It also included
articles by higher education leaders Stephen Portch, Stan Jones, Charles
Reed, and Mark Rosenberg, profiling their experiences and lessons learned. On January 22, 2007, in collaboration with ACE, Achieve, and NASH, SHEEO convened its "National Higher Education Leadership Summit" in Washington, DC. This conference was intended to foster conversations among higher education leaders (college presidents and provosts) about specific action steps colleges and universities can take to engage in the high school reform agenda.
If there are any resources you would like to share with the recipients of this newsletter, please send an e-mail to chaitr@iel.org.
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