ECS High School Policy Center Organization: Education Commission of the States
This website is designed to keep policymakers on the leading edge of what's happening with state high school systems by gathering, analyzing and disseminating information about current and emerging issues, trends and innovations in state educational high school policy and system designs.
Enhancing High School Reform: Lessons From Site Visits to Four Cities - January 2006 Organization: American Youth Policy Forum
This summarizes the best practices and policies that were successful in a number of innovative high schools visited by national policymakers on recent site visits. AYPF introduced policymakers to the reform-minded leaders of these transformed high schools to help them become familiar with the challenges and possibilities of high school redesign.
Financing Alternative Education Pathways: Profiles and Policy - August 2005 This new publication from the National Youth Employment Coalition highlights alternative education schools and programs in Wisconsin, Oregon, Ohio, Arizona, New York, Texas, Virginia and California that were able to access state and local education funds.
Earning, Learning, and Choice: Career and Technical Education Works for Students and Employers - June 2004 Organization: U.S. Department of Education,
National Assessment of Vocational Education This report of the NAVE Independent Advisory Panel (2004) fulfills the NAVE
Independent Advisory Panel's obligation under Perkins III to provide advice on conducting the NAVE and to submit to Congress and the Secretary of Education its independent analysis of NAVE findings and recommendations.
New Traditions: Options for Rural High School Excellence - September 2004 Organization: Southern Governors Association
This report recommends that the region’s leaders begin a new focus on improving high schools, especially smaller schools in rural areas.
Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy - October 2004 Organization: Alliance for Excellent Education Reading Next is a cutting-edge report that combines the best research currently available with well-crafted strategies for turning that research into practice. Written by five of the nation's leading researchers, Reading Next charts an immediate route to improving adolescent literacy. The authors outline 15 key elements of an effective literacy intervention, and call on public and private stakeholders to invest in the literacy of middle and high school students today while simultaneously building the knowledge base.
Double the Numbers - April 2004 Organization: Jobs for the Future Double the Numbers highlights emerging strategies - at state, district, and
school levels--for improving postsecondary outcomes. High schools pose special
challenges in this regard: how to motivate older adolescents in school settings;
how to overcome the rigidities of high school schedules and routines; how to
prepare students for smooth transitions to postsecondary learning and success.
This book explores policies that are likely to serve as building blocks in any "next phase" of education reform that tackles the dual problems of high school completion and postsecondary access and success. The many contributions from leading education experts, including Kati Haycock, Robert Schwartz, and Marc Tucker, address these issues from a number of distinct perspectives and provide useful insight for policymakers, administrators, and teachers as they envision and frame strategies for this next great school reform effort.
Small Schools and Small Learning Communities - June 2004 Organization: The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform
The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform recommends that national,
state, and local policymakers provide resources and support to create small
schools at the middle-grades level. In those cases where small schools are not
feasible, the National Forum recommends that district and school leaders break
down large middle-grades schools into smaller schools or small learning
communities that create a personalized environment for teaching and learning.
"Smallness,” whether small learning communities or small schools, is a necessary but not sufficient organizational structure that enhances teaching and learning at the middle level.
State Exit Exams: A Maturing Reform - August 2004 Organization: Center on Education Policy
As part of a multi-year study of state high school exit exams, the Center has
published the third in a series of annual reports on the subject. This report
updates and expands the first two years' findings and includes original
research. Major findings include increased stability of exit exam policies, new
evidence of positive and negative impacts of these exams, and the difficulty of
using these exams for multiple purposes such to indicate college readiness or to
meet the accountability provisions of NCLB.
Tapping the Potential: Retaining and Developing High-Quality New Teachers - June 2004 Organization: Alliance for Excellent Education
This report cites comprehenisve induction, especially in a teacher's first two years on the job, as the single effective strategy to stem the rapidly increasing teacher attrition rate. It includes federal policy recommendations, in-depth analysis of new teacher induction practices, and four case studies: Connecticut BEST, Santa Cruz New Teacher Project (California), Tangipahoa FIRST (Louisiana), and The Toledo Plan (Ohio).
The Educational Pipeline: Big Investment, Big Returns - April 2004 Organization: National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
States that adopt effective education policies can increase the success rates of
students at four key transition points spanning the period from high school to
completion of a college degree. Developing such policies is a state’s primary tool for gaining high numbers of knowledgeable, skilled workers in its workforce.
At the time of publication, nineteen states that educate more than half the nation’s high school students give exit exams that students must pass to earn diplomas, with five more slated to do the same over the next five years. Schools in every state face new federal accountability measures. This unparalleled level of accountability has prompted renewed attention on improving student achievement generally, and on raising the quality of high schools in particular through efforts to upgrade curriculum; improve teaching; offer support for failing students; and create more focused, smaller high schools.
Letter to President Bush: Crisis in Our High Schools - December 2003 Organization: Alliance for Excellent Education
The Alliance for Excellent Education urges President Bush in a letter to address the needs of 8 million students who read below basic in his FY2005 Budget Proposal. More than 30 national organizations and close to 200 individuals joined the
Alliance for Excellent Education in urging President Bush to address the needs
of the eight million students currently reading below basic levels in grades 4
through 12 in his FY2005 budget proposal.
Mixed Messages: What State High School Tests Communicate About Student Readiness for College - October 2003 Organization: Center for Educational Policy Research
A study conducted by Standards for Success (S4S), a consortium of universities
belonging to the Association of American Universities (AAU), has found that
state high school exams bear an inconsistent relationship to the knowledge and
skills necessary for college success. This first-of-its-kind study, Mixed
Messages: What State High School Tests Communicate about Student Readiness for
College, was undertaken to determine the degree of alignment that exists between
state high school exams and university success standards.
State High School Exit Exams: Put to the Test - August 2003 Organization: Center on Education Policy
As part of a multi-year study of state high school exit exams, the Center has
published the second in a series of annual reports on the subject. This report
updates and expands the first year's findings and includes some original
research. New topics covered include the costs associated with these exams,
states' responses to increased pressure about these exams' impacts, and the
exams' interactions with NCLB.
Betraying the College Dream: How Disconnected K-12 and Postsecondary Education Systems Undermine Student Aspirations - March 2003 Organization: Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research
America’s high school students have higher educational aspirations than ever before. Eighty-eight percent of 8th graders expect to participate in some form of postsecondary education, and approximately 70 percent of high school graduates actually do go to college within two years of graduating. These educational aspirations cut across racial and ethnic lines; as with the national sample cited above, 88 percent of all students surveyed for Stanford University’s Bridge Project, a six year national study, intend to attend some form of postsecondary education. In each of the six states studied for this report (California, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, and Texas), over 80 percent of African American and Latino students surveyed plan to attend some form of postsecondary education.
Measuring The Cost of State High School Exit Exams: An Initial Report - February 2003 Organization: Center on Education Policy
New research conducted for the Center by the school finance group Augenblick & Myers investigates the costs associated with high school exit exams in Indiana. The report looks at the current costs, the hidden costs, and the costs of increasing performance on these exams.
Rethinking High School: The Next Frontier for State Policymakers- January 2003 Organization: The Aspen Institute
As more states turn their attention to the task of improving high schools, there is much to be learned from the efforts of pioneering states. Based on an overview of four such states, Trish McNeil suggests both short-term, incremental steps that state and urban leaders can take, as well as indicating the longer-term and more radical steps to consider for creating system of multiple pathways to postsecondary education. Commissioned for the Aspen Program on Education Aspen Workshop on High School Transformation, the paper was updated for the Aspen-Chief State School Officers Chiefs Forum in January 2003.
Building Bridges Not Barriers: Public Policies that Support Seamless K-16 Education - October 2000 Organization: Education Commission of the States
State leaders are calling for the creation of seamless K-16 systems that allow
students to move more smoothly between traditional elementary and secondary
schools into higher education. Policymakers also want an end to finger-pointing,
in which K-12 and higher education systems blame each other for students who
“fall into the cracks” between systems and leave high school ill-prepared to undertake college-level work or without the technical skills to get a good job. Finally, they are calling for greater collaboration on teacher education and professional development, the creation of academic standards and the adoption of technology across systems.
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