The vast majority of our blog posts spotlight efforts to improve high schools, most of which focus on persistently low achieving schools and on providing additional support for adolescents struggling to succeed in high school.  When we describe better high schools for all students, we often directly or indirectly identify specific subgroups of students, such as low-achievers. But certainly, when we at the National High School Center talk about all…

Read More

Last week, the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) announced that 21 high schools from four states are participating in a pilot program based on international education system models that is designed to transform high schools. Researchers from NCEE who formulated the program, Excellence for All, expect the framework to provide students with access to multiple pathways towards college and careers.

In the Excellence for All…

Read More

To support efforts to increase postsecondary access for all students, the U.S. Department of Education has recently released new resources on Doing What Works, a website that translates research-based practices into practical tools for school improvement. The topic, Helping Students Navigate the Path to College offers free, online resources that translate research-based practices from the IES Practice Guide into tools and multimedia products to support educators seeking…

Read More

The College Board has recently released the 7^th Annual AP Report to the Nation, which details states’ efforts over the last year to increase Advanced Placement (AP) coursetaking, particularly among traditionally underserved student populations.

Report highlights include:

• About 850,000 high school seniors successfully completed at least one AP course before graduating in 2010. Out of that number, about 508,000, or 16.9% of the class of 2010, scored

…

Read More

Last week was a big week for science education.  Results of NCES’ Science 2009: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) at Grades 4, 8, and 12 were released; in his State of the Union speech, President Obama suggested that we are in the equivalent of “our generation’s Sputnik moment;” and the nation remembered Christa McAuliffe 25 years after she perished in the explosion of the Challenger.

The downside: …

Read More

Increased globalization of the economy has led educators and political leaders to recognize the need to transform education in order to prepare students to succeed in the global economy.  For high schools, this means that for students to graduate ready for college and careers, they must be able to perform well not only nationally, but also among their international peers.

On Tuesday, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development…

Read More

Results of the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading and mathematics at grade 12 were released on November 18^th and show gains in both reading and mathematics performance.

Twelfth-graders from 1,670 public and private schools across the country partici­pated in the 2009 assessment, including approximately 52,000 students assessed in reading and 49,000 students assessed in mathematics. National reading results from the 2009 assessment are compared to results…

Read More