The California Department of Education, the National High School Center, and the California Comprehensive Center have been supporting numerous California districts and schools in implementing an Early Warning System through California’s Early Warning and Intervention System (EWIS) pilot project. Pilot participants have been using either the National High School Center’s Early Warning System High School Tool or its EWS Middle Grades Tool  to identify and support at-risk students…

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Last month, the Alliance for Excellent Education held a Webinar about the lessons learned from the New York City (NYC) “small schools of choice” (SSCs) initiative.  As part of this initiative, New York City closed more than 20 underperforming public high schools and in their place opened new small nonselective schools of choice. The new schools served on average 100 students per grade level and were personalized not only…

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When you are working in a high school, district or even a state education agency, sometimes it can be challenging to take a step back and look at the big picture. Busy schedules and the structure of education systems often means that educators, principals, and district and state administrators don’t always have ample opportunity to learn from, collaborate, and develop connections with each other.

In March I attended the

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Last week, America’s Promise Alliance released its 2012 Grad Nation update on ending high school dropout.  The report reintroduces the Alliance’s Civic Marshal Plan, a series of benchmarks to help attain a nationwide graduation rate of 90 percent by 2020.  While the report showed progress in a number of areas, it also found the improvement in graduation rates “has not been fast enough to achieve the goal of…

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The National High School Center, in collaboration with the National Center on Response to Intervention and the National Center on Intensive Intervention, is excited to announce the launch of our new High School Tiered Interventions Community of Practice.  The launch of the Community of Practice was announced Tuesday, March 13^th, during a Webinar sponsored by the three national centers.

The Webinar featured Dr. Judy Elliott, formerly of…

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“When students are actively involved in their education, they take ownership of their learning.” This concept is what Sheila Harrity, principal, and Mary O’Malley, assistant principal, of Worcester Technical High School (WTHS) in Worcester, Massachusetts, say is the key to ensuring its students achieve success in their postsecondary endeavors. They offered insight into WTHS’s focus on authentic learning to approximately 50 attendees as part of the School Showcase component…

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In an era of increasingly constrained budgets, schools across the nation are looking for creative ways to cut spending without compromising the quality of the education they deliver. Energy efficiency offers a solution by freeing up funds that can be used elsewhere and by providing invaluable opportunities for hands-on learning for students inside their own school building. Through the application of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), students are empowered…

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