The American Institutes for Research (AIR), as a partner in the California Comprehensive Center at WestEd, has been working with the California Department of Education’s (CDE) K-12 Office of Innovation and Improvement (formerly the Middle Grades Improvement Office) over the past year to identify key strategies California schools use to help students transition from the middle grades to high school and graduate.  They have recently authored a report, Making…

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The California Comprehensive Center at WestEd conducted a research study aimed at identifying middle-to-high school transition practices  at California schools with graduation rates that were higher than predicted. They found that some schools used a “Regional Model” that leveraged collaboration and cross-school communication to ease transition and raise graduation rates.

A Regional Model system organizes schools into geographical clusters, grouping high schools with their feeder elementary and middle schools.…

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On Thursday, June 23, the U.S. Department of Education and its partners sponsored a webinar titled “Successful Transitions to High School: Promoting High School Success and Facilitating College Readiness.” The presenters provided strategies for families, peers, and communities of high school students to create and sustain support systems as they transition into high school, negotiate their high school education, and prepare for college.

The webinar consisted of presentations from…

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The U.S. Department of Education’s Doing What Works Web site has a wealth of information on high schools that have put practices designated as “working” into place. This blog describes one of the schools featured on the site.

Western Hills University High School (WHUHS) is located on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio and enrolls predominantly low-income students. WHUHS began as Western Hills High School in 1928, a…

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High School Graduation Initiative (HSGI) grants have been awarded recently to a wide range of applicants, and summaries are now available on the Department of Education’s Web site.  Twenty-nine grantees in 18 states will receive a total of $46,610,682.  In a series of blog entries, we will be examining some of the common strategies proposed by HSGI awardees.  Though these posts examine trends in strategies used, the applications may…

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By Julie Edmunds, Ph.D. (guest blogger)

The SERVE Center at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is conducting a longitudinal experimental study to examine the impact of North Carolina’s Early College High School (ECHS) model on student outcomes. Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, the study uses a lottery to assign students to the ECHS and then tracks outcomes for the students who got in and the students…

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