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High School Reform

High Schools Must Reformto Remain Relevant as They

Prepare Our Youth for the 21st Century

World

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High School Reform Workgroup

Erica BaroneDavid BerquistVerona Blaine

JoVictoria GoodmanVanessa Harrington

Laura StatlerHank St-Pierre

Lisa Waller

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Agenda The Problem Defining Relevancy The U.S. High School Reform Models Pennsylvania’s Solution to the

Problem Recommendations Conclusions

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Defining Relevancy We define relevancy in the following ways:

The ability of a school to provide its students not heading to college a seamless transition from high school to a meaningful career path in a technologically oriented and demanding career field.

The ability of high schools to motivate and prepare students going on to college and wish to major in “hard” science and technology related majors, to successfully compete in those fields of study.

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The Problem

By failing to change with the times, schools are becoming less and less relevant in preparing our youth for the increasingly demanding and competitive global economy of the 21st Century

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The Problem Jobs of the 21st century require

more sophisticated skills and knowledge than our schools are teaching Businesses are looking for employees

who can write and communicate clearly, analyze information, conduct research and solve complex problems

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The Problem The U.S. has one of the lowest high

school graduation rates of the industrialized world.

In international math & science comparisons, U.S. high school seniors outperformed only students from Cyprus, Lithuanian, & South Africa.

States’ current assessments in English & Math indicate that one in three high school graduates fail to meet standards

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The Problem Nationwide, only 71% of students

graduate from high school, only 50% of black and Latino students graduate.

Nearly one-third of high school graduates who enroll in college require immediate placement in remedial education courses

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The Problem Only about 55% of students who enter

college will graduate, primarily because K-12 goes not prepare them for college

Only 38% of students read at the proficient level (analyze & interpret)

Only 24% of students write at the proficient level

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The Problem Each year taxpayers pay an estimated $1

billion to $2 billion to provide remedial education to students at public universities and community colleges.

Deficits in basic skills cost businesses, colleges and under-prepared high school graduates as much as $16 billion annually in lost productivity and remedial costs

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Assumptions have been made that raising student achievement in the elementary and middle school would help

State and federal efforts to improve education standards have focused on providing strong foundation for learning in the early years but

High schools have remained largely untouched by the past 20 years of education reform

The Problem

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The National Challenge More than 3,000 students drop out of high school

every day US reading scores have remained flat for 30 years 31% of high school students take minimal credits

required for college admission 49 % of entering freshmen require some

remediation 1/4 to 1/3 of freshmen do not return for a second

year of college Yet, 97% of students say they want to go to college

and 63% of students enroll in college

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Pennsylvania’s Challenge Only 65% of 11th graders are proficient

in reading and only 51% are proficient in math

Only 44% of PA high school seniors graduate with a college-ready transcript

According to ACT, only 25% of PA students are ready for college and work

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You Can’t Improve What You Can’t See The reason schools aren’t vastly better

for smart or poor or advantaged or disadvantaged students is because:

“The administrative superstructure of schools exist to ‘buffer’ teaching from outside inspection, interference or disruption.”Richard Elmore

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“The Knowing-Doing Gap”It’s not that we don’t know what to do…

It’s that we Don’t Do what we

Already Know

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The U.S. High School Reform Models

Key to reform is to make high schools relevant by: Restoring value to high school diploma Redesigning high schools to provide all

students with higher level knowledge and skills

Ensuring high school teachers and administrators are accountable

Streamlining and improve educational governance and scheduling

Providing high school students with highly qualified teachers and administrators

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How Does PA stand in the crisis? To achieve these five objectives, PA:

Reform education funding Add enrichment classes to its high

school curriculum Develop a more rigorous curriculum Teachers must be educated to teach in

diverse environment Improve school/student environment

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How Does PA Respond to the Crisis? PA has not been standing still in

experiments to improve high school relevancy Dual enrollment Project 720 Focused high schools

SciTech High

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How Does PA Respond to the Crisis? Challenge is that many of these

successful programs are local initiatives, are limited in scope, dollars are not universally available

School districts are not uniformly funded to ensure equal opportunities

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Recommendations

Initiate Project 720 mentorship programs Expand the curriculum content of Project

720 Assess the effectiveness of 720 programs Simplify grant writing efforts for districts Begin career transition education earlier Inform teachers on expectations

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PA’s Reform StrategyRedesign school district policies and systems to strengthen the academic infrastructure and increase student achievement: Make better use of school time for all students Increase staff professional development Create smaller and more personal learning

environments Work collaboratively with local Career and

Technical Centers

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PA’s Reform StrategyDesign and Implement data-informed student advisory services: Bolster the counselor’s role so that it becomes

an integral party of the school’s academic program

Provide coherent transition planning opportunities for all students no later than 9th grade and lasting through the transition from high school to the adult world

Provide all students with opportunities for leadership, community service, and connections to caring adults

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PA’s Reform Strategy Provide multiple pathways to prepare

students for postsecondary success:

Establish work-based pathways that enable students to understand and explore career options and develop the skills needed to achieve post-school goals

Enroll students in dual enrollment programs so they can earn college credit while in high school

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PA’s Reform StrategyProject 720 Schools will adhere to all of the following requirements Form a broad-based local school improvement

work team including students, parents and all major stakeholders

Advise PDE on needed statutory, regulatory and policy changes that promote successful high school reform

Assist in the development of statewide reform efforts based on Project 720 successes that can be replicated by school districts across PA

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“ You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.”Yogi Berra

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Conclusions Pennsylvania is making great but

limited strides to improve its high schools by developing programs aimed at making the schools relevant to the students entering the 21st Century.

Continuing challenge is to make the programs state-wide and reducing or even eliminating the disparity between districts