High Hopes
This occasional series, launched in January 2005, looks at the growing push to reform secondary education.
College & Workforce Readiness
Keeping Overage Students in H.S. Proves Tough
Hanging onto kids who might otherwise leave school is the mission of Cleveland's Options Complex at Margaret A. Ireland School, a program for students in grades 6-12 who are behind in school by two or more years.
College & Workforce Readiness
College-Based High Schools Fill Growing Need
Small, college-based high schools give students who are struggling in traditional schools a second chance at learning.
College & Workforce Readiness
Several States Making College-Prep Courses The Default Curriculum
As they prepare to enter high school next fall, 8th graders in public schools across Texas are being given a choice of three different academic plans to follow through graduation, two of which are distinctively tougher than the third.
School & District Management
R.I. Downplays Tests as Route to Diplomas
While about half the states require high school students to pass tests to graduate, or have plans to do so, policymakers in the nation鈥檚 smallest state have struck out on a path that values multiple ways of measuring achievement.
Mathematics
Math Emerges as Big Hurdle for Teenagers
Experts agree that if the goal is for all students to graduate from high school ready for college or other postsecondary study, schools have their work cut out for them, at least in mathematics.
School & District Management
鈥楩irst Things First鈥� Shows Promising Results
No one is calling it a miracle, but the Kansas City, Kan., district鈥檚 experience with First Things First鈥攚ith backing from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation鈥攊s offering hope that the redesign of urban high schools is not a lost cause.
School & District Management
District Making 鈥楾ransition鈥� to Bigger Supply of Schools of Choice
By 2008, Philadelphia school system plans to make a transition from about 55 high schools to between 70 and 80 smaller ones of choice.
Curriculum
For-Profit Writes Mandatory Courses for Phila. High Schools
A new, standardized college-preparatory curriculum crafted by Kaplan K12 Learning Services Group is a critical element in Philadelphia's plan to improve secondary education.
Assessment
One Subject at a Time
At Norview High School in Norfolk, Va., teachers used their academic departments to map out higher standards for teaching and learning. The result: soaring scores.
School & District Management
Calls for Revamping High Schools Intensify
From President Bush on down, the pressure is on to fix America鈥檚 high schools. But despite a broad consensus that something is seriously wrong with the institution, deep fault lines remain about the remedies.