High School Reform

1. High School Reform High Schools Must Reform to Remain Relevant as They Prepare Our Youth for the 21st Century World

2. High School Reform Workgroup Erica Barone David Berquist Verona Blaine JoVictoria Goodman Vanessa Harrington Laura Statler Hank St-Pierre Lisa Waller

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

4. 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.

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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 fromCyprus, Lithuanian, & South Africa. • States’ current assessments in English & Math indicate that one in three high school graduates fail to meet standards

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. The Problem • 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. “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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. PA’s Reform Strategy Redesign 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

22. PA’s Reform Strategy Design 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

23. 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

24. PA’s Reform Strategy Project 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

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

26. 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