High School Re-Design & Alternative Education

1. High School Re-Design & Alternative Education Paul Leather State Advisory Council Wednesday, June 6, 2007

2. NH High School Re-design ~ • Follow the Child Initiative • Minimum Standards • Local Board Policies • Personalization for All • Extended Learning Opportunities • Competency Assessment and HS Credits • Key Concept -- Teacher as “Facilitator of Learning” • Alternative Education Proposals

3. What is Follow The Child? • Follow The Child is a personalized education initiative for New Hampshire Students developed under the leadership of Commissioner of Education, Lyonel B. Tracy. • Follow The Child is a means for NH schools and districts to increase student aspirations and promote success through use of personalized education and assessment.

4. Follow The Child • The emphasis is on personalized learning and “whole child” development. This means focusing on each student’s needs: *Academically *Socially *Physically *Personally

5. Follow The Child puts Students at the Front and Center of our education system.

6. Three years ago, the state department of education convened a High School Redesign Task Force to help develop a vision for NH’s 80 high schools. NH’s vision for secondary education emerged from the restructuring of NH School approval rules (July, 2005), which fit beautifully with The Follow The Child initiative. Personalization and relationships Relevance and engagement Rigor and high standards Results Empowered educators, including encouraging teachers to expand their role as “learning facilitators” Whole Community involvement Flexibility in School Calendar New Hampshire’s High School Redesign

7. Key Issues addressed in the Minimum Standards Include… Placing personalization of learning at the center Greater flexibility in developing a school calendar Allowing for extended learning opportunities for credit toward graduation. Moving schools to a credit based competency demonstration

8. Educators are required under the minimum standards to adopt and implement written policies and procedures around the following: Flexibility in developing a School Calendar Promoting school safety Character and Citizenship Meeting every students academic needs based on the personal needs of each student. Promotion of a school environment that is conducive to learning and supports strong family and community partnerships. Creating a personalized developmentally appropriate daily physical activity and fitness program. Policies and Procedures Follow The Child encompasses all of these areas Ed 306.04

9. “Extended learning” means the primary acquisition of knowledge and skills through instruction or study outside of the traditional classroom methodology. Including, but not limited to: Independent study Private instruction Performing Groups Internships Community Service Apprenticeships Online courses Extended Learning Opportunities

10. What are the Givens with ELOs? ~ • Equitable practice for all students. (i.e. Corollary question ~ Will only students with “means” be able to afford ELOs?) • An ELO policy is highly recommended. • Credit awarded based on the demonstration of mastery of competencies for the ELO. • An ELO is a Program external to the school.

11. Competency-Based System The NHDOE hopes that the change from Carnegie Units to credit by demonstration of mastery of competencies will help schools focus on student learning at a high level, rather than on seat time to earn credits.

12. Moving from Carnegie Units to a Competency based system. • The New Hampshire Minimum Standards for School Approval also address the transition from a system based on the Carnegie Unit to a system that uses the demonstration of mastery to measure student achievement. • By the 2008-2009 school year, all school districts will be asked by the state department of education to certify and demonstrate that they have a process in place to assess competency for all courses at the High School level.

13. Deepening the Learning Experience

14. W. Daggett, 2005

15. Research About Competencies ~ PROPORTION OF STUDENTS FOR WHOM EACH COMPETENCY IS MOST PREDICTIVE OF OUTCOMES Enroll in Any Complete Any Complete a Postsecondary Postsecondary Bachelor’s Log of 1999 Competencies Program Program Degree Earnings Math Test Score 0.40 0.30 0.56 0.33 Nonacademic Competencies 0.60 0.70 0.44 0.77 Work Habits Composite 0.10 0.43 0.31 0.02 Sports-Related Competencies 0.21 0.09 0.05 0.20 Prosocial Behavior Composite 0.08 0.05 0.06 0.02 Leadership Roles 0.04 0.05 0.01 0.14 Locus of Control 0.17 0.09 0.01 0.30 Valuing Student Competencies: Which Ones Predict Postsecondary Educational Attainment and Earnings, and for Whom? Mathematica, 2006

16. Conclusions on Attainment of Competencies “The pattern of findings presented … suggests that taking into account students’individual strengths and weaknesses when helping them decide which competencies to improve might be more effective than simply encouraging all students to improve the same competency. In other words, it suggests that an individualized approach is better than a one-size-fits-all approach. We conducted a statistical test of this hypothesis for each outcome, and find that, for enrollment, completion of any program, and earnings, the “individualized” approach is significantly more effective. For example, for earnings, we find that increasing the competency of greatest value to each individual student by 20 percentile points is associated with an increase in earnings of 9.3 percent, compared to an increase in earnings of 5.6 percent if math test score were improved by 20 percentile points for each student.” Mathematica, 2006

17. Alternative Education in NH ~ Current System vs. Proposals for the Future

18. Current “System” Features ~ • Patchwork across state • Federal, State, and Local sources • Regional CTE • Adult Education and GED Programs • Dropout Prevention • 21st Century, VR, HHS, etc. • Small State Dropout Prevention Program – 6 sites • Separate Programs

19. Funding for the existing system includes ~ • Total Dollars in System: $25,132,018 • Coming from sixteen different state and federal agencies • 10 within the Department of Education alone • Really $38-39 million coming from SpEd ~ • $500,000 of State Improvement monies • $32,190,000 Catastrophic Aid • Est. 20% Flow Through Federal ~ $6 million

20. Proposed System ~ • State-wide Capacity • Draws on Existing Programs • Expands Dropout Prevention Programs • Expands Definition of Tuition and Transportation to include “Alternative Education” students • Expands number of Adult High Schools • Presumes Greater Flexibility between “day school” and “night school”

21. Proposed System for NH ~ “Pyramid of Service” predicated on the basic principle that school districts will “Follow The Child” Individual Student Placement Out-of-School Alternative School Programs In-School At-Risk Student Programs School-Based Initiatives addressing the needs of all students

22. Model Design ~ • Modification of Manchester School of Technology ~ PASS Program • Dropout Prevention • Adult High School • Career and Technical Center

23. What’s Different? • MST/PASS Program is unique to NH • Manchester City Program • Freestanding CTE Center • Academics • Regional Nature

24. What’s included in the budget proposal ~ Substantially new or expanded requests in the proposal above include: Dropout Recovery Programs: $ 700,000 FY2008 1,400,000 FY2009 Tuition and Transportation Reimbursement Funds: $ -0- FY2008 $ 909,363 FY2009 Adult Education: Provision of Special Education supports for AH Schools: $ 504,000 FY2008 1,008,000 FY2009 For a Total of: $1,204,000 FY2008 $3,317,363 FY2009 $4,521,363 Total Biennium

25. How It Will Work ~ • Request for Proposals ~ Districts/Schools will need to choose to apply for Dropout Prevention and/or Adult High School • Time-line ~ Summer, 2007 • Expected start projected for January 1, 2008 • Those with Programs in place can start earlier • Students may attend Regional Center for: • Career and Technical Education • High School academics (based on Regional Agreements) • Adult High School or GED

26. STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE POSSIBLE LOCATIONS OF ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION CENTERS Prepared by the New Hampshire Department of Education January 2007 CTE Regional Centers BERLIN LITTLETON WHITEFIELD BRADFORD, VT PLYMOUTH CONWAY HARTFORD, VT LACONIA TILTON WOLFEBORO CLAREMONT NEWPORT CONCORD PEMBROKE DOVER ROCHESTER SOMERSWORTH KEENE LANGDON PETERBOROUGH 14 JAFFREY-RINDGE NEW IPSWICH MANCHESTER HUDSON NASHUA MILFORD DERRY SALEM EXETER PORTSMOUTH BRATTLEBORO, VT ♥ ♥ ۞ ۞ ALTERNATIVE EDUCATION CTR. (includes CTE, DP, & AHS) = CTE CENTER ♥DROPOUT PREVENTION ♣ ADULT HIGH SCHOOL ۞ ۞ ۞ = ♥ ۞ = ♣ ♥ ۞ ۞ = ♣ ♣ ♥ ۞ ۞ ۞ ♣ ♥ ۞ ♥ ۞ = ۞ ۞ ♣ ♥ ۞ ♥ ۞ ♥ ♥ ۞ ♣ ♥ ♣ ♥ ۞ ۞ = ♥ ۞ ♣ ♥ ♥ ۞ ♣ ۞ ۞ ۞

27. What is not included in the Proposal ~ • Mental Health, Alcohol/Drug Abuse programming • Other social support services for students with significant personal or social barriers to school success • HS redesign monies

28. Expected Next Steps ~ • State Budget Process • Companion Legislation ~ • Compulsory Education • Amended Language for Tuition and Transportation • RFP Processes for Dropout Prevention and Adult High School • Projected Start Date ~ January, 2008