Model Secondary Schools Project

Working with schools and districts to ensure our urban students have the 21st Century schools they deserve.

Resources—setting things in Motion

Reinventing the American High School from ACTE - Strengthening a New Vision for the American High School through the Experiences and Resources of Career and Technical Education http://acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Issues_and_Advocacy/files/ACTEHSReform_Full.pdf

Are They Really Ready To Work? - Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce http://www.conference-board.org/pdf_free/BED-06-Workforce.pdf

21^st Century Skills Framework— This site contains one of the most quoted frameworks of skills for the 21st century and samples of how those skills can be integrated into instruction. http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120

Results That Matter: 21st Century Skills and High School Reform “Across the country, there is a refreshing and growing movement to improve America’s high schools. However, as it is envisioned now in the many admirable initiatives underway in both the public and private sectors, high school reform is not likely to produce graduates who are prepared for the challenges of the modern world.” http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/RTM2006.pdf

Route 21, “a one-stop-shop for 21st century skills-related information, resources and community tools”. http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/route21/

English Language Learners—A policy Brief from the National Council of Teachers of English. “Some reports portray English language learners as a new and homogenous population. Actually ELLs are a highly heterogeneous and complex group of students, with diverse gifts, educational needs, backgrounds, languages and goals. http://wwwdev.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/PolicyResearch/ELLResearchBrief.pdf

Career & Technical Education: An Essential Component of the Total Educational System Key principles—Career Technical Education is an essential component of the total educational system in the United States and is critical to the country’s ability to compete in a global economy. http://www.careertech.org/uploaded_files/Directors.pdf

Diploma to Nowhere, “Diploma to Nowhere examines the psychological impact on students and the high cost to taxpayers of remedial education, which enrolls more than one-third of all college students..” http://www.strongamericanschools.org/files/uploadedfiles/Issues/Issues_Pages/DiplomaToNowhere_ExecSum.pdf

Approaches to Dropout Prevention: Heeding Early Warning Signs With Appropriate Interventions “The first step toward an effective dropout prevention strategy involves tracking and analyzing basic data on which students are showing early warning signs of dropping out.” http://www.betterhighschools.com/docs/NHSC_ApproachestoDropoutPrevention.pdf

Raising Graduation Rates in an Era of High Standards, Five Commitments for State Action “In the first decade of the twenty-first century, a formidable challenge has presented itself: how to ensure that high schools succeed not just in graduating the students who enter their doors but also in preparing those students to succeed in college. Moving forward swiftly on both high school graduation and college preparation rates constitutes an ambitious and “dual” agenda. http://www.jff.org/KnowledgeCenter/Raising+Graduation+Rates+in+an+Era+of+High+Standards%3A+Five+Commitments+for+State+Action.html

Maximizing the Impact: The pivotal role of technology in a 21st century education system “It’s time to focus on what students need to learn—and on how to create a 21st century education system that delivers results. In a digital world, no organization can achieve results without incorporating technology into every aspect of its everyday practices. It’s time for schools to maximize the impact of technology as well.” http://www.setda.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=191&name=P21Book_complete.pdf

The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading - Howard Gardner “Could the doomsayers be right? Computers, they maintain, are destroying literacy. The signs -- students' declining reading scores, the drop in leisure reading to just minutes a week, the fact that half the adult population reads no books in a year -- are all pointing to the day when a literate American culture becomes a distant memory. By contract, optimists foresee the Internet ushering in a new, vibrant participatory culture of words. Will they carry the day? ” http://www.pz.harvard.edu/PIs/EndOfLiteracy.pdf

Leveraging Postsecondary Partners to Build a College-Going Culture: Tools for High School/Postsecondary Partnerships. Jobs for the Future prepared this toolkit for schools seeking to create, broaden, and deepen their postsecondary partnerships for maximum impact on college-going. It is divided into three parts, beginning with an assessment of different levels of secondary/postsecondary partnerships you might aim for, and ending with tools to help you blend high school and college.” http://www.jff.org/Documents/ToolsPSEpshipslowres.pdf

CTE’s Role in Secondary-Postsecondary Transitions This issue brief will explore the significant role that career and technical education programs play in aiding students’ successful transition from secondary to postsecondary education. http://www.acteonline.org/uploadedFiles/Issues_and_Advocacy/files/Transitions.pdf

Supporting Successful Transitions to High School: Council of Great City Schools “ A majority of the students who eventually fail to graduate fall through the cracks during the transition between middle school and high school.” http://www.cgcs.org/publications/CGCS_SuccessfulTransitions.pdf

Rethinking High School: Profiles of Five Innovative Sites “According to recent studies, only 68% of high school students graduate. The statistics among Black and Hispanic students are substantially worse, with only about 50% earning a diploma. Furthermore, only 20% of Black students and 16% of Hispanic students graduate prepared for college. Many of those working to solve this crisis in our nation’s high schools have begun creating smaller, rigorous, more personalized schools to better prepare all students for the demands of college, work, and citizenship.” http://www.wested.org/imgs/WestEd.Execsummary.pdf

When More Isn't Better, Dr. Paul Kimmelman, “This is why: If a school has low reading or mathematics achievement, and it is already allocating a sufficient amount of time for reading and math instruction, it is likely that there are other factors causing the low student achievement. If this is the case, then simply spending more time on reading or math is not likely to lead to improvement.” http://www.ppionline.org/ndol/print.cfm?contentid=252643

Position Papers

There are many individuals and organizations working to bring the kind of change to schools and districts that will best serve our students into the future. The items below are some of the ones we have found most useful as resources for school and district teams or as guides in our efforts.