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January 27, 2006
We have significant evidence that our workforce and economic future depend on the success of our high schools. The question is: how do we produce large numbers of graduates who can demonstrate success at the next level of schooling or work? As we travel the state working with local employers, the lack of qualified applicants for many job openings continues to be of great concern. Reading, writing, math, as well as communication and employability skills top the deficits list. Getting every child to graduate high school with a meaningful diploma in their hands is one of the biggest challenges that our country faces, the nation's governors said last year. Kentucky is preparing to take up this challenge with a yearlong, in-depth study. What should a redesigned high school look like? As an organization of business and community people working to help students and schools succeed, the Partnership for Successful Schools has identified eight issues that must be part of the discussion so that high school redesign will be more than rhetoric:
Carolyn Witt Jones is executive director of The Partnership for Successful Schools.
The Redesigned Kentucky High School: More about teaching and learning than structure
Part 1 of 3By Carolyn Witt Jones
We have significant evidence that our workforce and economic future depend on the success of our high schools. The question is: how do we produce large numbers of graduates who can demonstrate success at the next level of schooling or work? As we travel the state working with local employers, the lack of qualified applicants for many job openings continues to be of great concern. Reading, writing, math, as well as communication and employability skills top the deficits list. Getting every child to graduate high school with a meaningful diploma in their hands is one of the biggest challenges that our country faces, the nation's governors said last year. Kentucky is preparing to take up this challenge with a yearlong, in-depth study. What should a redesigned high school look like? As an organization of business and community people working to help students and schools succeed, the Partnership for Successful Schools has identified eight issues that must be part of the discussion so that high school redesign will be more than rhetoric:
- Focus the conversation on teaching and learning, rather than on schedules, use of buildings, “seat time,” and other aspects of traditional high school culture.
- Provide curriculum that is both rigorous and relevant, and make sure this content is offered to all students. Advanced Placement courses, largely available to students with prior high achievement and teacher recommendations, do not address the issue of rigor. The practice of “sorting” students and placing barriers to student admission to challenging courses must change. Research shows it is the nature of the content, not grades, that best indicates student success after high school. Teaching and learning must constantly reflect the world that students will enter. We must continually ask ourselves: Are what our high schools teach today preparing students for tomorrow’s world? If not, why not?
- Base redesign on student needs, not merely the convenience of adults. How we can best serve all students who attend the school is often not, but should be, the central focus in the redesign dialogue.
- Use student voices as a major source for decision making. We need to be talking, early and often, with high school students as well as recent high school graduates and dropouts. And we need to be doing this talking and listening through focus groups and other reliable measures of data collection.
- Have high expectations for each and every high school student. Many Kentuckians do not take seriously the commitment to “each and every” student. Studies remind us that students rise to the occasion when the bar is set higher, not lower. Administrators and teachers in high performing schools make statements such as “we push all our students to excellence.” These same educators remind us that the culture of high expectations, supported by skillful instruction, makes the difference.
- Involve the community. The role of the community is critical to carrying out a commitment to all students. Knowing the achievement levels of all students, advocating for students in various ways, sending strong messages to students about the importance of school, learning to coach students in academic subject areas, and participating in the dialogue about changing our high schools are all important strategies for assuming responsibility for the students in our own communities. In addition, involving the 76 percent of citizens who don’t currently have students in schools is a resource we must “mine.”The Partnership, through its Kentucky Scholars Initiative and One to One: Practicing Reading with Students program, has found that business and community groups are eager to step up and support schools and students, if their involvement is meaningful, valued, and productive.
- Support struggling students. The Education Trust's recently-publicized study Gaining Traction, Gaining Ground found that in high-impact schools, administrators and teachers take responsibility for ensuring that struggling students get the additional help they need. Little is left to chance in such schools with early warning systems in place to identify students who need help.
- Support high–quality teaching. Support for and recognition of high school teachers who consistently produce positive results is crucial in restructuring. So are teacher training and professional development that have the same rigor and relevance we require in high school coursework. Only when we have in place high schools that address the quality of teaching and learning will we be able to serve our students and communities. We must begin the dialogue with thoughtful questions on how to truly redesign a structure that has remained the same for a century.
Carolyn Witt Jones is executive director of The Partnership for Successful Schools.
