Southern Regional Education Board 1 Preparing Students for Success in High School

2 Setting Performance Standards: What Percentage of Eighth-graders Are Below Basic in Mathematics? Southern Regional Education Board

3 Strategy One: Get the Mission Right All groups of students leaving grade eight are prepared for college-preparatory courses in grade nine. Southern Regional Education Board

4 Getting the Mission Right: Where Do We Stand? Southern Regional Education Board

5 Strategy Two: Defining What Students Need to Know and Do to Be Ready for High School

6 Readiness for High School: Where Do We Stand? Middle Grades Students: 81% plan further study after high school. 37% had intensive literacy experiences. 23% had intensive numeracy experiences. Southern Regional Education Board

7 Strategy Three: Getting Students Ready for High School with Quality Extra Help and Time

Southern Regional Education Board 8 Strategy Four: Getting Good Principals for the Middle Grades

Southern Regional Education Board 9 Strategy Five: Getting Qualified Teachers in the Middle Grades

10 Comparing Teacher Quality in Mathematics Classes Southern Regional Education Board

11 Actions to Improve the Supply of New Teachers with a Content Focus Require at least a content minor for middle grades teaching by a set date. Develop university programs that focus on the middle grades. Assign teachers based on content focus. Southern Regional Education Board

12 Conditions for Best Results for Career/Technical Studies Southern Regional Education Board

13 Condition One: Combining In-depth Career Studies with a Solid Academic Core

14 Percentages of Students Meeting Performance Goals by Whether or Not They Completed the HSTW-Recommended Academic Core and a Career Concentration

15 Condition Two: Effective Guidance and Advisement Encourage students to take challenging mathematics and science courses Assist students in planning a program of study by the end of grade nine Involve parents Provide information on postsecondary education

16 Percentages of Students Completing the HSTW-recommended Curriculum in 2000

17 Percentages of Students Meeting the HSTW Performance Goals in 2000

18 Condition Three: Integrating Academic Content into Business and Technical Classes

19 Percentages of Students Who Met the HSTW Performance Goals in 2000 by Whether or Not Their Career/Technical Courses Integrated Academic Content and Skills

20 Condition Four: Structured Work-site Learning Observing veteran workers Having an assigned mentor Being evaluated against clear standards Learning customer relations Using communication skills

21 Percentages of Students Meeting the HSTW Performance Goals by Whether or Not They Had Quality Work-based Learning Experiences

22 Condition Five: Leadership That Creates a Climate of High Expectations Teachers indicate the amount and quality of work expected Students receive extra help Students complete one or more hours of homework daily

23 Percentages of Students Who Met the HSTW Performance Goals by Whether or Not They Experienced a Climate of High Expectations

24 Reasons to Rethink the Purpose of High School Career/Technical Studies Over half of these students pursue postsecondary studies. The new economy requires new skills. The field needs a clear focus.

25 The Purpose Should Be to Produce Graduates Who Can: Read, understand and communicate in the language of a career field Use mathematics skills, reasoning and understanding Understand technical concepts, principles and procedures Use basic technology

26 Improving Career/Technical Studies: Increase access to challenging vocational and technical studies, with a major emphasis on using high-level mathematics, science, language arts and problem- solving skills.

27 Vocational Practices and Higher Achievement At least weekly, students: use mathematics to complete assignments; read and interpret technical books and materials to complete assignments; spend one hour reading non-school-related materials; and do math-related homework assigned by C/T teacher.

28 Vocational Practices and Higher Achievement At least monthly, students: read a career-related article and demonstrate understanding; use computer skills to do assignments; and have challenging assignments.

29 Vocational Practices and Higher Achievement Students: complete four or more credits in a planned sequence; do projects that require research and written plans; do a senior project; meet standards on a written exam to pass a course; and spoke to, interviewed and visited a person in a career-field to which they aspired.

30 Quality Vocational Studies and Higher Achievement

31 Quality Career/Technical Studies at Top 50 Schools and at All Schools

32 Actions for Increasing Opportunities for Quality Career Studies Strengthen area vocational centers Create choice technical high schools Develop career academies Use dual-enrollment courses Locate high school programs on postsecondary campuses Making the Senior Year Count

33 Actions for Increasing Opportunities for Quality Career Studies Create a charter technical high school Create a virtual technical high school Strengthen work-based learning Fund new types of career/technical courses End the general track Making the Senior Year Count

34 Comparison of Georgia High School with a Delaware Technical High School with Comparative Demographics GeorgiaAverage Score DelawareAverage Score 4 years of college-prep English 41%271 (R)98%298 (R) 4 years of Math19%304 (M)61%316 (M) 3 years of college prep science 49%295 (S)100%311 (S)

35 What are shortcomings of the present system for preparing and certifying career/technical teachers? Many career/technical teachers lack an adequate academic foundation. Some teachers do not have breadth and depth of technical knowledge. Most teachers are not prepared to integrate career/technical and academic content to advance achievement.

36 Improving High Schools: Require Students to Complete the HSTW-Recommended Curriculum 4 credits in college-preparatory/honors English At least 3 mathematics credits -- Algebra I and higher – including mathematics the senior year 3 credits in science, including 2 at the college-prep level 4 credits in a planned sequence of career and technical studies or an academic concentration

37 Percentages of Students Meeting Performance Goals at 45 Schools

38 Percentages of Students Meeting Performance Goal by Program of Study at 45 Schools

39 Improving High Schools: Require Schools to Increase Annually the Percent of Students Completing High School

40 Improving High Schools: Develop End-of-Program Exams That Count in Assessing Student Learning in Career and Technical Courses

41 Improving High Schools: Make the Senior Year Count Give college placement tests at least by middle of Junior year of high school. Have students spend one-half time in core academic studies.

42 Improving High Schools: Increase Technical Assistance to Low- Performing HSTW Schools to Become High-Performing High Schools

43 What Actions Can States Take? Raise graduation requirements. Provide access to quality career/technical instruction. Assess performance in selected core academic courses and make it count. Use end-of-program exams that count for assessing student achievement in vocational courses. Develop state policies on guidance and advisement. Provide financial support for extra help. Develop a middle grades/high school transition policy. Provide technical assistance to low-performing schools.