Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strengths of Character—Outcome 1actively engage students as thinkers and learners.The good news is that for the past two decades, Americanhigh schools have taken significant steps to strengthen thecurriculum. These efforts have begun to bear fruit. Amajor report, Parsing the Achievement Gap, by EducationalTesting Service cites “a strong trend for students of all ethnicand racial groups to take a more rigorous curriculum.”This report indicates that increased rigor in the curriculumpredicts higher student achievement and is especiallyimportant for traditionally low-achieving students. 5Increased rigor in the curriculumpredicts higher student achievement.Cause for hope but also cause for concern come fromanother major report, Engaging Schools: Fostering HighSchool Students’ Motivation to Learn, issued in 2004 by theNational Academies. 6 With a special focus on the challengesfacing urban schools, a committee of 18 scholarsdrew from research on motivation and studies of educationalpractices that foster student learning. The report’sExecutive Summary (abridged here) states:There are many examples of schools in which studentsdeemed at risk of disengagement and failure are productivelyengaged and achieving at high levels . . . . The core principlesthat underlie engagement are applicable to allschools—whether they are in urban, suburban, or ruralcommunities. Engaging schools and teachers:• promote students’ confidence in their ability to learn andsucceed in school by providing challenging instructionand support for meeting high standards.• make the curriculum relevant so that students see somevalue in it.• promote a sense of belonging by personalizing instruction.• show an interest in students’ lives.• create a supportive and caring social environment.The report then strikes a sobering note:This description of engaging schools, however, applies to fewurban schools . . . In many urban high schools with largeconcentrations of students living in poverty, it is commonfor fewer than half of the 9th-graders who enter to leavewith a high school diploma. Many of the students who donot drop out altogether attend irregularly, exert modesteffort on schoolwork, and learn little. 7High School Reform DesignsWhatever their situation—struggling school or successfulschool wanting to go “from good to great”—high schooleducators can now choose from many different models ofschool reform, each of which offers its own approach tocurriculum. Engaging Schools profiles a dozen such models(see box). Summarizing “the little evidence that exists onthe efficacy of high school designs,” Engaging Schoolsstates:Research on the most long-standing high school reformdesigns as well as more recent data emerging from internalstudies of new high school designs indicate that when levelsof personalization increase, so do levels of attendance andparent involvement, and disciplinary problems decline . . . .Evaluation studies of high school reform models show studentstaking more advanced academic courses and havinghigher levels of enrollment in post-secondary schools,increased retention and graduation rates, and decreaseddrop-out rates.HIGH SCHOOL REFORM DESIGNS1. America’s Choice:www.ncee.org/acsd/program/high.jsp2. Atlas Communities: www.edc.org/FSC/ATLAS3. Coalition of Essential Schools:www.essentialschools.org4. Community for Learning:www.temple.edu/LSS/cfl.htm5. Co-NECT: www.co-nect.com6. Edison Schools: www.edisonschools.com7. Expeditionary Learning/Outward Bound:www.elob.org8. First Things First: www.irre.org9. High Schools That Work:www.sreb.org/programs/hstw/hstwindex.asp10. Modern Red Schoolhouse: www.mrsh.org11. Paideia: www.paideia.org12. Talent Development High School:www.csos.jhu.edu/tdhs/index.htm88Smart & Good High Schools