Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

More documents

Recommendations

Info

CHAPTER 1: The Call to CharacterAMERICA’S ADOLESCENTS: THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWSPERFORMANCE INDICATORSThe achievement gap. The good news: A 2003 EducationalTesting Service research review finds a strong trend for studentsof all ethnic and racial groups to take a more rigorouscurriculum, one of the predictors of higher achievement. 6 Thebad news: For several decades, despite various reform efforts,gaps in school achievement among racial and ethnic groups,and between poor and non-poor students, have been large andpersistent. 7Graduation rates. The good news: American public high schoolgraduation rates rose significantly in the second half of the20th century. The bad news: An estimated 30% of America’shigh school freshmen never graduate from high school 8 ; inmany schools more than 50% do not graduate. 9Grades and study time. The good news: Among freshmenentering college, students who earned A averages in high schoolreached a high of 47% in 2003, compared to 17% in 1968. 10The bad news: The increase in A’s may be partly due to gradeinflation and cheating (on the rise). Study time continues todecline; only a third of high schoolers report that they spent 6or more hours per week studying or doing homework. 11International comparisons. The good news: In 2003, U.S. 9-year-olds scored above international norms. The bad news:Our 13-year-olds slip below average; 17-year-olds are near thebottom. 12Readiness for college. The good news: The percentage of highschool students who go to college has steadily risen. The badnews: Of those high school students who go to college, onethirdto half seek remedial help in reading, writing, or mathematicsonce they get there. 13 Enrollment in remedial courses isa strong predictor of dropping out and defaulting on loans. 14MORAL INDICATORSCivic engagement. The good news: Among college-bound highschool students, there has been a decade-long increase in volunteerism.One-third of 2003 entering freshman studentssaid “keeping up-to-date with political affairs” is an importantlife goal, reversing a three-decade decline. 15 The bad news:Most of the reported rise in youth volunteerism is episodicrather than ongoing. 16 Voting among 18-24-year-olds hasdeclined by 15% since 1972 (though it improved in the 2004presidential election). 17 On a recent National Assessment ofEducational Progress, only 9% of high school seniors could listtwo ways that a democratic society benefits from citizens’active participation.Academic honesty. The good news: When high schools havean honor code, students are significantly less likely to cheat. 18The bad news: Trend data show that cheating has steadilyincreased at every educational level, including high school, inrecent decades. 19Violence. The good news: Most violence-related behaviorsamong U. S. high school students decreased from 1991 to2003. The bad news: One in three high school studentsreported being involved in a physical fight in 2003. 20 Homicidedeaths among 15 to 19-year-old U. S. males are fivetimes higher than in Canada. 21 Nearly half of all students whobelong to high school organizations report being subjected tohazing. 22Suicide. The good news: After tripling between 1960 and1991, suicide among 15 to 19-year-olds began to declinebetween 1990 and 2000. 23 The bad news: About 20 percentof U.S. teens say they have seriously considered suicide inthe past year. 24 According to the U.S. Centers for DiseaseControl, suicide is the third leading cause of death for 15 to24-year-olds, surpassed only by car accidents and homicide. 25Drug, tobacco, and alcohol use. The good news: According tothe 2003 Monitoring the Future Survey, illicit drug use among8th, 10th, and 12th-grade students showed decline for all threeprevalence periods (lifetime, past 12 months, past 30 days).Broad declines in illicit drug use included decreases in marijuanaand ecstasy for all three grades and prevalence periods. 26 Thebad news: About one-quarter of 12th-graders are current smokers.Seventy-seven percent have consumed alcohol by the end ofhigh school; 58% of 12th-graders report having been drunk atleast once in their life; and one in three teens say they engage inbinge drinking (five or more alcoholic drinks within a few hours)at least once a month. 27Sexual activity. The good news: The number of high schoolstudents who say they have never had sexual intercourse roseby eight percent between 1991 and 2001 and in 2001became a majority (54%: boys, 51%; girls, 57%) for the firsttime in 25 years. 28 Nearly a third of those who have hadintercourse say they are “currently abstinent.” The bad news:The U.S. teen birth rate remains one of the highest amongdeveloped nations. 29 Teens and young adults account foralmost half of all STD cases. 30 Eleven-and-one-half millionteens (45%) say they have friends who regularly view anddownload pornography from the Internet. 31Smart & Good High Schools4
CHAPTER 1: The Call to Charactercharacter is necessary not only to avoid problems, but alsoto achieve one’s full human potential—to be prepared tolead a flourishing life. As one psychologist put it, “Toflourish means, in part, not to engage in risk behavior, butproblem-free is not fully prepared.” Our report’s conceptof performance character and moral character is definedin terms of eight strengths of character that, we think, dofully prepare young people to flourish over a lifetime.Our purpose, then, in presenting “the good news” and“bad news” about youth trends is to offer a balanced pictureof today’s youth and the challenges facing them.Considering these indicators, one school head commented:“These data give reason for both concern and optimism.So many character education books and articlesfocus on the lack of character in our schools and families.When we see the evidence of good behavior, we arereminded of the larger purpose of character education—not just to inhibit the negative, but also to develop thepositive.”Critical Challenges Facing High SchoolsIn helping young people become the best personsthey can be, high schools face many other challengesbesides those represented by youth trends.For example, they face formidable institutional challenges.They must find ways to establish the schoolwideconditions that support the implementation of a holisticvision of education that helps students realize their potentialfor excellence. Such conditions include strong leadership,optimal school size, time for staff planning and reflection,supportive scheduling, manageable teaching loads, asafe and orderly environment, trusting and respectful relationships,and adequate budgets. To implement best practice,schools also need a way of dealing with the mountingpressures regarding test scores.Schools must create the conditionsthat support a holistic vision.Individual practitioners, for their part, need to maintaintheir idealism, energy, and commitment to maximizingtheir positive impact on students even when school conditionsare less than optimal. Working in schools they experienceas non-supportive, many diligent teachers, coaches,and other staff have nevertheless touched students’ livesin transformative ways.In the box on page 6, two veterans of the school reformmovement offer their thoughts about how high schoolscan meet the myriad challenges they face. In later sectionsof the report, especially in Chapter 4 on practicesfor developing a Professional Ethical Learning Community,we will return to these vital questions of how to createa school context that is friendly to change.In the rest of this chapter, keeping in mind the school’sdual mission to foster excellence and ethics, we wish tozero in on two critical challenges facing high schools inthe performance domain and two critical challenges inthe moral domain. The order in which we treat these isnot meant to convey that one is more important thananother; nor is our selection of these challenges meant tominimize other critical challenges that arguably could justas well have been chosen. (In subsequent chapters, weaddress a wider range of issues.)Critical Challenges Facing High Schoolsin the Performance DomainOne Performance Challenge:High schools and employersaren’t working together to meetthe needs of students who enterthe workforce after graduation.James Rosenbaum, a professor of sociology, education,and social policy at Northwestern University, argues in hisbook Beyond College for All: Career Paths for the ForgottenHalf, that the country has a large and growing problem:Many high school graduates cannot find decent jobs in alabor market that offers fewer opportunities for youth; atthe same time, many employers complain that highschool graduates, because of poor work habits and pooracademic skills, cannot handle even the entry-level jobsthat are available. Rosenbaum writes:A crisis is emerging in the American labor market. Youngpeople who do not get college degrees have been called “theforgotten half ” because society offers them no way to enteradult roles. They either experience enormous difficulty get-Happiness is the reward of virtue.—ARISTOTLE5Smart & Good High Schools
Page 1 and 2: A Report to the NationSmart & GoodH
Page 3 and 4: A wonderful piece of work that addr
Page 5 and 6: Dedicated to the memory ofWinifred
Page 7 and 8: AcknowledgementsWe would like to ex
Page 9 and 10: Table of ContentsLetter to the Read
Page 11 and 12: ELC PRINCIPLE 4: TAKE PERSONAL RESP
Page 13 and 14: 1. Develop Critical Friends Groups
Page 15 and 16: Letter to The Reader“Are you a he
Page 17 and 18: Letter to the ReaderBut we also do
Page 19 and 20: How to Read This Reporttices relate
Page 21 and 22: Patrick Bassett, president, Nationa
Page 23 and 24: Research Methodologyand Criteria fo
Page 25 and 26: Research Methodology and Criteria f
Page 27 and 28: Principles of a Smart & Good High S
Page 29 and 30: CHAPTER 1The Call to Character:Perf
Page 31: est work and be their best ethical
Page 35 and 36: CHAPTER 1: The Call to Charactertin
Page 37 and 38: CHAPTER 1: The Call to CharacterA S
Page 39 and 40: CHAPTER 1: The Call to CharacterBec
Page 41 and 42: CHAPTER 1: The Call to CharacterTHE
Page 43 and 44: 1C. Peterson & M. P. Seligman, Char
Page 45 and 46: CHAPTER 2: Performance Character an
Page 47 and 48: Smart & Good High SchoolsCHAPTER 2:
Page 55 and 56: do not self-identify as “characte
Page 59 and 60: EndnotesCHAPTER 2: Performance Char
Page 61 and 62: CHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning Com
Page 69 and 70: Galvanized by this finding, she and
Page 73 and 74: (1) scheduling a weekend retreat in
Page 77 and 78: person has gifts; and the convictio
Page 83 and 84:
CHAPTER 3: The Ethical Learning Com
Page 85 and 86:
Page 87 and 88:
Page 89 and 90:
CHAPTER 4The Professional Ethical L
Page 91 and 92:
CHAPTER 4: The Professional Ethical
Page 93 and 94:
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
CHAPTER 5: Fostering the 8 Strength
Page 115 and 116:
Smart & Good High SchoolsCHAPTER 5:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
Page 133 and 134:
Page 135 and 136:
Page 137 and 138:
on at home. If I think something se
Page 139 and 140:
Page 141 and 142:
Smart & Good High SchoolsCHAPTER 5:
Page 143 and 144:
Page 145 and 146:
Page 147 and 148:
Page 149 and 150:
Page 151 and 152:
Page 153 and 154:
Page 155 and 156:
Page 157 and 158:
Page 159 and 160:
Page 161 and 162:
tragedy, injustice, and weak and si
Page 163 and 164:
Page 165 and 166:
Page 167 and 168:
Page 169 and 170:
Page 171 and 172:
Page 173 and 174:
Page 175 and 176:
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
1.2.3.4.RULES FOR DOING OUR BEST WO
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
Page 185 and 186:
Page 187 and 188:
Page 189 and 190:
Page 191 and 192:
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
Page 199 and 200:
Page 201 and 202:
In The Courage to Be Chaste, the pr
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
Page 235 and 236:
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
CHAPTER 6Commonly Asked Questionsab
Page 241 and 242:
CHAPTER 6: Commonly Asked Questions
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
Page 247 and 248:
Comprehensive EndnotesLetter to the
Page 249 and 250:
Comprehensive Endnotesof stage-envi
Page 251 and 252:
Comprehensive Endnotesacter Educati
Page 253 and 254:
Comprehensive Endnotes6B. Watts Dav
Page 255 and 256:
Comprehensive Endnotesside, 1990).3
show all

Smart & Good High Schools - The Flippen Group

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?