Success with high school students

Best Schools Share path to Success
In a first report:
"while not the strongest performers in all areas, have been able to make better-than-expected gains with their students, including large numbers of minority and low-income youths..."

In the second report, researchers found:

• Principals are more likely to match talented teachers with students who need them most, instead of following a more common practice of assigning department heads and other experienced teachers to advanced or honors classes.
= this was not the case 5 years ago in Fort Worth ISD where I was one of 4 certified teachers. Everyone else was going through emergency certification. I guess one good thing about NCLB is the highly qualified label re quired for teachers to teach at schools who receive Title 1 funds. However this blocks some "qualified" but not teacher certified teachers who have been excellent educators for years.

• Support for new teachers tends to be more thorough and includes such techniques as providing model lesson plans and teaming a beginner with an experienced colleague.
= this is like the mentor program in FCPS. It would be good to implement this at CCPCS.

• Early intervention programs — often mandatory — are used to help students before they fail and become discouraged; requiring summer school or after-school tutoring is common.
= this should be required of students before they graduate from CCPCS's eighth grade.

• Academic support services for struggling students keep them in current-grade-level classes while they are catching up; in more typical schools, such students are put into remedial classes, reducing their chances of meeting rigorous graduation requirements on time.
= this is the same research that I found 3 years ago when I did the inclusion research. I can't remember where it was, but they stated that students who were pulled during content area instruction received a lot less content and the remediation kept them further behind their peers. This, thankfully, does not occur at Capital City.

• The focus is on preparing students for life beyond high school, not just on getting students to graduation day; academic expectations are high — often including a college-prep curriculum for all students — and consistently communicated to parents and students.

CCPCS needs to enroll students into summer school and make it a requirement. Is this going on already?