Race to the Top Round Two Finalists: High School Highlights (AZ-GA)

This is the second in a four-part series on the Race to the Top (RTTT) Round Two finalists. Below, we highlight examples of high school strategies described in six of the RTTT finalists’ proposals.[1]

Arizona will be increasing college and high school alignment by changing graduation requirements. Students will be required to take four years of math and three years of both science and social studies to graduate.

California will be expanding on its “Linked Learning” program in an effort to focus on STEM.  The program defines distinct pathways that focus on one of fifteen major industries in the state.  High school students have the opportunity to take the academic and technical coursework that provides a foundation to work in that industry or to pursue a postsecondary degree relevant to that field.

In addition to adopting the Common Core State Standards, Colorado plans to invest in postsecondary and workforce collaboratives to ensure that high school standards align with college- and career-readiness.

The District of Columbia is developing a Secondary Schools Transformation Strategy which will include an Early Warning System.

Florida is making use of its longitudinal data system to track high school graduates into both college and careers.  Florida is in the early stages of utilizing these data to evaluate high schools and hold them accountable for student preparation for college and career.

Georgia will be scaling up existing high school strategies, including its model dropout prevention program (Life and Learning Academies) that targets middle school students.

Many similar programs are evident in other states’ proposals as well. We will be continuing to discuss application highlights for the remainder of this week[2], and will be following RTTT as funds are awarded and put to use.


[1] Alphabetically, not by preliminary score.

[2] Click here to see other parts of the Race To the Top Round Two Finalists series: Part 1, Part 3, Part 4

 

Note: This blog post was originally authored under the auspices of the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The National High School Center’s blog, High School Matters, which ran until March 2013, provided an objective perspective on the latest research, issues, and events that affected high school improvement. The CCRS Center plans to continue relevant work originally developed under the National High School Center grant. National High School Center blog posts that pertain to CCRS Center issues are included on this website as a resource to our stakeholders.

 

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