What We Are Reading: Assessments, College, STEM, Charters, Well-Being

Looking for new high school-related resources?  Here are some pieces that other organizations have recently released:*

Considerations for Next Generation Assessments: A Roadmap to 2014 (Pearson Education, Inc., June 24, 2011).  In the journey to expand personalized learning opportunities for all students, it’s important to understand both the benefits of assessing students online as well as the logistical issues involved in moving from paper-and-pencil to digital technologies. The Roadmap to 2014 outlines how the use of more innovative question types, online delivery, automated and artificial-intelligence powered scoring engines, and immediate web-based reporting of results can transform learning, and offers concrete resources to help states navigate and mitigate the challenges they will encounter as they transition to online assessments.

The Undereducated American (Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, June 27).  A new study published by Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce, estimates that in order to keep pace with increased demand for college-educated workers in the labor market, the U.S. will need to produce 20 million more college graduates by the year 2025. That means that we will need to do a far better job of producing high school graduates who are truly college and career-ready.

New Report Offers Roadmap for Success in K-12 STEM Education (Science Daily, June 28, 2011).  A new National Research Council report identifies the characteristics of highly successful K-12 schools and programs in STEM subjects. The report offers two sets of recommendations, geared for schools and districts, and for state and national policymakers, including elevating science to the same level of importance as reading and math.

Tapping Charter Schools to Turn Around the Nation's Dropout Factories (Center for American Progress, June 30, 2011).  This policy paper explores the role of charter schools in turning around the nation's lowest-performing high schools. Based on conversations with charter school operators, school district staff, researchers, and education reform experts, it examines how some pioneering cities-Los Angeles and Philadelphia in particular- are partnering with local charter operators to turn around some of their dropout factories and improve college readiness and graduation rates.

America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011 (Forum on Child and Family Statistics, July 2011).  America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being, 2011 is a compendium of indicators depicting both the promises and the challenges confronting our Nation's young people. The report, the 15th in an ongoing series, presents 41 key indicators on important aspects of children's lives. These indicators are drawn from our most reliable statistics, are easily understood by broad audiences, are objectively based on substantial research, are balanced so that no single area of children's lives dominates the report, are measured regularly so that they can be updated to show trends over time, and are representative of large segments of the population rather than one particular group.   Are you reading any of these reports or do you have other good high school resources to share? Tweet us at @NHSCatAIR and let us know! *Resource descriptions provided by the sponsoring organization.  

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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