What We Are Reading: New Fact Sheets, College and Career Readiness, ELL Curriculum, SIGs

Looking for new high school-related resources? Here are some pieces that the National High School Center and other organizations have recently released:*

College and Career Readiness: A Quick Stats Fact Sheet (National High School Center, October 2012) This fact sheet offers findings and statistics on the current status of high school graduates' readiness for life after high school. It highlights some of the challenges and opportunities facing high school students after graduation as well as some of the consequences and implications for America’s underprepared graduates.

Taking College Courses in High School: A Strategy for College Readiness (Jobs for the Future, October 17, 2012). Researchers analyzed longitudinal data following Texas students for six years after high school graduation. This enabled the researchers to examine not only whether students attended college but also whether they completed a degree. The study uses a rigorous research methodology to ensure that it compares students who are similar aside from their participation in dual enrollment.

Building Blocks for Change: What it Means to be Career Ready (Career Readiness Partner Council, October 18, 2012). A broad coalition of national education, business, philanthropic and policy groups has come together to create a clear, unified and focused vision for what it means to be career ready.

WWC Review of the Report “Help with English Language Proficiency ‘HELP’ Program Evaluation of Sheltered Instruction Multimedia Lessons” (U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Educational Sciences, October 23, 2012). This What Works Clearinghouse study examined the effectiveness of Help with English Language Proficiency (HELP) ©, a computer-based supplementary curriculum designed to improve the math achievement of English language learners.

School Improvement Grants: Analyses of State Applications and Eligible and Awarded Schools (U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Educational Sciences, October 24, 2012). This report focuses on two key questions: 1) Based on states’ Cohort II SIG applications, what SIG-related policies and practices did states intend to implement, and how do they compare to the policies and practices in states’ Cohort I SIG applications? 2) What are the characteristics of the persistently lowest-achieving schools identified by states as eligible for SIG and of the schools awarded SIG funds in Cohort II, and how do they compare to schools in Cohort I?

*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.