Family and Community Engagement

This data brief from the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition (NCSET) provides findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2). It presents a national overview of the planning process involved in helping students with disabilities make the transition from high school to life after high school. Results indicate that there is variability in the extent to which laws and best practices regarding the transition planning process are followed.

This policy brief released by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability at the Institute for Educational Leadership identifies five broad policy and practice areas critical to ensuring all students--and especially those with disabilities--are prepared to succeed in high school and in their post-secondary careers. The brief makes 14 recommendations spread across the five areas and provides suggestions on what organizations can support these recommendations.

This white paper from Jobs for the Future provides state-level policymakers with a framework for raising graduation rates in their states. The five commitments offered in this piece are: 1) A High School Diploma That Signifies College and Work-Readiness, 2) Pathways to High School Graduation and College for Overage, Undercredited, and Out-of-School Youth, 3) Turnaround of Low-performing High Schools, 4) Increased Emphasis on Graduation Rates and College-Readiness in Next Generation Accountability, and 5) Early and Continuous Support for Struggling Students.

This research synthesis from the Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center reviewed the research on middle and high school comprehensive school reform (CSR) models. Different CSR models are described and the research evaluating these models is examined across several areas, including impact on student achievement, overall and by subject; effects for diverse populations; and other outcomes, such as parent, family, and community involvement; and services and support provided to schools to enable successful implementation.

This report from American Youth Policy Forum asserts that given the importance of families to a variety of positive youth outcomes and the emphasis placed on family involvement in federal law, young people should not be treated as "islands" by school and youth programs, separate from the context of their families. The report is the result of an analysis of over 100 evaluations of school and youth programs published in a series of compendia on effective programs.

This report from the Coalition for Community Schools discusses the idea of the community school, its elements, and the role of the community in student success in public education. It also provides examples of programs and snapshot vignettes of successful schools.

This paper from the Center for American Progress examines high schools that implement an extended learning day as part of a required educational program for all students, explores issues related to implementing such a program, presents examples of how schools accomplish this, and analyzes the implications for school design, capacity, and financing.

The National High School Center released methods for improving low-performing high schools based on some of the most rigorous research currently available in the school reform arena. This research brief identifies lessons learned as well as key practices used to strengthen high schools and is based on evaluations of four widely used high school improvement programs - Career Academies, First Things First, Project GRAD, and Talent Development.

The executive summary follow up to the first Breaking Ranks, authored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), offers recommendations to administrators and teachers who wish to implement updated reform strategies originally outlined in the first edition of Breaking Ranks.

This study assessed the impact on tenth grade students of attending high schools whose practices are consistent with the school-restructuring movement. Using data on a sample of 11,794 sophomores in 830 high schools from the first two waves of the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), the authors evaluated restructuring effects on students' gains in engagement and achievement in four subjects and the social distribution of those gains.